Incubating chicks is all it’s cracked up to be
By Joan Janzen
Incubating chicks is becoming increasingly popular, especially among hobbyists. Kyla McCallum and her daughter Reese from Liebenthal have been using an incubator for a while now. Although it’s proved to be a learning experience, they have managed to achieve success. At the time of writing this article, they were on day four incubating approximately 60 eggs.
“We usually get the eggs that are underneath the hens because if the eggs are cold, they’re not as good. We know the routines of our hens and roosters and use fertilized eggs,” young Reese explained. At the age of nine years, she has acquired a wealth of knowledge regarding incubation. Although the incubator’s instructions recommended using 55 percent humidity at the beginning of the process, Kyla said they don’t add water to the incubator until the last three days before the chicks hatch.
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“It’s a learning process. Saskatchewan is a little more humid, and if the humidity in the room is high, there’s no point in making the humidity high in the incubator. It seems to work; we have up to a 90 percent success rate,” Kyla said. She said humidity is the biggest factor in incubating.
On day ten, Reese and her mom candle the eggs to see if they’re viable. Other than causing a bit of a drop in temperature, opening the incubator is not a problem. Before purchasing their present incubator, Kyla said they had tried making one but found there was too much fluctuation in the temperature loss and the humidity was too high.
They also placed two thermometers alongside the incubator’s thermometer since they noticed the incubator’s thermometer didn’t have good readings. This helped to keep the temperature consistent.
They have an automatic egg turner that rolls the eggs back and forth. This prevents the heat loss that would result if it was done manually.
It takes 21 to 23 days for regular chickens to hatch and 19 days for Silkies, which is one of the breeds the McCallums have on their acreage. “Silkies are good for pets for people who live in the cities; they look fancy,” Reese said.
Silkies are showcase birds that have what Kyla calls “pom pom poofs,” and their pink eggs are tiny but “delicious,” said Reese. “We’ve noticed the egg colour matches the colour of the chicken’s legs,” Kyla added.
When the chicks are getting ready to hatch, they can be heard chirping. Once the chickens have hatched, they leave them in the incubator for a day before being taken out. After that, they place them in a large container with a heat mat. The heat mat is an alternative to heat lamps and is safer and more effective. The heat can be adjusted on a heat mat, and the chickens can go under it. “Since we have used the heat mat, we have had zero losses because they all get heat,” Kyla said. “You wean them out of the heat mat by reducing the heat.”
Reese sold some of her chickens over the winter, but they also use them for meat. They have more specialty chickens because there are more towns and cities allowing people to have chickens on their property. They said people in the Medicine Hat area are often looking to purchase Silkies; many of those people have not had them before.
Silkies have thin feathers and need to be kept in heated coops. The McCallums found that insulating their coop made a huge difference. “Our chickens are spoiled, but they’re very happy birds and they are consistently laying eggs,” Kyla said. Most of the time they sell the eggs for incubating.
“Last year, we bought a dozen eggs from a farm near Didsbury. The eggs were two weeks old and stayed with us in several hotel rooms as we made our way to Westlock to pick up our new incubator and chickens,” Kyla recalled. Depending on the breed, day-old chicks can cost from $5 to $15 per chicken when purchased from a hatchery.
“Sometimes when we sell these breeds, one of the show breed chickens will sell for $40,” Kyla said. It’s apparent people value their show birds. As for Reese, she names each and every one of her birds. There’s Trapper, Mayo, Opal, Expresso, Copper, and so many more. Reese and her mom said they all have different personalities.
“There’s lots of people who are trying incubating and sharing and sending information about trying different things,” Kyla said. “Learning about it is a really good thing. We are constantly learning every day.”
“Yes, we’re learning every day,” Reese agreed.