I have had a great few days searching out eggs for incubating again, as you can see from the posts here the staff are getting all the fun with incubating hatching eggs but it is time I got my share of incubating back.

So I have arranged Rhea, Turkey, Peacock, Chicken, Pheasant and Quail eggs for next week.

I will be using the RCOM 20 Pro’s, Rcom 50 Pro and the Maru 500.  Yes running an incubator selling business makes me a lucky man.

I hope you put some videos together for you of the whole incubation process

Hello peeps

Over the past few days we can tell that you are all thinking about the new hatching season as our hatching eggs are taking off! Luckily our chickens are really starting to knuckle down to business if you know what I mean.  I’m no David Attenborough however I can now distinguish the noises made during such liaisons

If you are looking to put some Fertile Eggs into your incubator its an idea to get your brooders/lamps chick feeders and drinkers and chick crumb in place so when your little ones arrive you have a set up in place.  We have recently got some Brooder Rings into stock and they are proving to be a popular choice. 

Another thing people are thinking about is (the dreaded) Red Mites.  It’s nice to see that people are stocking up and I have my fingers crossed that the national Red Mite infestation of last year stays as last years news.  If you are thinking about stocking up the Red Mite Fumers have a shelf life of 3 years and the red mite powder is a great deterrent.

Trevor rightly blogged about “taking time to smell the Roses” and as the nights are starting to draw out we all have more time in the evenings to go into the garden, with a cuppa in my case, and just relax - unless you have a Whippet like mine who will just run around like a fool as if it was the first time he had ever seen daylight that is.

Well I’m off to enjoy the weekend and I hope that when you read this that is exactly what you are doing too

Take care

As the weather is getting warmer our cockeralls are getting more and more amerous and our hens are also stepping upto the challenge - as a result we have some little day old chicks

We decided that we would try and incubate the first few eggs of the season and the result is a lot of cheeping in a RCOM Bird Pavilion brooder in the office.  I recall coming into work on Tuesday thinking that it was the last day for the eggs in the incubator (being day 21) and we already had a fluffy little chick sitting in the incubator looking a little startled at the sudden change in their world.

It’s very hard not to fall for the little fluffy bundles as they cheep away and interact with you as if you were their mother (don’t worry Trevor I’m not getting broody! lol).

We are now happy to say that we have Fertile Hatching eggs back for sale on the website.  As like before, we ask for people to have a little patience when it comes to eggs as we quote that the orders can take from 1 to 21 days to fulfill.  This way, we ensure that we do not hold a back stock of eggs with us being able to fulfill orders with the freshest eggs possible.  As always we pride ourselves on our speedy delivery and excellent service so we will do our utmost to get egg orders out as soon as we can.

Our little ladies are doing us proud and whilst on lunch I walked past one of our hens and saw a tell tale dusty patch on her back so it’s only fair to give a cheeky wink to our busy cockeralls also

I have just written a comment on this one then also have had 2 emails with a similar question so i will add to the blog. - I have collected hatching eggs but they have got cold overnight to 2-3 degrees, are they any good? Well to be honest no, your fertile eggs are badly damaged. Saying that if you have space in the incubator put them in as there is a small chance they will hatch. Please ensure you candle the hatching eggs at day 7 or day 10 and remove the non developing fertile eggs and throw them away to avoid bacteria damaging the developing eggs.

To be honest it is what I would consider a very important part of incubating eggs, if you own an incubator then you should really have an egg candler. The reasons for this is one of enjoyment so you can actually watch the little chick developing inside the egg and I must be honest with you, this experience is not one easily forgotten. I am afraid the other reason is a serious one and that is to remove infertile eggs from the incubator, if you do not remove non-fertile eggs then the risk of bacteria growth in your incubator is very high and if this is able to get in fertile eggs through the pores then it may make the chicks too unwell to hatch or even kill them during incubation.

Ideally candling at 10 days for a novice should tell if eggs are fertile or not.

It is also very important to get the correct candler, our own Standard candler and is perfect for white, cream or light brown eggs.

If you wish to do Duck Eggs, Goose eggs or very dark chicken eggs then I must recommend the High Intensity Candler as this will allow you to see inside the eggs where as this Standard Candler would not allow that on thicker or very dark eggs.

Using a candler is very easy, you place the ‘fat’ end of the egg to the light end of the unit, press the button and hey presto you can see inside the egg and what is happening.

Please remember Standard Candler for light egg colours and High Intensity Canlderfor Thick Shelled or Dark coloured eggs. If you have exotic eggs to candle this candler is not recommended and you should consider the Brinsea Cool Lume Candler.

Your eggs have arrived and your incubator has been ready for a day do you put the eggs in straight away? NO when your eggs arrive please DO NOT put them in the incubator straight away this will lead to a dreadful hatching. When your fertile eggs arrive open them so they can breath and leave them to settle for 12-24 hours. They should be left at room temp about 10-18 degrees. NOT in the fridge on a radiator or in direct sunlight. After 12-24 hours place in the incubator and you have done your best to store your posted hatching eggs. Happy hatching

To clean eggs if heavily soiled I recommend using a fine sand paper and gently rub off the excess dirt. PLEASE clean your hatching eggs carefully not excessivly shaking as this will lead to early deaths in the shell. If you wish to wash eggs please ensure the water you wash them in is slightly warmer than the fertile egg NOT HOT/BOILING Water. If the hatching egg is imersed in warmer water than the fertile egg temp it will close the pores and no bacteria will get into the hatching egg. If the water is colder than the egg you want to incubate it will draw the surface bacteria through the pores and will more than likley lead to poor hatches. I also recommend adding our incubator / egg disinfectant at a rate of 1-200 which will kill off most bacteria on the eggs and allow for much better hatching results.