A few of the chicks

Here's a picture of some of our chicks. We incubate them in the basement (constant temperature and humidity). We have two Little Giant incubators - one with an automatic turner that holds the eggs for about 18 days and another without an automatic turner that gets the eggs on day 18 or 19. The chicks hatch in the second incubator and then get moved to our brooder after 24 to 48 hours. We use a large galvanized stock tank lined with wood shavings for our brooder. We rarely lose a chick that makes it to the brooder, although we have been known to lose a few in the incubator - typically those that are the late hatchers. We don't hatch a lot of chicks, although we have been adding about 15 chicks (give or take a few) every three weeks. Additionally, we picked up 10 Rhode Island Red pullets on Friday at Family Farm and Home in Wayland. They had their chicks on sale for $1 each and although we probably don't need any more chicks, well - some new chicken blood in the flock might be a good idea. FYI - the green Lipton Tea cap in the picture is filled with chick feed on for the first day or two until the chicks get accustomed to using the chicken feeders.