Well, there you go. True to form the chicks hatched early and caught me unprepared. They shouldn't have hatched until Wednesday, but yesterday (day 19) the peeping emerged from the incubator. A quick trip to Bunnings on the way home after work, and a couple hours in the shed after dinner allowed me to put the final touches on the brooder. All up the brooder cost $19, made up of a $10 entertainment unit from the tip shop laid on its back, a couple bits of old stud screwed on for legs, an old cupboard door we had laying around for the lid, and a $9 150W external light from Bunnings as the heat source. The chicks made it through the night, so it's all good! Hoping for at least a 70% success rate, so expecting another 10 to hatch today, fingers crossed. We started with 29 eggs, candled them at day ten and 5 were not fertile and 1 was not looking right, so we were left with 23 eggs, of which 5 have now hatched.
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