Week #12 - How to do well with chicks!

Hail Caesar!

If you've come here for dating advice, I apologize if my title misleads... While lately we've had some success with chicks, they have only been of the feathered variety! 

This past summer we ended up with an errant rooster mixed in with our layer chicks ordered from a local hatchery. As he grew, it became clear that indeed one of these things was not like the other and we separated him from the main flock. In the warmer months, Caesar, as he came to be known, ranged in the back field with six or seven of his favorite gals and over winter we gave him a corner of the coop known as Caesar's Palace. 

We mark each egg with its due date
 eg. Feb. 11th

In mid January we began collecting the Palace eggs and tucking them into our incubator. Consistent heat of 99-100F and humidity between 50-55% is needed to successful hatch chicks. They like an increase to 65% humidity within the last 3 days before hatching. We maintain humidity by adding water to the bottom of the incubator every day. While many incubators have automatic egg turners, we do ours 'old school' and turn them by hand 3-4 times a day. As this releases humidity and heat, you need to be quick and I often spray the incubator with a water mister at the same time. 

Our chicks began hatching in February (21 days later) and we've had a steady stream of chicks ever since. We are hoping that our hatching efforts will be enough to avoid purchasing hatchery chicks in April and ready to lay chickens in June.... a savings of over $700 not to mention the gas and time out to Russell, Manitoba during the busy planting season. 

We keep our chicks in a large aquarium with a heat lamp until they are a couple of weeks old and then move them to a large area with less heat until they are about 6-8 weeks and fully feathered enough to join the rest of the flock outside. 

Happy Easter! Welcome Spring! Wishing you success with chicks!