Building or Buying?

Steve and I are discussing whether or not to buy or build our own incubator. We use to own 3 different incubators, a floor model cabinet style, a brand new Hovabator and an old round Hovabator. We sold them all when we got out of chickens. So now that we're interested in hatching eggs again we've decided it would be good to not only try with bantams, but with an incubator again. The bantams are going to take months just to lay and then a while to go broody. This will just speed up our opportunity to hatch eggs.

We've looked around at several homemade incubators online and have actually made 2 of our own in the past. Neither seemed as successful as the store bought incubators though. So Steve has collected a few materials and will be starting a homemade bator soon. I have already located one at a store to purchase in a week or so. We may just do both.

Next we'll be on the hunt for some eggs to hatch! Our Rhode Island Reds and Sebrights are not quite laying yet. The RIRs are 15 weeks old so it won't be too much longer. The Guineas also are 15 weeks but I believe it'll be next spring before they lay. The Sebrights are suppose to molt and then she'll start laying. As it turns out, the Sebright rooster isn't a purebred. He has the hackle feathering more like and Old English bantam would have. Purebred Sebrights are hen feathered so he is not purebred. That's ok, he'll be used for mutts and eggs to hatch in the meantime.

Hannah starts school tomorrow! Can you believe it? First grade already. She's so excited. I can't wait to see her settle back in at school. I think it would do her good to get around more kids again. She did very well in Kindergarden last year.

We're also discussing whether or not to attend the fall dairy goat shows. We were definitely planning to go to the South Carolina State Fair. Maybe the Gwinnett, GA state fair and the Fletcher, NC state fair. So who knows. We may yet.

Well that's about it for today. Not a lot of fascinating things going on. But that's our life.