@Faraday40 I was wondering how (and where) you have your brooder area? You seem to have babies hatching at different times and I was imagining what it would look like here if I did it! Let me say, it would be a HUGE mess if I did it here! LOL
Do you keep them in the house or do you have an outside setup?
I am on chronically disorganized, but love to know how you do it!
I turned a Pack N Play into a big brooder & tried out the "Mama Heating Pad" method of brooding. Both experiments were very successful. In the past I always had a batch of chicks in the living room in a plastic tub under a heat lamp for 2 weeks. DUSTY! Then I moved them into the garage (rabbit cage) with their heat lamp. I could not hatch too many, and never started before mid April.
Using the heating pad method allowed me to move them out to the garage & I feel it's less of a fire hazard. It's closer to what a broody does & they seem to feather faster. I teach often but all the eggs I sell to the schools are THEIRS. I ask that they find a home for their class chicks before we start. The ones I hatch at home are for sale. We have limited coop space, so in winter we have to be strict about getting the numbers down. In the spring & summer we have a fluctuating number from day to day. Whenever someone "falls in love" with a chick we have to pick out the hen who will be rehomed. If she is under 2 years, then we can sell her.
As far as the schedule, I have a teaching calendar & write when/ where I need to be. This time of year, I have several incubation classes at different schools, so I keep the materials bagged up & ready to go. All I have to do is grab a hen, or chicks, or eggs. The papers, books, & lab supplies are already in the car for whatever lesson I'm doing. I talked most of the schools into writing a mini grant to get their own incubators. I help them set it up before the class & they must monitor it. Making the brooder is one of the classes so the kids do that. Some schools pay me for teaching the classes, others are considered volunteer but they pay me for supplies & give a thank you "gift." I use the exposure to invite kids to my mini summer science camps. In time my name was passed around, so I now get calls from people asking, "Would you be willing to teach......?" Often dissections or chemistry, but hey anything that pays a little side money, helps me stay home with my kids. (Being a stay at home mom never means you actually stay home.) I have thought about going back into the classroom, but it truly takes up my whole life. Before kids, that was fine, but I have found a way to teach on the side.
They somehow found their way into my incubator????? We already had 2 chicks hatch tonight (an EE and a Bielefelder male) and 10 pips. Looks like most will hatch tomorrow - day 21. 
Today I set eggs at a second preschool classroom where I am teaching a park district class. On Tuesday I went in to set up the incubator & was told that I had 7 students, but an additional kid was likely going to join. Today I was handed a class list of 11!! I scrambled to gather a few more supplies. The class went well, we set some eggs, & I brought in a few hens. The topic was chicken anatomy. Most kids didn't know the difference between a chicken, hen, & rooster, so the kids learned a lot. Next week, we'll do egg activities. Yesterday I sold most of the remaining orig test hatch chicks. I'm keeping some of the "80s hair band" (Appenzeller Spitzhauben), so they are moving to a cage inside the run tomorrow. Not a moment too soon because I need the brooder cleaned out for tomorrow's hatchlings. Like I said, it's been a crazy chicken-themed week. This is what I need because my mom died 1 year ago today. We visited the cemetery this morning & I had a good cry. Next week is the anniv of the funeral & the day after that, her birthday. Keeping busy distracts me during this rough time. Yesterday Cuddles was acting off again. I brought her inside for a long session of chicken therapy. I think it helped both of us. Thank you to everyone here who has been praying for our family. Here's a pic of my mom & I. Also a more recent one of my parents. We were close & talked daily. I miss her. 
I would take it as a personal challenge to fill that brooder up! Fill the incubators to the max!!!!
