# Newbie needing advice



## landonjacob (Mar 9, 2015)

Hello everyone, the names Landon. I recently moved in with my grandfather who has a flock of 20-30 chickens. Both game and the regular larger breed, im unsure of their breed name. We have one game rooster and one regular and the rest are all hens. The roosters have been breeding the hens daily and the hens are laying but not sitting on the eggs. Were getting around three dozen a day. Needless to say ive taken an interest in these birds and am interested in incubating and raising a few of my own in hopes of taming them. Ive been researching and watching tutorials for the past month or so and ive came up with a make shift incubator ive placed in my closet. Im hoping you could offer me some advice as to if this setup will work as long as i turn the eggs and keep everything stable for the next 21 days. Ive placed a few test eggs in just now and will be collecting the ones i plan to use tomorrow. Ill include pictures of the setup and flock in my reply. I have a heat lamp and low power heating pad under a thick towel, ive also added a bowl of water to keep the humidity up.


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## landonjacob (Mar 9, 2015)




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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I have serious concerns about what you're using for to measure temps. One of the most important things to have are instruments that are accurate. Chances are very high that what you show in the picture is no where precise enough. Look for a good reptile thermo, or GQF, digital thermo. I used the Fluckers thermo for hatching. Very dependable very accurate.

As to the egg sitting, I'm guessing that you've found some breeds never go broody. Chances are that's what you're seeing now. Or it is not time yet. Birds more than a year old generally hold off for a bit when the weather is more ideal. 

You mentioned game birds. That could prove to be a challenge if/when you try to introduce new chicks to the flock. They can be very aggressive to birds that are not part of the flock.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

I'm also concerned with lockdown and keeping the humidity where it needs to be. 
The set up itself is sound (with a better thermometer) and put the system in a styrofoam cooler or similar. The insulated box keeps everything stable.


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