The Never Ending Hatching thread! For those of us that hatch all year long!

[Sweetlilbaby]

Two of my "hatchers" are farm innovators. Your set up would work just fine. Be sure to check the eggs in the hatcher after a chick has hatched. I have had a few die, because they got rolled and suffocated before I could get to them. Good Luck!

i'm thinking of removing as soon as they hatch and making a tote into a chicky dryer. You know have the lightbulb in it where it can get nice and dry without rolling the eggs in the hatcher around. But i'd have to put a bowl of rice in it to keep the moisture down. I'm in washington. The humidity in the air outside today is 70% in the house i manage to keep it at 40 to 50% that is as low as i can get the humidity in my house.

 

[SilkieSensation]

Humidity in anything "open air" is not an issue. Just keep the temp up & babies will dry fine. I use 1 bator as a hatcher when possible & just rotate eggs to it at lockdown. Once babies hatch I pull them & plop them in a "nursery" brooder away from older more rambunctious chicks to finish drying & get their feet under them before going in with the older chicks. Even if there is only a day or 2 difference in age it makes a big difference in mobility for the chicks & newly hatched babies tend to get trampled. I currently have 3 brooders going with different age babies in each & move babies as they grow to keep everyone in each brooder as close in weight as possible to avoid suffocated chicks if they get cold & make a "chick pile" to keep warm. I have over 70 babies right now with another 170+ ordered for mid March & 2 bators full of eggs cooking. The quail get a plastic dresser drawer for the 1st week until they start jumping out. Once they begin jumping out I know they are agile enough to go in with my smallest chicks & avoid being squished. Right now I have a 6 week age span from oldest to youngest in the 3 brooders, quail & broad breasted turkey poults mixed right in with pullets & broilers. I simply put the biggest birds in the biggest brooder, smallest in the smallest & the medium babies in the medium brooder. We have some grow-out pens to make in the basement in the next week or 2 to make room for the next big shipment & coops to get set back up outside so I can move my adult birds out of the basement since I moved over Christmas & weather hasn't cooperated real well with coop construction so far. A new quail pen is on the "to do list" as well for this week.

 

[Sweetlilbaby]

I have two totes ready even though i'm not even a week into incubating. The lights aren't turned on. But i keep some ready anyway just in case I hear that someone near me bought to many chicks and they need a home. I figured one to dry off and one with food and water set up for chicks that are up moving around and fluffy.

My god i'm i've already got half the room filled with incubator and brooders.. starting to think i should rip up the carpet put down hard wood and line it with tarps spread sawdust and put small fences as seperators and keep the room at 80 degrees LOL. Just have a whole bedroom as a brooder.

 

[grannychicken54]

Hatching is wonderful I started with 12 chicks from feed store 2 years ago and then the hens went broody and then another one and then I found all these beautiful different breeds I just had to have and now I cant stop its so much fun. I have coop full of chickens and eggs ordered to but in the incubators and two little ones in our spare bedroom .

 

[SilkieSensation]

I have two totes ready even though i'm not even a week into incubating. The lights aren't turned on. But i keep some ready anyway just in case I hear that someone near me bought to many chicks and they need a home. I figured one to dry off and one with food and water set up for chicks that are up moving around and fluffy.

My god i'm i've already got half the room filled with incubator and brooders.. starting to think i should rip up the carpet put down hard wood and line it with tarps spread sawdust and put small fences as seperators and keep the room at 80 degrees LOL. Just have a whole bedroom as a brooder.

My basement is about to have 1 room turned almost entirely into a brooder for my broilers. Plastic going down on the floor, cover with shavings, small fence to make the 4th wall, add little fat birdies, food, water & heat.

 

[Little Wing]

Well I did it again. Yesterday My DW came and got me and told me to check the incubator that chicks were hatching. Came in and found four sitting in the turner cups and three or four more pipped. The hatcher JUST HAPPENED to be on and hot but not up to humidity so I splashed some water on the walls and put the remaining 12 eggs in there and the four hatched ones in the brooder. Today I have five more hatched and three zipping. According to my hatch calender lockdown was today but I guess I got confused somewhere along the line. But just like last time they seem fine, just a little dizzy from being on the turner until they hatched.

 

[SilkieSensation]

Well I did it again. Yesterday My DW came and got me and told me to check the incubator that chicks were hatching. Came in and found four sitting in the turner cups and three or four more pipped. The hatcher JUST HAPPENED to be on and hot but not up to humidity so I splashed some water on the walls and put the remaining 12 eggs in there and the four hatched ones in the brooder. Today I have five more hatched and three zipping. According to my hatch calender lockdown was today but I guess I got confused somewhere along the line. But just like last time they seem fine, just a little dizzy from being on the turner until they hatched.

The benefits of turning by hand shown once again...lol I've gone to turn many times & discovered early hatchers or eggs I forgot to put in lockdown. Luckily all I had to do was leave them alone & plop the lid back on or move them to the bator I use for hatching real quick.

 

[rosemi78]

My 11 babies go into lockdown this evening. I'm so nervous and scared that I'm not sure I'm going to sleep until this is all said and done... The fun part, though, is that they're due to hatch on my birthday.

Best gift I could ask for would be some healthy little chicks that I help bring to life.

 

[Runawaylobster]

Ok, I couldn't stand it after pulling the 4 clears out so I took another very quick peek at the remaining 3. They all had movement going on!!! Woohooo!!!
I didn't even bother to look at the marans so who knows what's going on in there...

 

[Little Wing]

My basement is about to have 1 room turned almost entirely into a brooder for my broilers. Plastic going down on the floor, cover with shavings, small fence to make the 4th wall, add little fat birdies, food, water & heat.

"add little fat birdies, food, water and heat" Sounds like a recipe for soup. lol

The benefits of turning by hand shown once again...lol I've gone to turn many times & discovered early hatchers or eggs I forgot to put in lockdown. Luckily all I had to do was leave them alone & plop the lid back on or move them to the bator I use for hatching real quick.

Yep, that's one reason I have a separate cooler/hatcher so I don't have to change humidity in the incubator and can have staggered hatches. It works out OK until one explodes or you have some hatch out in there, then you have to clean it. I like the turner because it keeps them in order AND I forget to turn them. They really didn't seem to mind, they just found an empty cup and sat in it.

My 11 babies go into lockdown this evening. I'm so nervous and scared that I'm not sure I'm going to sleep until this is all said and done... The fun part, though, is that they're due to hatch on my birthday.

Best gift I could ask for would be some healthy little chicks that I help bring to life.

It is like you.are bringing something to life that wouldn't have been without you.

What a cool B-Day present. Did you plan it that way? Good Luck!