We Had a Baby!

...a duck baby, that is. Say hello to the first duckling to be successfully hatched by YellowTree Farm!

Incubator update

Well, our first attempt at incubating eggs didn't work out so well. Much to our disappointment, none of our cinnamon queen eggs hatched.

We're trying again, though, with a couple dozen quail eggs. We've managed to keep the temperature more stable than last time, and hopefully we'll have better results. These little eggs should start hatching around February 25th.

Incubator, MacGyver style

Justin finished making our first incubator earlier this week. With sustainability in mind, he fashioned the incubator out of an old kitchen cabinet, a used water heater thermostat, two used lighting fixtures, and our old weather thermometer. We found an automatic egg-turner off eBay, and stuck some Styrofoam in there for added insulation. Unfortunately, the water heater thermostat doesn't seem to be as sensitive as we need, and the temperature inside keeps dipping too low or climbing too high. We've since ordered a more sensitive thermostat which should arrive in the mail shortly. In the meantime we're keeping our fingers crossed and testing out the incubator's efficacy on five Cinnamon Queen eggs we got from our homesteading friends who sold us the breeding rabbits.