Sunday, December 13, 2009

When Times Get Tough...

Set Eggs!

I had kind of a hard time this weekend. 
Not sure why but everything just seemed to catch up to me.
So, I set 7 more MFC eggs in my incubator!


I get so much pleasure just watching my chicks and it gives me something to look forward to. 
I almost couldn't  even do this because I couldn't get the 'bator up to 99.5 degrees.  It wouldn't go past 98.7 and that's not warm enough to hatch the eggs!  I was about to give up and just accept that my house is too cold (50 degrees) for my incubator to maintain the correct temperature, when 'Doc' suggested that I put a light next to the bator.  The lightbulb, next to the bator didn't give off enough heat but it  gave me the idea to do this:


I put the incubator IN a box (with the top left open) with a lamp with a 75 watt bulb above the box.


I even taped aluminum foil over the top opening of the lamp shade and raised the flaps on the box to trap as much warm air as possible. 
It worked!  The temp IN the box is 66 degrees and the incubator is holding steady at a perfect 99.5 degrees farenheit!  We'll have chicks in 20 days...

DREAM says...

"Be Still my Heart!!!"

Knock it off, Dreamer...




10 comments:

  1. That Dreamer is really, really funny. Be Still my heart my a--.
    ;-)

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  2. Oooo how exciting, more chicks. I have hatched chicks in an incubator. I loved doing that too. My hens Tina and Pingu were born that way and were very special to me. Both have now passed away but lived happy lives and I have their pictures. I must seek them out when I'm in America next week and post them on my Blog. My Tina looked like your Star in as much as she too was hawk-like when young. She had beautiful markings round her eyes, like Cleopatra.
    Blessings, Star

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  3. I'm sorry you had a rough weekend, you sure didn't tell me!! I can be a good listener too ya know? Anyway, I'm very happy you've got your incubator running, I love the chick pictures!

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  4. Very clever!!! Can't wait to see the new babies next year.

    Nancy in Iowa

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  5. Anonymous2:09 AM

    I know nothing about chickens, or hatching chicks. I haven't gone there yet... ;-)

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  6. Your chicks are so cute! I hope the eggs hatch well. Do your hen's house's have heat?

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  7. How clever! Necessity really is the mother of invention! Who could ever be sad watching little peeps hatch? No one I know!

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  8. Hi,
    So my blog was removed from the internet by blogger.com for MALWARE. I retyped my last blog entry from early this morning to a temporary new site at http://schoonoverfarms.blogspot.com/

    Thanks!
    Donna

    ReplyDelete
  9. My hubby heard you chatting with Kathleen Dunn @ WPR this morning (12-22-09). He thought I might like to look you up so here I am visiting your blog and happy to have found you! I look forward to following along to see the chicks hatch and whatever else you might happen to share. Hope to you feel like writing again soon. Thanks for sharing here!
    Kim
    Stillmeadow Quilting

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  10. Oh, look at those darling chicks with their fluffy little feet!! Too cute for words...

    I'm lazy, so I'm going to comment on the next post here, instead of going through the process again there. I can hear how much you are missing your darling girl, but also how very proud you are of her. I'm so glad that she will (hopefully) be visiting soon... and I am sure that she appreciated those lovely photos of your snowy wonderland, to hold warm in her heart until she can come to hug her loving mom in person.

    They warmed me up a bit, too - thanks for the lovely Christmas Present!!
    :)

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