A few months after we bought our initial breeding stock of 10 – I was browsing the net and found an incubator for sale. What an amazing thing this was. Not only did I discover a range of different ones but they were quite affordable too. Knowing pretty much zero about how to use an incubator or which one to choose, I decided on one that cost a little more but offered to automatically turn the eggs within the incubator. I learnt later that it really just shifts them from side to side. The day arrived for the coveted machine to be delivered. I couldn’t wait to rip open the box. It took some time becoming familiar with the machine but it was not too difficult to fathom it out. It was plugged in and I collected eggs each day for the next few days. 48 eggs in total were incubated that week. What was I thinking! Every day I watched with bated breath for those first few signs of life. I still didn’t believe you could put a plain old egg in this box and voila, a few weeks later you had fluffy yellow or black chicks in my case. The day arrived eventually and we watched the baby chicks fight their way through the shell. That batch of eggs was 100% successful. Not one chick died and it did well for my soul. I had successful hatched a batch of chooks. The days that followed taught me heaps about the maintenance of newly hatched chooks. There is a fair amount of work attached to it. The first week was easy and then they started to grow. The water had to be changed at least twice to three times a day as many day old chicks die from dirty water. Bearing in mind they do tend to get some poo in the water which contaminate the drinking supply. The globes kept blowing and had to be changed. I had to be vigilant all the time and checked up on them a number of times a day in case the globe had gone out and they were getting cold. A lot of chooks are lost because of loss of heat so it’s important to make sure you have the right light globe and that it’s working well. The bedding was messy within a few minutes of changing as baby chicks are just messy. By the end of the fourth week I was ready to move them and their cheeping outside. They have by far outgrown the fish tank I had been using for their quarter. They had begun to peck each other, which I believe is a clear indication that the needed more space to move in. Being winter I worried over the chooks getting cold as any new mother worries over her precious baby. What would happen if the light went out in the middle of the night and I wasn’t there to see it??? Well, guess what - they all survived and grew up rather fast mind you. After about the twelve or thirteen week I started recognising the differences between male and female. I was amazed at how many roosters I had. Oh brother, that meant a whole lot of crowing in the morning. Shortly after I noticed the feather around the neck of the rooster’s aswell as their tail feathers, they started crowing in all their glory! I would be woken up every morning for about two weeks until I was forced to cull some of the flock. Around sixteen or seventeen weeks I could stand it no longer as my neighbours could neither I guess. Making this choice meant fronting the fact that we had to slaughter many birds - ourselves. I had never seen a bird being killed not to mention the preparation before it became edible. I would be lying if I told you I was comfortable with this practice. Over the many different times later on that we prepared the birds the process became easier and easier. We learnt techniques and found different products to help with the de-feathering that made the whole process streamline and much quicker. Next time I’ll go into a little bit more detail regarding the process the birds go through from live bird to plate. I by no means think I’m an expert in this field and am only relaying my experience which has been insightful and very successful so far. I am learning and continue to learn daily from my girls. They have been a welcome addition to Pine Haven.
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