I enjoy the sound of baby chicks, but not the dust created in my house by all the food and the chicks being in the house. I keep them in large plastic bins the first few weeks and use puppy training pads in the bin, it requires changing them out multiple times during the day. I have tried pine shavings but they get them in the water and I end up cleaning out waterers a lot. I tried corn cob and pine pellets too, but I like the puppy training pads the best for ease of cleaning. They also don't cause as much dust. I have been using the office/workout room to brood chicks in. I was just using the bathroom in there but, after getting more incubators I needed more room, that and I actually use that bathroom a lot when I work outside. The path to that bathroom has no carpeted areas and I don't always kick my shoes off when I am in a hurry...I still have my first incubator sitting on the counter in that bathroom, and it currently has duck and goose eggs in it.
I have been incubating eggs since February, I promised myself I would not incubate for 8 months solid this year...so far it has been five months. But, I am really trying to get good stock for breeding and getting a few more geese is high priority at the moment. I will have at least three weeks before I have any more babies in the house, so far it looks like only two of 16 eggs is developing, but I will keep adding eggs to the incubator until the geese quit laying for the year. I hope to get at least two females, our male Thor needs a mate or two...geese mate for life and will live up to 25 years. My husband really loves the geese and wants them to be happy. We may try and sell any extras, but at the moment we may not have any extras.
My hatch of Black Copper Marans was not as good as it should have been, I have 16 chicks I believe. I have 4 grown females and 1 male at the moment and could breed them, but they all came from the same stock. The chicks I hatched are from 3 different sellers so I will have genetic diversity and be able to get a dozen eggs a day, most days to sell. I did the same thing with Cream Legbars. I hope to start selling chicks or eggs from them soon, and possibly Gold and Silver Laced Wyandottes and Blue Andalusians. It may be Spring for the rarer breeds like Java and Salmon Favorelles or Blue Laced Barnvelders. My chicks are still too young to tell if the Blue Laced Red Wyandottes are males or females or what?
I was hoping to get all the breeds I really wanted and two to three different lines of each before I closed my flock and started breeding. That may not happen this year. I want one more line of Lavender Orpingtons and really want Jubilee Orpingtons too...three times I tried to hatch some and I only had one chick hatch! I am disappointed, but at least I have one...and I may be able to cross it with a Speckled Sussex and get more...and I have some nice Speckled Sussex. I did get a Blue Splash Marans rooster too...he is still pretty young, but by Spring he will be very active I am sure...and I have 5 Blue Splash Marans hens.
Anyway, I have the chicks out of the house and if the ducks and geese do hatch...they won't have to spend very long in the house because it will be very warm outside and they grow faster than weeds and can go outside by three weeks old. So, not very long compared to chicks. I am ready for a break, I have a lot of other things to do that I have been putting off...like planting a real garden! Lol, yes it is late...but hey, better late than never and I may be able to build a greenhouse and extend my growing season. We shall see...
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