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Central NJ Over Here!!!

Hello All, I am excited to see so many fellow Jersey chicken lovers.

I was born and raised here in NJ. Chickens were on my Christmas list to Santa every year when I was little. I finally got my first bantam Cochin hens at a fair when I was about 13 years old. Those three girls were wonderful, but unfortunately one day our German Shepherd had other plans for them. I cried for weeks...
My next chickens came when I moved up to PA (to my dad's house) when I was about 18 years old. My dad built me a chicken coop out of the body of a school bus and put sky lights in the top hatch openings.. totally cool! We ordered two groups of 25, all large breeds, from McMurray, and boy you don't realize just how many chickens that is until they grow up. LOL! It didn't matter, though, because we had a ton of space and no neighbors for miles. I enjoyed my chickens for about 2 years, collecting more, hatching a few of my own, selling my nicest at the Sussex County Fair, until what was left of my flock was repeatedly attacked by a number of predators and I was left with none.

That was 4 years ago. We've been back in NJ for about 2 years now. Recently we've all gotten 'chicken fever' over here and found an amazing deal on a Brinsea Octagon 20 Advance. It just came in the mail today, and now we just have to put some eggs in it. Anyone around here have some eggs they'd like incubated? Unfortunately we can't exactly keep chickens here, so we either have to hatch meat birds that we can process at a young age, OR we can hatch some eggs for a local fellow chicken enthusiast. :D

We are very excited. My three year old son was fascinated with the incubator and what I told him it is for, and still can't wrap his head around the idea of baby chicks coming out of eggs. He ran to the fridge when I told him that eggs go in, baby chicks come out. Poor guy wasn't happy to find out that the eggs in the fridge won't work. My one year old daughter loves everything soft, cute, and cuddly, and the thought of her pointing at little chicks smiling with joy has me tickled. It will be a cuteness overload. She is very good at not touching due to her gluten allergy (her brother is always eating bread of some sort, and she knows not to touch when I tell her she can't), so I think she is ready to experience a few baby chicks. My husband is eager to see first hand just how well this fancy yellow piece of technology works, and I'm hoping to do everything right the first time so that everyone across the board is impressed with the results! LOL

Anyway, thanks for listening and I hope someone here in this thread is interested in helping us hatch. :)
Thanks!!
Jenne
 
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yippiechickie.gif
Welcome back to Central Jersey! Where-about in Central Jersey are you? You might want to take your son to see all the chickens at the Burlington County Farm Fair, July 19 - 24. Sometimes there will be a set up of baby chicks hatching....
 
harley587 said:
yippiechickie.gif
Welcome back to Central Jersey! Where-about in Central Jersey are you? You might want to take your son to see all the chickens at the Burlington County Farm Fair, July 19 - 24. Sometimes there will be a set up of baby chicks hatching....
Click to expand...

Thanks! It's not close (we're close to Rutgers University), but that sounds like a great place to take the kids next week.
I think taking him to see hatching baby chicks will make him even more eager for chicks. This morning he jumped into my bed and asked me, "Ummm, can we get some eggs for baby chicks?"
He remembered lol
Jenne
 
CynazarGoldens said:
Thanks! It's not close (we're close to Rutgers University), but that sounds like a great place to take the kids next week.
I think taking him to see hatching baby chicks will make him even more eager for chicks. This morning he jumped into my bed and asked me, "Ummm, can we get some eggs for baby chicks?"
He remembered lol
Jenne
Click to expand...

You can try the Somerset county fair....it is in Bridgewater in early August. They have a setup where chicks are hatching at the poultry tent. Lots of breeds to look at. If you want, you should check out the trader Joe thread. You can buy fertile eggs at some grocery stores. Pretty cheap way of testing out the incubator and your skills......
 
CynazarGoldens said:
Thanks! It's not close (we're close to Rutgers University), but that sounds like a great place to take the kids next week.
I think taking him to see hatching baby chicks will make him even more eager for chicks. This morning he jumped into my bed and asked me, "Ummm, can we get some eggs for baby chicks?"
He remembered lol
Jenne
Click to expand...

There's a link in my Forum Signature for the state and county 4H fairs. You could go to Middlesex Co 4H fair, probably Hunterdon Co & Somerset Co are close too and they are all in August. Rah Rah Rutgers!! I'm a Rutgers Grad!! Did you "promise" your son that you would get eggs? You know little ones, they NEVER forget a promise!! I live out by the Horse Park of NJ so the Burlington Co 4H fair is the closest to me. I do know you can get eggs for hatching at Hollycroft Hens in the Pinelands. I'm not sure about anywhere else.
 
It sounds like what you're interested in doing is hatching them knowing ahead of time that you have someplace for them to go because you can't keep them. In that case, you should contact a "rent-a-chick" place near you. Normally they already have the chicks, but perhaps they can allow you to hatch them and then take them from you after hatching them and brooding them a few weeks. You get the experience without having to commit long term, build a coop etc.
 

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