Getting Ready For Chick Season / Chicks For Sale

It's that time of year again, hatching season!  It's a hectic busy time but I'm looking forward to it. We've had December, January and February to rest up and get ready to hit the ground running once again.  Before we hatch the first chick of the season there's work to be done to insure that we hatch the healthiest chicks possible.

The first place we begin is in the incubators and hatchers.  The photo to the left is one of the hatchers, we have three of this size and two large incubators twice the size of the hatchers.  We clean them all thoroughly and then a disinfectant is sprayed on and left to dry.  One of the worst possible things you can do to chicks that are hatching, is to let them hatch in a unclean hatcher or incubator.  The problem with this is, the newly hatched chick has an umbilical cord that disconnects from the egg sack just as it hatches and the abdomen can be slightly open at hatch time, once the chick dries off it seals up and you don't see that.  If you hatch them in a dirty hatcher or incubator the chick can get an infection in the abdomen, it might not kill the chick at that time but they will be birds that never thrive and are always unhealthy and unproductive.

The next place the chicks go once they're hatched is into the brooder house.  We have two stacking brooders in here.  Larry has disassembled the brooders, washed the brooders house walls and floors and sprayed with a disinfectant.

Power washing the stack able brooders.

Once the brooders are thoroughly  washed he sprays them with the disinfectant and allows them to dry completely.

Once the brooders are competently dry and the heaters are running, the babies are ready to move into the brooders and another busy chick season begins.

We are still taking chick and started  young pullet orders at this time.  We are not shipping the chicks yet, we won't start shipping until we see warmer weather.  Our egg production is still very low at this time but the girls should be kicking it into high gear as soon as they see some steady warmer weather.  Our temps have been on a roller coaster ride in our area this has the hens a bit unpredictable with the laying.
If your interested in placing a chick order head over to the website http://www.chickenscratchpoultry.com/
Hope you have a blessed day!
Angie