Cluckery

The_Librarian

The_Librarian

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This is all about chickens.

The sort of critter that goes cluck cluck, lays eggs and eat insects in your garden.

As most of you know, we have relocated to the Eastern Cape. Of course, we took our chickens with, and this was when the worldwide pandemic was slowing down.

We noticed that we do get chicks breeded the natural way, but unfortunately there's natural predators as well, and this prevented us from raising chickens.

My wife said she wanted to DIY an incubator, but I decided I can't be arsed with faffing around with experimenting what'll work and what will not work.

After some hunting we found this product :

www.deltaincubators.co.za

24 Egg Automatic Roller Incubator - Dual Voltage

New 24 Egg automatic roller incubator. Beat load shedding with this energy efficient dual voltage incubator. A standard car battery can power the incubator during electricity outages. This incubator was designed with beginners and small scale farmers in mind. Each incubator includes a FREE...
www.deltaincubators.co.za www.deltaincubators.co.za

Takealot also have the same on their site :

https://www.takealot.com/24-egg-automatic-roller-incubator-dual-voltage/PLID93941259 (as alternative in case Delta Incubators are not able to arrange courier shipping)

1726569685494.png

The product itself is very sturdy, and does not feel like cheap quality ****.

I was glad to see that it is a 100% South African product. As a test run, we put in six eggs. 5 was from our chickens, and one was a shop egg (test).

Three out of the six hatched without any issues.

Then we put in 24 eggs (full house). This morning 8 hatched, and more are on their way.

So, if anybody's interested in starting their own hatchery, you can start off with 6 chickens (5 hens + 1 rooster) and so grow your very own chicken empire.

Of course, the rooster may bother your Karen neighbours though. :ROFL: Just find out what municipal laws say about chickens and noise levels though. (As we are in the middle of nowhere, the noise is not a concern at all).

Oh, you'll also need a source of heat for the chickens for the initial two weeks and until they are old enough to keep themselves warm with their own body heat.

This is the first 5 that got out of their shells :

little-balls-of-fluff-and-noise-1.jpglittle-balls-of-fluff-and-noise-2.jpg
 
We are looking forward to the rest that may hatch.

I will update this thread periodically.

Our initial idea is to see how things work before we will attempt to grow chicks for resale (either live to other people, or to the local abbatoir) for extra income.

And the eggs as well.
 
You can hatch eggs bought in shops??? I thought those were “dead” because the eggs got cold.
 
Jehosefat said:
No, you can't.


Not "dead" from the cold, just unfertilised. They are basically a chicken's period.
Click to expand...
I figured as much (thanks for the “period” image … “how would you like your chicken period prepared?” lost its appeal).

This is the line in the OP which puzzled me: “I was glad to see that it is a 100% South African product. As a test run, we put in six eggs. 5 was from our chickens, and one was a shop egg (test).” Why use a shop egg as a test?
 
Foxhound5366 said:
I figured as much (thanks for the “period” image … “how would you like your chicken period prepared?” lost its appeal).

This is the line in the OP which puzzled me: “I was glad to see that it is a 100% South African product. As a test run, we put in six eggs. 5 was from our chickens, and one was a shop egg (test).” Why use a shop egg as a test?
Click to expand...
As a control. Just to show the children what happens to a fertilized egg vs an unfertilized one.

BTW - you can buy fertilized eggs from people who specializes in that sort of thing. It works out much cheaper than buying chickens.
 
We went from 4 chickens to 6 and that just upset the entire balance with one thinking it's a cockerel and making such a bloody noise every morning that we ended up literally sending it to the farm.

Then oddly enough the 5 one just mysteriously died overnight.

Now we are back to the original 4 which seems to be the perfect balance. Rarely hear them unless there really is an issue.
 
rh1 said:
You get one kid to chase the chickens to the adult, who does the catching and later the killing.

At least that was what I did as a 3-4 year old.
Click to expand...

Lucky bastid. We had to do the catching too!
 
  • Haha
Reactions: rh1
Update - beginning of this month we bought 18 fertilized eggs - today the first chicks are starting to break through. These are Rhode Island Reds.

The white eggs are Leghorn.

rhode island red - Copy.jpg
 
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