* Please note that these are our personal opinions and experiences, and our statements are not intended to be professional or medical advice in any way. We have added links to products that we have used. We are Amazon and CoopWorx affiliates, so if someone purchases an item on their site through one of these links, we might get a small commission at no additional charge. For all other links, we are in no way affiliated with the vendors or brands and do not receive any award or recognition for purchase.
** To see almost all products & tools that we use for all of our farm critters, feel free to check out our Super Ultra Mega Shopping List.
Day 0
After collecting fresh eggs (or after unpacking shipped ones), we first candle them – if we see any with cracks, we either toss them or try to save them by sealing the cracks. That hasn’t actually worked for us yet, but other people have had luck with candle wax, bandaids, or clear nail polish. If any of the eggs are overly dirty, we gently scrape off what we can. Keeping the bio film intact as a barrier against contagion is important, so we don’t wash any eggs if we don’t absolutely need to BUT too much poop/dirt can kill the embryos.
Once we’ve inspected the eggs. we let them sit on the counter for 12-24 hours. This allows them to rest and for their temperatures & air cells to stabilize. A lot of people think that it makes sense to have the pointy side up – do NOT do this! Either lay them on their sides (for local eggs) or keep the wider end up (for shipped eggs). The wider end contains the air cell that chicks will use while hatching.
During this setting period, we get the incubator warmed up – we set it to 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit and add tiny amounts of water until the humidity is around 45-50%. If we are incubating super thick-shelled eggs like Marans or Olive Eggers, we keep the humidity lower, around 35-40%. DO NOT TRUST the incubator’s built in thermometer because they’re almost always off by a bit – we always have at least one extra thermometer/hygrometer in there.
After the waiting period, it’s time to add the eggs to the incubator! For shipped eggs, we ALWAYS set them upright in an auto turner, with their pointy sides down. For eggs we’ve collected or obtained locally, we will either incubate them upright or on their sides; it just depends which incubator happens to have space available.
If the eggs were shipped, we do not turn them for the first 1-5 days. This is important to allow the air sacs to settle and reattach themselves. If our eggs were not shipped, we start turning them right away. We use an auto turner, but if you don’t have one, it needs to be done manually – eggs should be turned 180 degrees at a time, at least 3 times every day, alternating direction each time. It helps to draw an X on one side of the egg so that you can track its position.
Note on transported eggs: Travel can be very hard on eggs, even if they’re just driven a few miles. Hatch rates are all over the place from 0%-100% for eggs hatched off the farm – the average is around 30%. This does NOT mean the eggs are infertile! If they’re jostled too much, it can injure the embryos and prevent them from developing.
We ignore the eggs in the incubator for about a week, then start candling them to check progress about once per week. Sometime around Day 7-10, you should be able to see little veins if the eggs are healthy and alive. As a healthy egg progresses, you’ll be able to see more and more growth until there’s just a dark blob with an air sac. If you don’t see any growth after the first week and only see a bright center in the egg, it is probably a dud. Likewise, if it’s a while before Hatch Day and you see only darkness throughout the whole egg without an air sac at the top, these eggs are dead. Very very gently handle them as if they are bombs, because they WILL explode black goo all over you and everything you love. Yes, that’s a thing! A super, super gross thing.
At some point, we’ll try to update with photo examples!
We lock down shipped eggs a day earlier than the “official” recommendation, as the chicks tend to need a little extra time to get into position.
At lockdown, we stop turning the eggs and lay them on their sides so that the chicks can move into hatching position. We mark the air sacs with a pencil so that if needed, we can help the chicks hatch without risking puncturing something we shouldn’t. And if any eggs have saddled air sacs (99% of shipped eggs will), we point the bigger side up. Then we set the humidity to around 65-70%. Now this part will be hard – DO NOT OPEN THE INCUBATOR!
After getting into position, chicks will internally pip (puncturing the air cell at the top of the egg for their first breaths) and then start to externally pip (poking a starter hole in the shell) within a couple days . Then within 24 or so hours of pipping, they’ll start zipping a line around the shell. Within 24 hours or so of starting to zip, they should be able to break free.
Once they start hatching, remember – DO NOT OPEN THE INCUBATOR! The hatched chicks will be fine for up to 3 days. Let them rest and fluff up. If you open the incubator before they are dry, they can get chilled. If you open it before all the chicks who are going to hatch do hatch, there is a huge risk of those ones becoming shrink wrapped. It looks just like it sounds – the membrane inside the egg shrinks and sticks to the chicks so they can’t move.
We had major humidity issues with one of our first batches and saw firsthand the dangers of shrink-wrapping! We were able to save 3 chicks by helping them out of the shell, but many more died without even getting a chance to pip. They were literally glued in there.
Every now and then, we do decide to open the incubator and intervene. When we do, we spray water into the incubator as we open it to help prevent humidity issues. Helping chicks hatch has been about 50% successful for us. Sometimes a healthy chick is just in a bad position inside the egg, or sometimes the egg might be jostled and turned upside down. But about half the time, there is something wrong with the chick and they end up passing away.
Whether you decide to help or not, the hugest thing is to GO SLOWLY – do not open the incubator all the way if other chicks are still hatching, do not let the egg get too dry or too wet or too cold, do not break off too much shell at once, and stop touching the membrane at the first sign of blood. If there is blood, that means the chick is not done absorbing nutrients and will bleed out if you keep messing with it. Put it back in the incubator and wait a couple hours before trying more. If the chick looks like it is chewing, leave it alone for a while – that means it is still absorbing its yolk. Pulling it out of the shell before it’s done absorbing will usually kill it – this could rupture the yolk sac or pull the chick’s intestines out.
Sometimes chicks just take a little extra time to hatch but are perfectly healthy. We’ve had some hatch TWO DAYS after everyone else, and they turned out just as perky as their siblings.
We have had the MOST luck helping slow chicks by simply adding tiny pilot holes in the air cells of their eggs. If a chick is just a late bloomer, this tiny 1-2mm hole will provide fresh air and keep them from suffocating while they think about hatching.
In any case, once everyone is hatched and fluffed up, we put them in the brooder.
* Please note that these are our personal opinions and experiences, and our statements are not intended to be professional or medical advice in any way. We have added links to products that we have used. We are Amazon and CoopWorx affiliates, so if someone purchases an item on their site through one of these links, we might get a small commission at no additional charge. For all other links, we are in no way affiliated with the vendors or brands and do not receive any award or recognition for purchase.
** To see almost all products & tools that we use for all of our farm critters, feel free to check out our Super Ultra Mega Shopping List.
Day 0
After collecting fresh eggs (or after unpacking shipped ones), we first candle them – if we see any with cracks, we either toss them or try to save them by sealing the cracks. That hasn’t actually worked for us yet, but other people have had luck with candle wax, bandaids, or clear nail polish. If any of the eggs are overly dirty, we gently scrape off what we can. Keeping the bio film intact as a barrier against contagion is important, so we don’t wash any eggs if we don’t absolutely need to BUT too much poop/dirt can kill the embryos.
Once we’ve inspected the eggs. we let them sit on the counter for 12-24 hours. This allows them to rest and for their temperatures & air cell to stabilize. A lot of people think that it makes sense to have the pointy side up – do NOT do this! The wider end contains the air cell that chicks will use while hatching. For waterfowl, it is best to keep them on their sides through the whole incubation process, unless their air cells are damaged from shipping. If they are damaged, we keep the eggs either upright or tilted slightly with the wider end raised.
During this setting period, we get the incubator warmed up – we set it to 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit and 45-55% humidity. DO NOT TRUST the incubator’s built in thermometer because they’re almost always off by a bit – we always have at least one extra thermometer/hygrometer in there.
After the waiting period, it’s time to add the eggs to the incubator! For shipped eggs, we might set them slightly upright for a few days to help stabilize their air cells. For eggs we’ve collected or obtained locally, we will incubate them on their sides.
If the eggs were shipped, we do not turn them for the first 1-5 days. This is important to allow the air cells to settle and reattach themselves. If our eggs were not shipped, we start turning them right away. We have an auto turner, but if you do not, it needs to be done manually – eggs should be turned 180 degrees at a time, at least 3 times every day, alternating the direction each time. It helps to draw an X on one side of the egg so that you can track its position. We use a cabinet incubator that rocks the eggs but doesn’t fully turn them, so we manually do a full rotation at least once per day.
After the first week, we do a daily misting & cool down period of 5-15 minutes, increasing the time every week. This simulates the mother leaving the nest and coming back damp after a swim. The process helps the eggs to evaporate some of their retained water, which helps the ducklings & goslings inside to become stronger and hatch more easily.
After 7-10 days, we start candling around once per week.
Eventually if you candle, you should be able to see little veins if the eggs are healthy and alive. As a healthy egg progresses, you’ll be able to see more and more growth until there’s just a dark blob with an air sac. If you don’t see any growth after the first week and only see a bright center in the egg, it is probably a dud. Likewise, if it’s a while before Hatch Day and you see only darkness throughout the whole egg without an air sac at the top, these eggs are dead. Very very gently handle them as if they are bombs, because they WILL explode black goo all over you and everything you love. Yes, that’s a thing! A super, super gross thing.
*For geese, they can hatch anywhere from Day 25 to Day 35, so it’s hard to pick a time to lock them down. Towards the end of the incubation period, we start candling them daily to see when they have drawn down their air cells as they prepare to hatch. That’s when we put them into lockdown.
We lock down shipped eggs a day earlier than the standard times, since the birds may need a little extra time getting into position.
We stop turning the eggs and lay them on their sides with the air cells facing up, so that the ducklings & goslings can move into hatching position. If eggs have saddled air sacs, we point the bigger side up. We mark the air sacs with a pencil so that if needed, we can help with hatch without risking puncturing something we shouldn’t. Then we set the humidity to around 65-75%. Now this part will be hard – DO NOT OPEN THE INCUBATOR!
After getting into position, babies will start to externally pip within a couple days (poke a starter hole in the shell). Then within 24 or so hours of pipping, they’ll start zipping a line around the shell. Within 24 hours or so of starting to zip, they should be able to break free.
Once they start hatching, remember – DO NOT OPEN THE INCUBATOR! The hatched ducklings & goslings will be fine for up to 3 days. Let them rest and fluff up. If you open it before they are dry, they can get chilled and die. If you open it before all the babies who are going to hatch do hatch, there is a huge risk of those ones becoming shrink wrapped. It looks just like it sounds – the membrane inside the egg shrinks and sticks to the babies so they can’t move. We’ve never had this happen for waterfowl, but it is possible.
Every now and then, we do decide to open the incubator and intervene. When we do, we spray water into the incubator as we open it to help prevent humidity issues. Helping with a hatch has been about 50% successful for us. Sometimes a healthy duckling or gosling is just in a bad position inside the egg, or sometimes the egg might be jostled and turned upside down. But about half the time, there is something wrong with the duckling or gosling and they end up passing away.
Whether you decide to help or not, the hugest thing is to GO SLOWLY – do not open the incubator all the way if other ducklings & goslings are still hatching, do not let the egg get too dry or too wet or too cold, do not break off too much shell at once, and stop touching the membrane at the first sign of blood. If there is blood, that means the duckling or gosling is not done absorbing nutrients and will bleed out if you keep messing with it. Put it back in the incubator and wait a couple hours before trying more. If the duckling or gosling looks like it is chewing, leave it alone for a while – that means it is still absorbing its yolk. Pulling it out of the shell before it’s done absorbing will usually kill it – this could rupture the yolk sac or pull the baby’s intestines out.
Sometimes ducklings & goslings just take a little extra time to hatch but are perfectly healthy. We’ve had some hatch THREE DAYS after everyone else, and they turned out just as perky as their siblings.
We have had the MOST luck helping slow ducklings & goslings by simply adding tiny pilot holes in the air cells of their eggs. If a baby is just a late bloomer, this tiny 1-2mm hole will provide fresh air and keep them from suffocating while they think about hatching.
In any case, once everyone is hatched and fluffed up, we put them in the brooder.
* Please note that these are our personal opinions and experiences, and our statements are not intended to be professional or medical advice in any way. We have added links to products that we have used. We are Amazon and CoopWorx affiliates, so if someone purchases an item on their site through one of these links, we might get a small commission at no additional charge. For all other links, we are in no way affiliated with the vendors or brands and do not receive any award or recognition for purchase.
** To see almost all products & tools that we use for all of our farm critters, feel free to check out our Super Ultra Mega Shopping List.
The good news is: some new Buckeye and Partridge Chantecler outcross chicks have arrived to help us reduce the genetic bottleneck that is starting to form here!
The bad news is: the farm we ordered from is also apparently having PC trouble - we only received 4 out of 15, and they wrote on the shipment form that they’re way behind 😬
They substituted with a bunch of Black Langshan chicks that we unfortunately have no use for. Reach out if you’re local and interested in them!
#chicks #chickens #heritagebreeds #rarebreedchickens #buckeyechicken #chanteclerchickens #partridgechantecler #langshanchicken
Jun 11
Jess is down for a while after finally going through with the surgery we were avoiding, so she’s making some updates to our poultry waitlists in between bouts of googling Asherman’s Syndrome.
We’re still making our way through our existing lists, but they’re just not working out super well due to a zillion factors beyond our control.
SO we are going back to basics for a while! All birds and hatching eggs will be First Come, First Serve, and we will keep a post on FB pinned with availability. If you’re interested in something on the post, please reach out!
If you’re on our waitlist but you see the breed you’re waiting for on the pinned post, please also reach out. Odds are high that it’s because we have more openings for local pickup than for shipping. We are having trouble with shipping - all USPS offices in our area close at least a half hour before we get out of work, and it’s rare than we can leave work early.
CURRENT AVAILABILITY:
First on the list are 15 Fibro chicks hatched 4/17 - some of these are pure Svart Hona and some are Easter Eggers. We have no idea which are which, except for the obviously fluffy one in the front, so they’re all our lower Experimental rate. They might lay green or cream eggs. It’s not 100% yet, but we can start guessing gender more or less accurately in this batch.
#chickens #waitlist #makinglifeeasier #fibrochickens #svarthona #easteregger #swedishblackhen #landrace
Jun 10
Surpriiiise! We were done buying goats for the year, but when we saw Jon list Hillaire Farm Tipperary Tulla, we jumped at the chance to snag her!
We`ve had our eyes on Tulla for a while - she’s a gorgeous 50% Guernsey/50% Oberhasli, and her sire is a super nice buck from one of our favorite lines - *B CH Ober-Boerd Vosegus! His dam GCH Ober-Boerd T Wind Valkyrie 2*M was 1st/1st Udder 3yo & Best Udder at the 2022 National Show. We love Vos and his line so much that we also have a grandson, Spitfire! And distant cousins Diana, Kirlia, Maui, and Sonny 😅
Vos added beautiful strength & substance over Tulla’s dam, Stump*hollow J&H Nacarat, and very nice udder improvement, too!
We’re stoked to add Tulla to our little breed-up program and are so grateful to Alice (and Jon & Tierney) for trusting us with her 🧡
And a big thank you to Katherine Sancuk for bringing her here tonight through all this rain!
(trimmed & udder pics courtesy of Hillaire Farm)
#goats #dairygoats #experimentalgoats #oberhasligoats #guernseygoats #performanceherd
Jun 4
One of our favorite sights - a bucket of Buckeyes!
This batch is claimed, but we’ll be setting a new set to incubate this week!
#chickens #heritagebreeds #heritagebreedchickens #rarebreedchickens #buckeyechicken #buckeyechickens #hatchingeggs
Jun 3
In today’s wildlife encounter, we just got home to see this guy eating our chicken feed - thankfully not our chickens! He approves of our @coopworx Feed Silo 😂
This is the first raccoon we’ve seen out in the open on our property in our 5-ish years of living here! A few have passed through the pasture cam here and there, but they never stay long.
#raccoon #wildlifeadventures #rural #farmlife #homesteading #coopworx
Jun 3
‘Tis the season for new milkers and learning how to milk!
We’re not at allllll experts and have made plenty of mistakes over the past few years of raising dairy goats, but we want to help people avoid a common one: buying cheap milking machines from Amazon.
We totally understand their draw - they’re super affordable and portable, while the ones everyone recommends are usually bulky and around $1500.
But those cheap ones are absolutely not worth it! They only last a year or so before breaking and needing to be replaced, they can’t be taken apart and cleaned or serviced, and most of them WILL ruin your goats’ udders.
Do you remember a few years ago when it was all the rage among kids to suction their lips into glasses to make them big?
A milking machine without correct pulsation or vacuum is like that. Using it once or twice probably won’t cause permanent damage, but doing it twice a day, every day, for however long the goat is in milk, year after year, definitely will.
You might not even notice it at first, but slowly, it might become harder and harder to milk out the goat as scarring builds up inside her orifices. Or she might even end up with mastitis.
It’s just not worth it!
The absolute cheapest machine we’d recommend is the MilkerSupply - it’s $690 right now for a package that includes everything you’d need to get started. We’re not at all affiliated and don’t have one ourselves, but they’re super nice people!
If you’re handy, you could probably save even more and build your own with comparable parts for around $500.
We have and love the Capralite Showman! We also highly recommend ones from Parts Dept and Hamby, if you want something beefier that can handle more than two goats at once.
#goats #dairygoats #goathealth #milkinggoats #goatmilk #milkmachine
May 30
Wildlife adventures never end here!
Monday night, we found four juvenile opossums wandering our doe pen. We left them alone in case their mama was around. Last night, we found them bothering some of our chickens, so we caught them and put them in a carrier in our basement & started asking around for leads on local rehabbers.
This morning, we took them to Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary - they confirmed that these littles are still a few weeks too young to be out on their own.
Buuuut plot twist, when the gal pulled them out of the carrier, there were only three! One must have squeezed his way out of the carrier and hidden somewhere in our basement.
Someone recommended luring him out with tuna, and it worked! We nabbed him and settled in for the night, only to hear the dogs freaking out … at a 5th joey!
Now we’ve got two more to bring to the sanctuary tomorrow. Hopefully that’s all of them! We still haven’t seen any signs of their mama.
#wildlife #opossum #virginiaopossum #marsupial #wildliferescue #farmlife #rural
May 29
The girls are all not-so-patiently waiting while we set up their fancy new collapsible hay feeder from one of our favorite equipment suppliers for all things goat, @sydell.inc
#goats #dairygoats #goatlife #hungrygoats #hayfeeder #sydell #goatequipment #bigbales #haybales #farmlife #farmchores #homesteading
May 25
We’ve been promising pics of Petunia & Smoothie’s two available girls for a while now - this is the best Jess could do by herself - we`ll try again soon, if it ever stops raining 🤣
They’re 5th Gen Mini Nubians & taking bottles like champs. Born 4/26/25 & received Trishield First Defense at birth. Will come with MDGA papers. Whole herd annually tests negative for CAE, CL, and Johne’s.
Their sire Mosaic`s Smooth Criminal *B comes from multiple generations of TopTen milk and their dam Green Gables Amazing Black Petunia’s sire is one of our faves from Green Gables (Comet). Petunia is on milk test and doing well so far!
For the flash fans out there: both girls are nearly solid black, both have blue eyes, both are polled, and one has a white partial belt & a few moonspots 🖤
May 21
Very few kids are definite keepers for us right off the bat. Lasty’s girl is one 😍
We still have to do DNA, but we’d put money on the sire being Spitfire - she has his long legs, long face, and light coat!
May 20
Okay! Now that the sleep deprivation of kidding season is over, we can focus on the birds a bit!
* Poultry Updates *
This weekend, we said goodbye to the last of our Wheaten Ameraucanas. We loved them, but haven’t had time to build new pens, so we let them go to an awesome breeder/friend in Milwaukee. Feel free to shamelessly advertise in a comment! All of our other seller friends, too 💜
Our Self-Blue (aka Lavender)/Black Split Ameraucana pens aren’t laying super well - we think there might be an egg eater. We might sell them off, too, but we`ll see!
Our Buckeyes are amazing and the greatest birds ever!
Our Buff Chanteclers keep going broody. We’re probably going to list the group again, if anyone is interested!
Our Partridge Chanteclers are laying better this year and we`re slooowly making our way through our waitlist. We’re hopefully bringing in new blood later this year as an outcross, too.
Our main group of Svart Honas escaped their first pen, which caused a delay. Then after our last hatch, we learned that our half-Ameraucana/half-Svart in there is not laying blue eggs & we have mixed chicks. Now the Svarts in both pens are broody, so we put together a new group to pull eggs from as soon as they`re clean.
Our last pair of Welsummers ARE fertile, but not very. Out of 4 dozen eggs now, one chick has hatched. At least it’s a pullet! We would sell them, but our rooster has been through a lot and has fought for life through it all. New buyers might off him, so we’re keeping them until he passes.
Our Guineas are laying and we might have keets soon - they`re our only hatchery birds!
Our Welsh Harlequin ducks are leaving this week. We adore how happy and sweet they are, plus the enormous amount of eggs, but they`re unpopular in this area`s market and became a financial burden.
Lastly, our Pilgrim goslings are hatching! We`re getting a pretty decent ratio and will reach out to waitlist peeps soon.
#backyardpoultry #poultrybreeds #hatchingeggs #pasturedpoultry #heritagebreeds #rarebreedchickens
May 19
A massive wattled doeling for Windscape JB Last Call aaaand … we dunno who the daddy is yet!
We did not plan for Lasty to kid last - that was all her and her difficult cycle! After failing to settle the first few tries, she finally had a hormone-fueled party with three bucks. The sire could be Coyote Ledge Im a Heartbreaker, Sublime OBV Son of a Sinner, or Half Barn Farm TRI Spitfire. We’ll of course order a DNA test to confirm!
And thus concludes our 2025 kidding season! We think. There might still be another in there - we’re apparently very bad at telling 😅
2025 Total Tally: 16 Bucks, 20 Does 🙌
#goats #dairygoats #babygoats #kiddingseason #oberhasligoats #farmlife #imsotired
May 18
The time we dread most is upon us once more - it’s the Sheddening 😱😱😱
#dogs #fuzzydogs #somuchfur #shepherdmix #huskymix #colliemix #supermutt
May 17
Milk testing is such an awesome tool - it gives us a great insight into our herd`s health!
We completed our second test of the season, and the girls are looking MUCH better than last year - we`re so grateful to have found three sources of really, really nice hay!
Diana has been close to a protein/butterfat inversion, which could indicate acidosis (which is bad), so we`ve been loading her up with a low protein/high fiber horse feed to try to fix that, and it seems to be helping!
We`ve suspected that Vivi might be fighting subclinical mastitis and have been treating her with some herbal stuff - we can see that her SCC (somatic cell count) is dropping, which is a good sign!
#17 is Kirlia - we`ll get them to fix that at the next test.
This is our second year working with Indiana State Dairy Association, and they`ve been great to work with through all our dumb newbie questions!
#goats #dairygoats #herdhealth #DHI #performanceherd #milktesting
May 15
Well, that is definitely one way to use a cot 😅
#goats #dairygoats #farmlife #oberhasligoats #guernseygoats
May 14
A few of the yearlings are finally starting to look a little bit less derpy 🙌
… definitely not all of them yet, though 😅
May 13
It’s officially spring! We caught our first non-pet basement snake of the season, checking out our newly hatched chicks 😅
#snake #gartersnake #rurallife #farmlife
May 11
Every year, Ken falls hard for one single baby goat - this year, the honor goes to Tanwen, Avalon & Smoothie’s teeny doeling 😍
#goats #babygoats #goatkids #goatlife #dairygoats #bottlebabygoats #mininubian #mininubians
May 11
It’s like a daily Easter egg (and chicken) hunt over here 😅
#chickens #heritagebreeds #rarebreedchickens #broodyhen #chanteclerchicken #partridgechantecler #backyardflock
May 11
We FINALLY got somewhat decent pics of Honey’s udder! That blonde roan coat of hers does not work well with our LED milk parlor lighting, and her udder always looks a zillion times lower and sadder than it really is.
May 10
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