Hatching FAQ

EASY, MEDIUM, AND HARD

Picking the right species

Nobody ever said that hatching quail would be easy

We have graded our various poultry species with Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulties. Choosing the right type of bird to incubate might be compelled by your availability, the age of your students, and your experience with hatching chicks.

Chickens are the easiest and there are very few problems you might encounter. They are hardy, medium sized, have a low mortality, and more often than not if an egg zippers you will eventually see a chick emerge from the shell. They can eat and drink well, do not need any special considerations, and the process is usually seamless.

Quail are assigned a medium difficulty and most of that is due to their higher mortality. It may be disturbing for young kids to see a quail laying deceased in its water dish or under the heat plate - and it's not always much better for the teacher if they don't have experience with livestock mortality. Quail are notorious for discovering new and novel ways to unalive themselves and each other, and though it is part and parcel of hatching their eggs, it might be something that you would prefer to avoid. Quail chicks also have a tendency to drown, which is why the water dish provided is so small. The down side of the water dish size is the need to refill it. If you chose quail you may be needed during the weekend to provide them with fresh water, but with the schedule that would only occur on one weekend before the chicks are collected.

Turkey eggs are sometimes available as well and we assigned the difficulty of "hard" for them, and it's almost entirely due to their higher likelihood to explode in the incubator. Close monitoring of the eggs can prevent that, but if it does occur it can have a much worse impact on a classroom than mortalities. The foul odor from an egg that has exploded can hardly be described - but it's something that anyone would opt to avoid. You can take our word for it. In the event an egg explodes that requires an emergency equipment and egg recovery, and the program is terminated. The remainder of the eggs are no longer considered viable and the incubator has to be completely disassembled and sterilized as soon as possible.

CHICK MORTALITY

The cycle of life

What to do with a chick who doesn't survive

We ask that everything that is not consumed by the chicks is returned to us. That includes eggs that don't hatch, eggs that partially hatch, and chicks who do not survive. The best course of action when dealing with chick mortality is to place them in a ziplock bag and put them in a freezer. You can wrap it in paper towel, double or triple bag it, or place it in another container if discretion is required. If freezing the chick is not an option then please call us so we can decide the next course of action, which might mean recovering the chick immediately. 

Chicks and eggs are not just assets - they may also be proprietary breeds or lineages. Though we generally don't provide eggs that are essentially intellectual property as well as assets to our farm, it could happen. Quail phenotypes that are useful for instruction may also take a long time to breed and chicken varieties sometimes cost hundreds of dollars for a single individual breeder. Our turkeys are a rare heritage breed, in fact Canada's only heritage breed, and we have a lot of investment into the lineages we have acquired.

As breeders we have poured time, energy, and literally tens of thousands of dollars into our breeding programs, from unique feather-footed black chickens with fibromelanosis, to pure bred Zombie chickens derived from selectively bred Hmong chickens. With this in mind, participants to our program are liable for returning the assets to us regardless of whether they survive or become deceased. Even eggs that do not hatch need to be inspected to determine the cause and to track any fertility and hatching issues.

CONTRACT

You are responsible

We require every participant to sign a simple contract

We are not lawyers and our contracts reflect our casual approach at agreements. Simple language, short and concise, no legalese. Participants agree they are responsible for all assets. Eggs, chicks, and all equipment that isn't a consumable will be returned in good condition. The participant is responsible for any equipment damaged and at the time the chicks are collected a checklist is made and signed by Pips Farm and the participant.

"Good condition" means the incubator is covered in chick stuff, caked on, there's something growing in the bottles, the incubator dome is so filthy it needs to be disassembled to be cleaned, some disgusting material has been cooked into the incubator base, the heat plate is caked with guano, and the feed and water dishes were also used regularly as toilets. Hatching makes a mess - we know that.

"Bad condition" means the equipment has to be replaced, no question, and other classrooms who are waiting for the equipment to be available will miss out. It has to be reordered.

Fact is we won't sweat the small stuff.

DEBRIS IN FEED AND WATER

They are messy little things

Be sure to clear any wood shavings from dishes

You will want a waste bin of some kind nearby to be able to dispose of the wood shavings that will inevitably collect in the food and water dishes. Dry shavings in a food dish can often be brushed out of the dish and back into the brooder, but once water dishes have wood shaving debris in them it should be discarded in the trash. Wet shavings can get your chicks damp which can be deterimental.

PASTY BUTT

Giving chicks a clean

Just make sure it isn't the umbilical cord

Now and then a chick will accumulate feces around their vent, and an accumulation of feces can cause problems. Monitor the vent area of the chicks once a day for debris - it should be clear if there is fecal matter stuck to the downy feathers. If the chickens do have "pasty butt" prepare a shallow dish with warm water - just a bit warmer than your own hand temperature - and submerge the vent area in the water for some seconds. Using a paper towel the fecal matter should easily come off, and if it is persistent soak it further.

This comes with an important caveat however - sometimes the umbilical cord can be stuck near the vent and appear like fecal matter. Any attempt to remove the umbilical cord could result in a mortality, so look closely.

Feces will be a blot, a chunk, and it will clearly accumulate around the vent. An umbilical cord often resembles a dried worm, it is longer and thinner, and originates at and extends from the vent. An umbilical cord should be left alone.