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Australorps are an Australian version of the popular Orpington breed. And, like Orpingtons, they are calm and friendly,

Australorps are excellent layers of light brown eggs, typically laying 260 eggs per year.

The Australorp's exceptionally soft, shiny black plumage has a two-tone affect; with hints of green and purple in the sunlight.

Australorps are an absolutely delightful bird which we highly recommend to anyone who wants a pet chicken that lays dependably.

The photo's above were supplied by Ruth and Brian Hall of Hall's Hatching Eggs. To go directly to thier website, click here.

The Light Sussex was bred as a dual bird and is one of the most productive breeds of poultry laying approximately 240 - 260 eggs a year!

It is also a very good producer of meat, they are sweet and gentle and make excellent garden pets, giving you fresh eggs nearly every day.

The photo's above were supplied by Ruth and Brian Hall of Hall's Hatching Eggs. To go directly to thier website, click here.

The Chocolate Orpington Bantam

The Chocolate gene was discovered by Dr Clive Carefoot in 1994 from black Orpington Bantams imported from the continent.  Dr Carefoot for reasons only known to himself, he decided not to distribute the gene to others, and this is believed to be the main reason for the immense interest in the Chocolate coloured fowl, not only in the UK but around the world.  

Mr Rob Boyd worked extremely hard to recreate the Chocolate Orpington Bantam. He began in 2004 with what was believed to be the last remaining ‘Chocolate Orpington Hen’ belonging to Dr Carefoot. It was the intention of Rob, along with Grant and Rich, to assist Dr Carefoot and reinvigorate his strain. However, sadly Dr Carefoot passed away before the project was finished. The hen from Dr Carefoot was around 5 Years old, so getting eggs from her was tough, but Rob persisted and carried out the majority of the breeding, with genetics advice from Grant, over a 4 year period to bring the Chocolate Orpington back to life. Typically they lay a modest 160 eggs a year.

The photo's above were supplied by Ruth and Brian Hall of Hall's Hatching Eggs. To go directly to thier website, click here.

Gold Laced Orpington Bantams are a beautiful breed of miniature fowl, defined by the following characteristics:

• Single comb with evenly spaced seperations
• Red face and ear lobes
• White legs
• Soft and fluffy feathers
• Short, compact tails
• A rounded, plump body
• A golden and black lacing colouredshade of feathers

Gold Laced Orpingtons are one of my favorite breeds of Bantam. If bred correctly, they make for fantastic show birds and, been naturally tame; Gold Laced Orpingtons create the perfect garden pet.

Gold Laced Orpington eggs are a fantastic light brown shade. The birds have only been the UK for a short number of years; the gold laced gene only brought into the UK from Belgium and Germany less than a decade ago.

The photo's above were supplied by Ruth and Brian Hall of Hall's Hatching Eggs. To go directly to thier website, click here.

The picture above is a close up of one of our newly born chicks. As you can see, he's a very happy little bird!

Can you spot the egg tooth at the end of the chick's beak?

Most chicks develop a small "egg tooth" whilst growing inside the egg. This egg tooth is sharp and is the perfect tool for breaking out of an egg.

Our chicks still had their egg tooths 3 or 4 days after hatch day, however many species egg tooths will fall off very shortly after hatching.

Bye for now!

Lastly, before allowing incubation to commence, we topped up one of the semi-circular water trays in the machine using ordinary tap water.

The Brinsea Mini Advance incubator allowed us to monitor the humidity over the course of incubation. Throughout the incubation period, the humidity changed regularly. This is perfectly normal.

The water we put in the tray was warmed slighly so as not to reduce the temperature inside the machine by too much.

Once the water was in the tray and the eggs were set, we simply placed the incubator lid back over the base and incubation could commence.

Top tip -  when we placed the lid back on the incubator, the temperature dropped - This is perfectly normal. When you introduce your room-temperature eggs and lukewarm water into an incubator, the temperature will, of course, drop. Don't do anything or change any settings; just leave the incubator well alone and it will soon get back to temperature.

10 days of incubation had past and it was time to candle the eggs and see if our incubator was doing its job.

For candling our eggs, we used the Brinsea OvaView candler along with the Brinsea OvaScope candling scope for optimum clarity.

To candle your eggs effectively, its best to be in a darkened room. Simply take the egg out of the incubator, place the blunt end of the egg on the light and flash it on briefly. Look for blood vessels and viens in the early stages (as pictured above) and in the later stages look for large dark areas inside the egg.

Top tip - Not sure what you're looking for when candling your fertile eggs? Take an ordinary supermarket egg from your fridge and candle it, compare this to the part-incubated hatching egg and you'll notice the difference immediately.

On day 20, the eggs began to show signs of hatching. It was a very exciting time, even though we've seen it 100's of times before! Hatching chicks has always been a very exciting experience for us, time and time again.

At this stage during incubation, the chicks can be heard chirping and cheeping inside the eggs. We also witnessed the eggs rocking from side to side as the chicks began to break free of the egg.

By now, the Brinsea Mini Advance had automatically stopped the egg turning by this point; all we needed to do was top up the water in both of the water trays to increase the humidity.

Top Tip - Increasing humidity in the hatching stage softens the egg shell, making it easier for the chicks to hatch. However, be careful not to have too much humidity. The chicks could effectively drown if too much water is present during hatching. For more information on the optimum conditions for incubation and hatching, click here.

Part 2 of the Magnificent Seven (Hatching) will be available soon.

The New EcoGlow Brooders

The EcoGlow brooder range has a new edition...The EcoGlow 50! This fantastic brooder can provide heat and shelter for up to 50 chicks and uses only 50 Watts!

The EcoGlow 20 has also been improved and refined. It now gives even more thermal radiation to keep your new chicks warm and happy!

Click here for more information on EcoGlow Brooders...

Humidity

Warm air at brooding temperature can result in dehydration of the hatchlings so the TLC-40 and 50 incorporate a water reservoir over which air is circulated to increase humidity within the chamber. The water reservoir is filled from outside the unit and is clear, allowing the user to monitor the water level. The reservoir contains white evaporating block to help increase humidity and these blocks are available from Brinsea Products or your local stockist. The water reservoir is removable for cleaning.

TLC-40 and 50 - Features...

• Accurate and adjustable digital temperature control
• Smooth, easy-to-clean interior
• No vulnerable edges for birds to chew
• Positive pressure with gentle fan ventilation
• Twin stage filter, for removal of harmful bacteria and fungi
• Water reservoir for increasing humidity with external top up
• Permanent calibrated digital temperature control with additional features and flexibility in Advance versions
• Tough, clear hinged door with secure catch
• Choice of two generous sizes suitable for a wide range of species
• 2 year guarantee (subject to simple online registration)

We hope this information has proved useful. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at sales@theincubatorshop.co.uk or 01482 865080.

FAQs and an Incubation Guide

As part of our quest, to provide both the knowledge and the equipment needed to successfully breed pets and livestock, we have released "The Incubator Shop - A Guide to Incubation", a one-stop guide telling you everything you need to know about incubating poultry and bird eggs.

Our incubation guide is designed for beginners to incubation, but also includes many useful tips to anybody involved in incubating eggs or hatching chickens as well as many other feathered pets or livestock.

Our aim when writing the guide was to teach people the science of incubation, not just the basic process. By understanding the way in which nature works (and it's been doing fine for billions of years before us humans came along), egg incubation can be more easily understood as a delicate balancing act of conditions, without making it sound unachievable or unlikely.

The Incubator Shop's guide to incubation starts with the basics, explaining the minimum criteria needed to allow egg incubation to take place. It then goes on to educate the reader as to the two main types of bird species, how they incubate eggs, and how they raise their chicks.

The egg incubation process is then carefully described from both a natural and an artificial perspective. If the reader can understand how eggs are incubated in nature, they can better understand how to replicate these conditions to perform artificial egg incubation.

Although there are many egg incubators for sale on our website, our guide to incubation is designed to help the reader find the right egg incubator for them. The section "Choosing the right egg incubator" looks at the following features; Still-air or Fan-assisted, Turning method and Temperature and Humidity Control. The reader can then comfortably decide which egg incubator to buy.

The guide to incubation then finishes by describing the optimum incubation and hatching conditions for a huge range of birds and offers a troubleshooting section for those unsuccessful in incubation.

Well, give it a read, tell us what you think. If its missing anything, or you believe a particular section could have been explained better, let us know and we will continue to adapt and improve.

For those of you who only have a few basic questions on incubation, we have designed an FAQ page. Here we've answered some of the most common questions and quashed the most common misconceptions surrounding egg incubation. Take a look!

The next blog will be discussing some of the new products that will shortly be entering the market. Check back here soon for the latest news.

Bye for now!

Ease of Use - When it comes to ease of use, Green Frog poultry houses are top of the pile. Not only do they come with a full set of easy to understand instructions; they can be disassembled and reassembled in less than 20 minutes, and as many times as you like. Green Frog designs have a life expectancy of 25 years!

The fact that these poultry houses can be easily disassembled and reassembled puts them head and shoulders above traditional wooden poultry houses. Cleaning is exceptionally easy, panels can be washed down individually as necessary and are completely non-absorbent; and so they dry easily and quickly.

But what about the dreaded Red Mite?

Green Frog designs do not eliminate Red Mite. However they are far, far superior to traditional wooden poultry housing at keeping the Red Mite at bay.

Unlike wooden poultry houses, Green Frog poultry houses have very few nooks and crannies in which Red Mite can live and breed. The smooth, impervious plastic leaves very few places for Red Mite and other parasites to hide. Not only that, but due to the fact Green Frog hen houses can be easily disassembled, Red Mite populations can be eradicated in minutes!

Environmental Impact - So what are Green Frog's green credentials?

With a name like Green Frog, you'd expect a fairly high standard of environmental responsibility, but Green Frog designs have gone above and beyond the call of duty!

The plastic used in all of the Green Frog products is 100% recycled. Materials are ordered in from a recycling plant in the Netherlands in the form of large plastic sheets. From these sheets, panels are cut with amazing accuracy, leaving very few wasted off-cuts. But it doesn't stop there - even the off cuts are sent back to be recycled and used again. And in the unlikely event that you wear you're poultry house out (though it may take 25 years), the products themselves can be fully recycled.

These products are about as Green as you can get!

Price - How much will it cost?

OK, so the raw materials aren't cheap. Green Frog's high quality plastic poultry houses cost around the same as you'd pay for premium quality wooden houses, and certainly cost more than the typical poultry house you can find in DIY and pet stores.

But you get so much more for your money. In addition to the fantastic features mentioned above, your Green Frog poultry house won't rust, won't need paint or varnish; and will last 25 years!

When you add up the cost over just a few years, plastic poultry houses present an amazing saving! True value for money.

For more information on our range of plastic poultry houses, you can give us an email at sales@theincubatorshop.co.uk or call us on 01482 865080.

All the best, 

From Mike and The Incubator Shop team!

Looking Ahead...

Not only have we improved the look and layout of the website; we've also added a range of new products. Look out for them!!!

Remember, customer is king! 5 Star customer service is at the heart of everything we do; and we're constantly searching for new ways to improve. If you can spot any way in which we could be better, let us know and we'll endevour to meet your needs.

All the best, and kindest wishes from...

Tony, Mike & Mike - The Incubator Shop team!