Three ways to get chicks

My original goal for 2011 was to hatch out four batches of ten chicks apiece using our broody hen.  When she fell down on the job, I moved on to plan B --- hatch out five batches of seven chicks apiece using our Brinsea Mini Advance Incubator.  In both cases, I hoped to come up with five good layers with prime foraging genes to replace our aging hens this fall and put the rest of the chickens in the freezer at broiler age.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a steep learning curve involved in hatching our own chicks, and we only came up with one homegrown chick during our first trial.  I was starting to feel pressed for time, worried that any pullets we hatched wouldn't start laying this fall, so we went out and bought 16 locally hatched Black Australorps.  I've heard very good things about Black Australorps' abilities as foragers, so I figure it won't hurt to give a few hens a try in our flock.

But we don't want to give up on hatching our own, so we decided to sink some more money into the project and buy a Brinsea Octagon 20 Advance Incubator.  This larger incubator will hold up to 24 chicken eggs, hedging my bets so that even if I continue to have abysmal hatch rates, I'll at least end up with multiple living chicks.  The incubator also has a humidity reading on the digital display and a vent to allow me to adjust the internal air flow, which should help fix one of the major causes of our low hatch rate during round 1.

We saved up our best foragers' eggs for our second round of incubation, but also ordered a dozen Cuckoo Maran eggs from Golden Willow Farm and Hatchery.  One of my role models, Harvey Ussery, uses Cuckoo Marans to hatch all of his chicks since this heritage breed is a great brooder and mother, so I'm hoping we'll get at least two broody hens out of the deal.  Maybe in 2012, the incubators will just be a backup to natural hatching under a broody hen.