How to HATCH CHICKS in a Homemade Incubator
Guide to chick raising, including homemade incubator designs and information on types of incubators, heat, humidity, ventilation and hatching.
March/April 1975
by Vikki & Ted Purve - Smith
Our start with chick tiny flock of ten pullets and a cockerel, obtained from a hatchery. The day-old chicks were carefully tended, kept warm and protected from drafts by a homemade brooder-a cardboard carton heated with a light bulb-in our empty guestroom for a few weeks. By the second week the babies' wings had developed and we discovered them flying around the room and alighting on various objects. We clipped their wingtips at that point, constructed a broiler house from miscellaneous scraps of wood and wire and-when they were sufficiently grown moved our birds to their outdoor quarters. Five months later we discovered our first egg, and gathered the fresh, fertile layings faithfully each day for many months afterward. By the end of each week during that period, always had at least a dozen extra for sale or gifts to friends. Meanwhile, meat prices were rising steadily and we began to consider keeping more chickens for slaughter. Then spring rolled around again, our neighbors began ordering new chicks from the hatchery and we discovered that the cost of day. old biddies had doubled in our area. That's when we decided to try hatching our own fertile eggs.
RELATED CONTENT
Raising chickens is illegal in some cities, but the urban farming movement across the country is ch...
Newly hatched chicks can survive about three days without food or water, so they can be shipped fro...
Guide to raising chickens, including recommend reading and how to give mini-coop birds a dusting ar...
Have an eco-friendly Easter by coloring eggs with plant-based dyes, or preparing eggs from 'Easter-...
There are dozens of reasons to keep a few hens in your back yard, including pest control and sheer ...
The only trouble with this idea was that all our boos manuals and brochures on poultry-raising told us to begin with day-old chicks. We could find no information on incubation ,4 the eggs not even under a broody hen. (A mature layer of one of the maternal-minded heavy breeds will manage the job quite nicely but she 71 pick her own time, and it probably won't be as early in the spring as you could wish if you're in hurry to establish a productive flock If your chickens are leghorns or one of the other light types, you 71 probably need an incubator in any case to compensate for their lack of motherly feeling.- MOTHER.)
Finally, after much searching, we turned up some help an several old, worn volumes. The rest of the information in this, article we learned for ourselves by building and operating our own incubator.
TYPES OF INCUBATORS
An incubators is a device that provides controlled conditions for the hatching of eggs. There are three basic types:
STILL-AIR. Still-air incubators are warmed by uncirculated radiant heat, and the placement of the eggs in relation to the heat source is critical. It's also just as important to locate the thermometer correctly. A wrongly positioned instrument will be inaccurate by several degrees enough to cause the failure of the hatch or the death of any chicks that do emerge The air must be flushed thoroughly from the apparatus at least four times a day (when the eggs are turned), to release the noxious gases that accumulate in the closed box.
Page: 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
Next >>
