I don't quite work on the scale that Grannie does but usually hatch from 24 to 6 eggs at a time. I usually hatch in March and I just transfer my chicks straight from the incubator to a brooder in a shed with a heat lamp as soon as they are dry and strong enough to stand. It's best to have two lamps running if you can in case one bulb goes which can happen of course. I usually get them to drink and eat chick crumbs after 24 to 36 hrs after hatching and have had no difficulty teaching them. Tapping your finger on the food to imitate the pecking motion and dipping their beeks in the water is usually all that is required.
I use shavings from the off and have a plywood board with a fine 6mm weldmesh stapled to it which prevents them slipping. I just put the crumbs directly on that to start with and a very shallow saucer with water. You can use a jam jar lid to start them but once they've taken their first sips on day one I use a chick drinker. This has a small trough but is otherwise like a very small chicken drinker. Some people use dishes with marbles in it to prevent them drowning but I don't like to do this as they paddle about in it if it's too big and get wet and foul it.
Once they've learnt to eat and that's usually only after day one in the brooder I use a long small plastic feeder trough which has a compartmented lid which prevents them scratching the crumbs out. As soon as one learns the others follow quickly. I put the drinker and feeder on a plywood board as described earlier and slowly raise it up on wood/bricks as they grow so their backs are always below the lips to prevent them fouling the food and water with droppings. The board being raised prevents them scratching shavings into their feed and water.
Below are photos from several hatchings at different times
Hatchlings in a Brinsea Octagon DX20 (note egg dividers should really have been removed at day 18 when turning is stopped before they hatched).
Here they are immediately after being transfered to the brooder note drinker and thermometer - adjust lamp so it's around 37degC at 5cm above litter directly under lamp
Day old Vorwerks and modern game
This is what the brooder looks like. Made from melamine wardrobe doors. Here the litter is Hemcore.
At 3 and a half weeks old. Note two lamps being used. Chicks are Barnevelders, Light & Buff Sussex, Speckled Sussex and Vorwerks.
In Summer I generally put them out on grass in a covered run at 6 weeks and ween them over to growers pellets. I let them free range from 8 to 10 weeks and ad lib growers and a small handful of corn in the evening.
Once hatched I've never lost a chick of the hundred or so I've hatched in the past 5 years.
HF
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April 24, 2012, 18:08