Hatching and brooding chicks in winter

[Noy]

Hi y'all!
It's been a long time since I've posted. So first, am update!

Our flock has grown, shrunk, grown... with lots of breeds coming and going and two hens, Casey the Easter Egger and Sage the Plymouth Rock, remaining of the original flock we got five years ago!

Anyway, this spring we got five Swedish Flower Hens (well, chickens, as two turned out to be beautiful roos) and I fell in love! I told my husband I want our entire flock to eventually be SFH. And then he proceeded to buy a bunch of random breeds at TSC, and then our friends literally cleaned out all the "pullrts" from TSC, and we bought some more random chicks from them.

And now, surprise surprise, we have way too many roosters.
But also, this is the first summer that we didn't lose a bunch of hens to predators (we free range half the day).
So, apparently the BUNCH of roosters are doing a great job protecting our large flock... so they get to stay. They actually get along pretty well, with only the Guineas being d!cks, and only the occasional rooster getting bullied. One of which was one of my beautiful SFH roo I separated him for two days so his comb can heal and they've all been fine since.

So, that's the update.
Now... I still want more SWH chicks.
And I also want to hatch more guineas, because guineas are super dumb and apparently also super yummy and every year we lose a bunch of them and they're important for keeping the ticks at bay on our property.

Now here's the dilemma...
I have one incubator.
I want to hatch two batches of guineas in April and May (28 days to hatch).

I also really want to hatch some SWH over the winter! But I keep going back and forth on whether that's a good idea or not.
We brood in the house for the first 2-3 weeks, using a brooder plate and a baby play pen, then they go outside to their own little run inside the big flock run, with the heater plate which they wean themselves off of.

I really want more SFH! I'm tempted to separate out those hens with one of the roos and then wait (how long until other roos' sperm is no longer present?) and raise a couple of batches during the winter.
I was about to get it all ready and put my plan into action and then we had a well of unusually cold weather for the season, and I chickened out
But really, it only goes down to the upper teens F at night, if that. It's usually upper 30s at night, 40s or even low 50s during the day.

Am i just being a chicken?? Since they'll start off in the house anyway... and they feather out real quick once outside, and they'll have a heat plate in a protected space in their own run in a big run... hatching and brooding through winter is fine, right??

I want to hatch a batch for us, then a batch to sell (popular breed in our area with little supply), then guineas. Earlier the better. So...
Is this a dumb plan and I should just wait until spring? Or go ahead?!

Help a girl decide
Sorry it's so long.
Looking forward to opinions. Lol

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi!

How many eggs does your incubator fit?

Let's say for example it's two dozen. What I'd do is stagger hatches every two weeks in there. That way, when the first batch hatches, you can just leave them in there until they're all fluffy and ready to come out. When you take those out, you can take the second batch of eggs out and do a quick cleaning, candle them, then put them back in with a fresh dozen. By using 14 days between, you won't run into issues of the early pippers occurring the same time you have a late hatcher, especially if you're doing guineas in there.

We have more incubators, so I just put eggs ready for lockdown in the second one so I can stagger the process for a shorter amount of days (5-6). I don't like opening the incubator any more than I have to, so that's when I'll do candling for the other eggs.

As for your outside temps when you're putting them out, we use Cozy Coop radiant heaters in the hutches of the growout pens.

I won't hatch any now, though. We're waiting until about 1/15/25 to set the first eggs. I will be selling most of these, so they'll stay in the brooder. If I'd keep any, they'll be in the house, in a different brooder for about six weeks, and by then, that should be past the worst of the winter, and they could go out. This is Wisconsin though, so colder than where you are.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You might find this thread interesting. This lady hatched in the dead of a Michigan winter with a broody hen so a bit different from you but you might find some interesting info in it.

Broody in Michigan Winter? | BackYard Chickens - Learn How to Raise Chickens

If your incubator is in a climate controlled area and your chicks are in a climate controlled area they won't even know it is winter. You don't want your hatching eggs to freeze or get really cold so you might need to collect them a few times a day (maybe on a weekend). I put my chicks straight from the incubator into a broody in my coop even if the outside temperature is below freezing. As long as they have a warm spot in the brooder they do fine.

I would not suggest staggered hatches in the same incubator every two weeks. When they hatch the chicks make a mess. Some fluids from hatch get smeared all over. The chicks start pooping. In a warm humid incubator that can quickly become a stinky slimy unhealthy mess. You want different humidities during incubation and during hatch. You need to turn the eggs for part of the incubation. If you have two incubators like Debbie you can use one as an incubator and the other as a hatcher, works great. But trying to use one split like that can get pretty complicating. I'd set a batch and wait for them to hatch before I cleaned the incubator and started another. You have time.

(how long until other roos' sperm is no longer present?)

Some people use three weeks and that mostly works. However sperm can last longer than that. It usually doesn't but it can. To be very safe I'd suggest four weeks.

It takes about three days after a mating to be sure that that specific rooster's sperm is available for use. He may not mate with every hen every day so I'd give them a little more time together. But you do not have to have the rooster in with the hens for the full four weeks.

To me, what you want to do is very doable. Good luck!

 

[Noy]

Hi!

How many eggs does your incubator fit?

Let's say for example it's two dozen. What I'd do is stagger hatches every two weeks in there. That way, when the first batch hatches, you can just leave them in there until they're all fluffy and ready to come out. When you take those out, you can take the second batch of eggs out and do a quick cleaning, candle them, then put them back in with a fresh dozen. By using 14 days between, you won't run into issues of the early pippers occurring the same time you have a late hatcher, especially if you're doing guineas in there.

We have more incubators, so I just put eggs ready for lockdown in the second one so I can stagger the process for a shorter amount of days (5-6). I don't like opening the incubator any more than I have to, so that's when I'll do candling for the other eggs.

As for your outside temps when you're putting them out, we use Cozy Coop radiant heaters in the hutches of the growout pens.

I won't hatch any now, though. We're waiting until about 1/15/25 to set the first eggs. I will be selling most of these, so they'll stay in the brooder. If I'd keep any, they'll be in the house, in a different brooder for about six weeks, and by then, that should be past the worst of the winter, and they could go out. This is Wisconsin though, so colder than where you are.

Appreciate your advice! It's the 22 egg Nurture Right 360. We have tried different incubators and had the best success with that one so I'm sticking to it for now.

I love your idea of staggering hatches! Maybe when I get a second incubator I'll do that. I don't think I want to do that with just one.

 

[Noy]

You might find this thread interesting. This lady hatched in the dead of a Michigan winter with a broody hen so a bit different from you but you might find some interesting info in it.

Broody in Michigan Winter? | BackYard Chickens - Learn How to Raise Chickens

If your incubator is in a climate controlled area and your chicks are in a climate controlled area they won't even know it is winter. You don't want your hatching eggs to freeze or get really cold so you might need to collect them a few times a day (maybe on a weekend). I put my chicks straight from the incubator into a broody in my coop even if the outside temperature is below freezing. As long as they have a warm spot in the brooder they do fine.

I would not suggest staggered hatches in the same incubator every two weeks. ...You have time.


Some people use three weeks and that mostly works. However sperm can last longer than that. It usually doesn't but it can. To be very safe I'd suggest four weeks.

It takes about three days after a mating to be sure that that specific rooster's sperm is available for use. He may not mate with every hen every day so I'd give them a little more time together. But you do not have to have the rooster in with the hens for the full four weeks.

To me, what you want to do is very doable. Good luck!

Thank you so much, this is very helpful!
Sorry, I don't know how to respond to snippets of quotes and then bring in another quote.

I agree they won't know it's winter while indoors but they'll be in for a bit of a shock when they do move out

It's reassuring to know that they can go out straight to a brooder outdoors with a heat source! I have been watching the birds nesting outside our windows and it seems to me they do it pretty early, even if it's still very cold out! So this makes sense. I prefer to stick them under a broody but this year we couldn't get any of them to adopt chicks, and you can't really time that... I still worry they'll be cold lol

Thank you for pointing out the rooster only needs to be in there for a few days. Duh... makes sense lol and removing a rooster for only a week at a time will be less of a disruption to their social order, I imagine.

I figured for me, I don't mind if they're a bit of a mix so I may get my first batch of eggs after 3 weeks. For selling I'd obviously want to keep them longer before using the eggs to hatch.

Thank you again, so much!

 

[Yardmom]

I would say go ahead and hatch in winter if your hens are laying. The temps you mentioned will be fine with a brooder plate outside. I have chicks in winter sometimes and moms ween them and they do fine. Nights in teens here.
If you want to make sure you have pure chicks wait at least a month.
The way I handle hatching eggs with different hatch times is by starting the ones that take the longest first. Then add the other eggs later so they all hatch at the same time. This eliminates the humidity issues of a staggered hatch.

 

[Altairsky]

You need to wait at least 1 month to be sure the undesired sperm clears out. Then it will be almost the middle of January. The eggs takes roughly 1 month to hatch, and it will be February. Then the chicks will stay in the brooder for 1 more month and it will be March.
Perfect I'd say!

 

[Debbie292d]

Appreciate your advice! It's the 22 egg Nurture Right 360. We have tried different incubators and had the best success with that one so I'm sticking to it for now.

I love your idea of staggering hatches! Maybe when I get a second incubator I'll do that. I don't think I want to do that with just one.

My first of four incubators was that one. I didn't stagger either until I had a second one but read how others with one did it and thought that's kind of what you were eluding to doing.

I would watch Marketplace for a used Brinsea that's fully automatic that has auto humidity control which after using the NR360 is a Godsend! That was my second incubator, a used Brinsea 56 EX, automatic.

 

[Noy]

I would say go ahead and hatch in winter if your hens are laying. The temps you mentioned will be fine with a brooder plate outside. I have chicks in winter sometimes and moms ween them and they do fine. Nights in teens here.
If you want to make sure you have pure chicks wait at least a month.
The way I handle hatching eggs with different hatch times is by starting the ones that take the longest first. Then add the other eggs later so they all hatch at the same time. This eliminates the humidity issues of a staggered hatch.

Thank you! Very reassuring to hear!
I'm not going to stagger hatch with the Guineas yet, they don't normally start laying until at least March.
Last year I accidentally hatched one chick with the Guineas - twice! Amazing how similar some of those eggs look. Lol

 

[Noy]

You need to wait at least 1 month to be sure the undesired sperm clears out. Then it will be almost the middle of January. The eggs takes roughly 1 month to hatch, and it will be February. Then the chicks will stay in the brooder for 1 more month and it will be March.
Perfect I'd say!

Well, 21 days to hatch chicks and the brooder will be outdoors
But yeah, sounds like they'll be fine... thank you for the encouragement! I'm still a bit nervous but going to give it a try!