# Does anyone do Winter hatching?



## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

We don't have any chickens now, having just moved to a new place, but I am getting very excited to get some in. I know what I want, a few of the rarer breeds who take longer to lay, which I am hoping to get as hatching eggs. Ideally I would like to hatch them as soon as I can to give them a better chance of starting to lay their own eggs before next winter hits (and then they'll be a year old before they lay in the Spring!) 

Does anyone hatch out in the winter? How do you get the chicks used to the cold? Help would be appreciated (and yes, I know most people do not hatch in winter, though in some aspects this seems a good time to do so - when no one is asking for eggs or chicks to buy for themselves!)


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I hatched a lot during the Winter. There are two ways to do it, keep them in until they're fully feathered or set up your coop so that they can be brooded outside. 

Outside is a scary proposition because if power or lights burn out the chicks will die. Young chicks need to be fully feathered before lights are turned off, if its the dead of Winter they need warming stations to help maintain body temps. My old coop had individual pens, I hung bell lamps with 65W red spot lights from the wire sides about ten inches off the floor. But my chicks also had their hen if the light went out to get warm again.

When very young they do not have good body temp regulation and can not warm themselves back up if they get chilled.


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## nj2wv (Aug 27, 2013)

I have done it. I keep them in the house until they are fully feathered and a nice size. It's dryer so you have to watch and get your humidity higher. I do small batches so I have room to keep them.


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## Steadfast (Aug 20, 2014)

Yes I am winter hatching...

I had to wait until October before my fisrt generation of Cemanis started laying eggs... Those eggs are precious... the birds are even more so... 
I can not afford to miss a single egg hatch...

I've been building my Homemade trio hatching system all this year as I awaited the arrival of my first eggs... So far, my hatch rate is 85%

Here it is...

My big hand made Cooler Incubator is running 3 sets of 10-12 eggs, intoduced 7 days appart



I also have a Little Giant incubator, which I use for the last 3 day "lock down" hatching...
This way I have 2-3 days to clean and sterilize it between each 7 day set... it is smaller and easier to humidify up to the 60-75% needed. Bonus: When it gets too gross to clean anymore, I simply discard it and by a new one for $50.


It runs on a reliable chinese digital thermostate connected to and regulating the existing crappy Little Giant standard issue themostat (perminantly set on high) this keeps the heating coil from running red hot. Which would happen with the digital thermostat alone, hard wired directly into the heating coil.









My home made brewder is doing fine with the chick age mix so far...
It appears that cemani chicks are petty laid back...


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