My name is Kelly and my partners name is Dave, we live in Stroud in Gloucestershire. We have quite recently acquired www.fertilehatchingeggs.com. We hope to bring exciting new things to this site, lot’s of new breeds of hatching eggs, useful Poultry healthcare and more breeds of chickens for sale too.

My partner Dave started off our love for chickens 7 years ago when he finally bought the six hens he had always wanted  but never had the space to keep. So in 2005 he brought home Blue and Talula ( still going strong, maintaining top position of the pecking order!) the Cotswold Legbars, Pig the Plymouth Rock, Henny Penny the Brown Hybrid and Princess another brown Hybrid.  And thats where we started.

It was The Barred Plymouth Rock that inspired us to get very interested in Rare breeds, so after a lot of researching, learning, hatching and mistake making we began to increase the amount of breeds and the amount of birds. We even had several brooder boxes in our kitchen at one point!! As our breeding grew and our flocks grew we began to run out of space in our garden ( and kitchen ) so we decided to take the plunge in 2010 to really go for it properly and turn our hobby into a business. We now have over 23 different breeding pens thanks to our dear friend Mary on allowing us access to her four acres of land complete with caravan for making the tea in whilst we are working on our little piece of loaned farm.

Our Little piece of Farm

Apart from having our favourite pen of Plymouth Rocks,  another breed that we quickly became very interested in was Leghorns. Mainly because of all the different colours they come in and the different personalities each of the different leghorns  have so we now have ( last count) 11 different colours of Leghorns including Silver Duckwing, American Dark Brown, Red Mottled, Buff, Pile and Rosecomb to name but a few.

I have to be honest since learning more about chickens and the different breeds I do have an ultimate favourite and that’s The Brahma. I love our Lemon Pyle Brahmas and if I get my way I will be persuading Dave to get some different colours of them too! So if you are like me and love them too, do watch this space as hopefully we will be getting more.

So along with all our Leghorns and of course our Brahmas we have Silver laced Wyandottes, Welsummers, lot’s of Pekins, Barbu D’uccles, Chocolate Orpington Bantams, Appenzeller spitzhauben, Silver Campines, Araucanas and Minorcas. I think I remembered everybody. I will over the period of a few week’s write a blog for each separate breed about all their different personalities and how to care for them etc.

Well I hope this has given you a better idea of what we are about. Please feel free to email any chicken related questions ( kelly@fertilehatchingeggs.com) or please comment below. Thank for reading.

Silver Campines are neither bantam fowl nor large fowl they are three quarter fowl, they have black and white barring, white hackles and slate coloured legs. Silver Campines have a single comb and white earlobes. Unlike other chicken breeds the Campine cockerels are uniquely hen feathered.

The Silver Campine is a very lively and inquisitive breed. Some Silver Campines can be incredibly friendly and follow you around but on the other hand some Silver Campines can be rather wild and a little aggressive. The friendly Silver Campines make great garden chickens as they are economical eaters, although they are a good flyer so a high fence is needed. The Silver Campine is non broody and they produce around 180 good sized white eggs a year.

The Barred Plymouth Rock is the most intricately marked breed of chicken I have come across. Each feather requiring a set of parallel, straight and even bars from the base of the feather right to the very tip. The Barred Plymouth Rock is quite a heavy bird with a deep full abdomen and a well rounded breast and beautiful bright yellow legs.

The Barred Plymouth Rock is a very friendly bird and easy to tame. They make great pets because the are vigorous and hardy and quite long lived birds with a great character. Also the Barred Plymouth Rock isn’t a very good flier there fore not needing too high a fence and they do not really require too much space although they do like to run free. They can be quite broody so it is important to collect the eggs regularly, the Barred Plymouth Rocks lay a pinkish brown coloured egg and will produce around 200 eggs a year.

The Jersey Giant chicken is a slow grower, another reason why they are not really suitable for their meat. The Jersey Giant breed will reach full height by the time they are 12 months but will not really finish growing until they are about 2. The Jersey breed will fill out from the age of 12 months until they are two and then they are classed as fully grown.

The Jersey Giant hen will lay about 160 eggs per year and the eggs are a good size and medium to dark brown. They are mild mannered birds who cannot fly too well because of their sheer size; in fact they cannot fly at all. Any fencing for Jersey Giants doesn’t have to be particularly high as they will not attempt to escape.

Some describe the Jersey Giant breed as not suitable for children and yes this may be true of very small children but once children reach the age of 5, the Jersey Giants are excellent pets. If you are intending on keeping Jersey Giants, you must first be aware of their sheer size, they are twice as big when fully grown as your average chicken and for this reason need more space in both the chicken coop and the chicken run.

The Jersey Giant hen does have a tendency to become broody and as the egg production begins to increase during early summer, they are likely to become broody and will fiercely defend their eggs. If left to sit on their eggs and rear their young, they make excellent mothers.

Jersey Giants socialise well within a flock and are docile and friendly birds and for this reason I personally think they make excellent pets. They will not however produce as many eggs as some chicken breeds, only producing about 160 eggs per year and if you are looking for a chicken that lays more eggs then the Jersey Giant is not for you.

The best advice I can give you if you are interested in the Jersey Giant breed is to go and have a look at some. Their sheer size really can’t be explained and it isn’t until you see them for yourselves that you will appreciate their size and stature.

The Jersey Giant breeds are slow growing and will not be fully grown until the first year and during the second year they will fill out somewhat.

The Mottled Leghorns are also very good layers and are particulary my favourite because of thier lovely colours. The Jersey Giants lay quite a small egg considering they are huge birds. Their eggs are small and slightly off white. The Jersey giants need a little more space because they are big birds and they will become broody from time to time but they are very calm natured birds and ideal for families providing you have the space, the cockerel is also not over noisy.

For those who do not want a broody hen it is just sit and wait until it passes, the hen may look a little disheveled as she will constantly sit and removing the eggs is paramount. Removing the eggs can help speed up the recovery from the broodiness although some hens may stay broody for quite some time.

Lice and mites will also rear their ugly head around this time and constant treating is the key. There are many good lice powders on the market and treating one hen will almost certainly mean treating the whole flock. Vaseline is another successful treatment as it will suffocate the lice but this procedure needs to be constantly repeated as the vaseline will eventually rub off.

Visit here for hatching eggs.

If the power has failed and you notice straight away, place some blankets on the incubator to keep in warmth but remember that temperatures will drop quickly. All is not lost however and you have got some time to reconnect the power but unfortunately not hours. Power should be connected as soon as possible and I really would question the success of the eggs if the power is off for longer than 20 mins. If you haven’t noticed the power is off straight away, opening the incubator and feeling the eggs is a good indicator to what time scale the power has been off for. If the eggs are cold then it is almost certain that the eggs are now ruined.

Many people get round this by installing an alarm which will inform you should the power go off but even then you will still have to have a backup system such as a generator in order to save the eggs. Many power failures are corrected almost straight away but unfortunately this isn’t always the case. Small generators can be purchased and if you are going to hatch eggs on a large scale, they are well worth the investment.

From the moment you recieve your hatching eggs it is important to make sure you treat them with care to ensure the best possible hatching rates. If you have ordered your eggs through the post, ensure that you leave them to stand for 24 hours before placing in the incubator. The incubator also needs to be running for 24 hours before you put the eggs in to ensure that it is working correctly and the temperatures are regulated.

It is really important that the temperatures and humidity are perfect to ensure your eggs hatch correctly, so many eggs are lost because the incubator is not set correctly or the humidity levels are not changed in the last few days before hatching. Please see below for regulations.

For still air incubators the temperature needs to be 101.5 degrees measured at the tope of the eggs. For Fan incubators the temperature needs to be 99.5 degrees. Humidity needs to be 60-65 % for the first 18 days and then 80-85% for the last three days. So many eggs are lost because humidity levels are not increased for the last three days and something as small as this could see the loss of your eggs.

A chicken egg will hatch after 21 days but do remember that turkey and duck eggs will be different.