The whole process actually starts before we even incubate our hatching eggs. It begins with the nesting box. If you provide a clean nesting box for your hens, you will not have dirty eggs. But my hens like to sleep in their box, and we all know they poop while they sleep.. I promise if your nesting box is lower than your roosting bars (our nesting boxes and roosts are at minimum 12" apart vertically), they will no longer sleep in their box (unless they are broody.. but that's a whole different story). It's also important to collect eggs daily. If the temperatures outside are extreme (cold or hot), we collect several times a day.
Once collected, they are put in an egg turner that is kept on a shelf in our chick room. We do NOT clean our eggs. If the eggs are scrubbed, there's a high risk of destroying the bloom, which is essential for a healthy chick. (The bloom acts as a protective force field to keep out any bad bacteria.) It's better to have a slightly dirty egg than one without a bloom. If the egg is really dirty, don't set it at all.
The eggs are kept in the turner until we are ready to put them in the incubator (never longer than 10 days, which is when vitality starts to decline). Next, we label the top (big rounded side of the egg) with an initial for their color/breed along with the number for what batch we are on. So if we have a English Orpington egg and it's our 4th batch of eggs to incubate, the top will read EO B4. It doesn't really matter what method you use for labeling, just as long as you know what the egg is. Labeling this way makes it possible for us to stagger our hatches and not get confused on hatch dates. Staggering is when you set one batch of eggs one week and then another batch the following week, etc. instead of waiting for one batch to finish before starting another one. This is how we are able to have new chicks hatching on a weekly basis.
We use the dry method (no water added for the first 18 days with the humidity between 25% - 40%) and set our incubators to 99.5 degrees. They also have circulated air and automatic turners. Once our eggs are set, we leave them alone until we candle them at 7 days, 14 days, and 18 days to track their progress. I typically can use the flashlight on my phone to candle. If I find one is not growing or has stopped progressing, it is immediately tossed. We don't chance exploding eggs. It's better to accidentally toss out one good egg, than accidentally keep one bad egg and lose the whole batch. Just trust me on this one.
On day 18, the eggs are moved to the hatcher (which is an incubator we keep specifically at 55-65% humidity for the last 3-5 days of the incubation process). They are laid on their side and left alone (no more turning) so that the chicks can get into position to hatch. Having a hatcher not only helps keep a stable humidity, but also makes it easier to clean just one incubator instead of all of them. The typical time frame for the babies to hatch is 21 days, but sometimes it can take up to 25 days, depending on how your temperature fluctuated during the incubation process.. and some chicks just decide they want to be fashionably late! I've also found the bantam breeds tend to hatch more quickly than our large fowl. We leave our hatcher CLOSED until day 22 or 23, even if the little peeps are tempting us to take them out. Never take the chance of losing chicks in the process of hatching to shrink wrap just because you are excited to see what has hatched so far. Don't worry about them eating/drinking immediately after hatching. Chicks can survive 3 days without food/water after they've hatched, if they've absorbed all their yolk.
For chicks that are struggling to hatch on their own, we evaluate each one on a situational basis before deciding whether to assist hatching or let mother nature take her course. If part of the egg membrane has simply dried on part of the chick, we gently assist it with hatching (because 9 times out of 10 this is a humidity issue and not the chick's fault) by using coconut oil to re-hydrate the membrane. If the chick isn't strong enough to break through, we let mother nature decide its fate. When we first started hatching chicks, we helped all that struggled. Unfortunately, the weak chicks always failed to thrive and ended up dying anyways. As cruel as it may seem, we no longer help these chicks due to not wanting to prolong their suffering. Focusing on the healthy chicks has also benefited our breeding program. We have seen less and less chicks struggle with hatching as the years have gone by.
Once the chicks have fluffed up and we have reached day 22/23, they are moved to our chick dreamhouse (our multi level chick brooder). If we notice a chick is having a hard time fluffing up, we run warm water and take a small soft toothbrush with a drop of dish soap on it, and give the baby a gentle bath. If you attempt this at home, please be careful to keep the baby's head out of the water as they can drown VERY easily. We typically hold the chick the entire time and use one hand to bathe it. It's also VERY important not to let the chick get chilled. A cold chick = a sick chick. Once it's done bathing, you can pat it dry with a soft towel and use a hair dryer to fluff it up. Again, if you attempt this at home, be careful not to burn it's delicate skin.
When placing the chicks in the chick dreamhouse, we introduce each chick to their water by clicking the water nipple with its beak and show them their food by tapping on the feeder - usually they catch on really quickly. For the first 3-4 days, we keep a close eye on them to make sure they learn to eat/drink correctly and are healthy, strong chicks. We also watch for spraddle leg, pasty butt, and other signs that they may not be thriving.
Once they feather out, they are moved to our outdoor pen, which is a 10' x 10' chain link pen with hardware cloth added to it. I feel like this is what makes our chicks so social. They are able to observe the big world around them, while being in a safe environment. This also allows the bigger chickens to see them and accept them as part of the flock, without risking injury to the little ones. And that's the basics of how we raise our chicks! If you have any questions or any suggestions for another post, please feel free to utilize our chat!!
Comments