As they say, past performance is no guarantee of future results and now I'm bracing myself for the consequences. Up to this point I've had pretty abysmal luck hatching coturnix quail, which I'm actually fine with since my aim's always been to have 5-10 birds at most.
Batch #1: Only 3 out of 20 eggs hatched, with 2 chicks surviving. One had to be dispatched for being male, so I ordered more eggs from the hatchery to raise some buddies for my lone female.
Batch #2: Another super low hatch rate with 2 out of 20 hatching, putting me at 3 birds total now. Knowing there was a 25% chance both chicks could turn out to be male, I immediately got started on a third batch just in case.
Batch #3: In my naivety - despite ordering from a different hatchery and recalibrating the incubator temperature - I assumed I'd get similar results, especially since the mailman left the box outside for who knows how many hours in <30 degree weather before I realized they'd been delivered. But of course, while prepping the incubator for lockdown today I candled the eggs and panicked to find there's a decent chance I'm going to end up with 10-13 chicks in 3 days.
I have no idea if I'm prepared to support that many babies. My brooder is 20"x14"x12" and claims to comfortably house 10-15 chicken chicks, but I'm really worried they're going to be packed in like sardines before they're feathered enough to move to the 9sqft rabbit hutch. I also don't have anywhere to put a second brooder that's easily accessible to me, but not my 4 cats.
Of course, for all I know none of the eggs could hatch, but in the event that many do and survive my main questions are:
Batch #1: Only 3 out of 20 eggs hatched, with 2 chicks surviving. One had to be dispatched for being male, so I ordered more eggs from the hatchery to raise some buddies for my lone female.
Batch #2: Another super low hatch rate with 2 out of 20 hatching, putting me at 3 birds total now. Knowing there was a 25% chance both chicks could turn out to be male, I immediately got started on a third batch just in case.
Batch #3: In my naivety - despite ordering from a different hatchery and recalibrating the incubator temperature - I assumed I'd get similar results, especially since the mailman left the box outside for who knows how many hours in <30 degree weather before I realized they'd been delivered. But of course, while prepping the incubator for lockdown today I candled the eggs and panicked to find there's a decent chance I'm going to end up with 10-13 chicks in 3 days.
I have no idea if I'm prepared to support that many babies. My brooder is 20"x14"x12" and claims to comfortably house 10-15 chicken chicks, but I'm really worried they're going to be packed in like sardines before they're feathered enough to move to the 9sqft rabbit hutch. I also don't have anywhere to put a second brooder that's easily accessible to me, but not my 4 cats.
Of course, for all I know none of the eggs could hatch, but in the event that many do and survive my main questions are:
- Is my brooder actually big enough to handle up to 15 chicks until they're fully feathered like it claims?
- Any tips for the literal shitstorm that many chicks are going to create? Even with just 2 it was poop...poop everywhere...poop for days, so the thought of 10-15 in there makes me wonder if I should invest in a hazmat suit.
- Is something like putting half in the brooder, and half in the rabbit hutch with a heating plate a valid option?
- Absolute worst case, is this a situation where I should emotionally prepare myself to cull newborn chicks?