by Caz1960 on Mon 14 Oct 2013, 5:03 am

i'm in a pickle now

as you know I got into breeding silk moths ( not silk worms ) ah ha I hear mr Itch scratching his head

silk moths are the largest of the moth family and not for the produce of silk just for the beauty of the adult moths .. silk worms are mainly used for the produce of silk they have been bred so much the adult moth doesn't have wings as such any more anyway as you now know that I had a moment of madness and now trying to hatch chicken eggs

not as easy as it sounds as i have found out

all depends on what book you read on humidity ?? yes or no some say yes so I did then read NO

stopped the humidity only when they are piping

... temperature?? then there is turning them how often??? ok my homemade incubator although brilliant I might add (

eat you heart out Blue Peter )well I must confess that the temp gauge was a bit iffy so had to borrow my nephews snake incubator (all singing and dancing with all the bells and whistles on it )all going well and as for my homemade one houses my giant atlas caterpillars as heat and humidity is needed for them all ok so far and before you lose the will to live I will get to the point BUT not yet as after getting my first batch of eggs 6 in total and placed in the homemade effort because I couldn't get the temp to settle down thought that I had poached them and ordered another batch of 6 they didn't turn up and then got another set of 12 on the thought of not all will hatch then 50:50 chance of them being cockerels then the other 6 turned up.. ok now I have 23 eggs ( no my maths is not off I must confess I dropped one when turning

) I have learnt to candle them and all are growing

23 chickens ok will have to confess again I thought chickens are just large egg laying chickens but no!! when the eggs arrived

they would take a lot to make an omelette... after my friend stopped laughing apparently I have Bantams

for the people like me they are LITTLE CHICKENS so now we are at the pickle time as the first 6 on thurs will be ready to hatch ( piping) they will need humidity so they will have to be moved to the home made incubator but where do the moths go as the temp is different

yep another Blue Peter moment...exciting times coming finger crossed I will be a chicken mum by the end of the week yep plenty of towels ready hot water on

the next saga will be
DOT protecting chickens from her
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