Contact Hook Farm

Hook Farm
London Road
Hook, Hampshire
RG27 9EQ

Click here for directions from Google Maps

Opening Hours

We are open weekdays in the evenings from 6.30pm. We are closed during the day from Mondays to Fridays.

On Saturdays we are open from 11am to dusk.

We are closed on SUNDAYS and BANK HOLIDAYS.

Boarding in and out is after 6.30 each weekday evening and after 11am on Saturdays.

Boarding

We have indoor and outdoor hutches for Rabbits and Guinea Pigs, just bring your pet and we do the rest. We even store your carry cage until your return.

Pets with their own portable cage such as Hamsters, Rats, Mice, Gerbils, Degus, Chinchilas, Budgies and Parrots come in their cages and live in the dining room. We can also accomodate chickens and reptiles (not together).

We provide all the food and bedding your pets need during their stay with us. Use the contact button at the bottom of the page to check availability.

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Incubators for Sale

We have ex-hire Smart incubators for sale. They are fully automatic and are in good working order. They are £100 each.

Cream Legbar Fertile Eggs

We have fertile Cream Legbar eggs for sale at £1 each. Email to check availability.

Testimonials

29th Sep 2009

Dear Alison,

Your book has been invaluable - I just read it and made a list of what we needed and could buy what we needed with confidence. So I just wanted to say a big thank you for opening up our world to chickens!

Sheridan Edwards

Home > Incubator Hire > Incubator Hire Care Home

Incubator Hire Care Home

Have the excitement of watching chicks hatch in the common room of your care home. The exact day the chicks will hatch can be planned, so you can have an incubator for a week at the end of the development stage and it will be just a few days before they hatch before your eyes. The anticpation of waiting for the eggs to hatch becomes a community activity and the excitement of the chicks hatching will captivate the residents and staff alike. Residents are often keen to tell of their childhood experiences with chickens and happy memories are disussed between friends.


Our incubators are fully automatic and only need regular topping up with water. They could not be easier to operate and look after. We will deliver and set up the incubator in the best location and ensure it is working before leaving you to start the adventure.

Chicken chicks take 21 days to develop and hatch. A couple of days before hatching the chicks often start to cheep. That is when the excitement starts. A day before they actually hatch, the chicks make a first crack in the shell. This is known as pipping. You will see the chick’s beak working, in short bursts, to make the hole bigger and ultimately break the shell open to enable it to struggle out. Within minutes the newly hatched chick will gain in strength before your eyes and start to dry out and fluff up. Within hours you will have a gorgeous fluffy chick making its way around the incubators and cheeping to encourage its siblings to take the plunge and join the world. The chicks need to completely dry out and fluff up before being removed, which takes about 24 hours.



We set the eggs on a Wednesday to hatch on a Wednesday three weeks later. Wednesday is chosen because the chicks will start cheeping and pipping on Monday or Tuesday, hatch on Wednesday, fluff up on Thursday and be ready for collection on Friday. We offer the service for care homes, of delivering the incubator and almost fully developed eggs on a Monday and collecting the incubator and chicks on the Friday of the same week. The eggs will be checked for development before they are delivered which increases the chance of hatching as unfertile, or undeveloped eggs will have been discarded.

Our incubators are especially chosen to give the maximum viewing space. The wonderment and excitement of watching a chick hatch is magical for everyone and a good view is essential. The incubators are completely self-contained, so there is no mess or smell to contend with. The chicks can be handled once they are dry and as they will not have had any hard food they will not be liable to do a poo unexpectedly. The last thing a chick does before hatching is to absorb the last of the yolk and so it has enough nourishment on board to last over 24 hours without food or water. As soon as they return to the farm on the Friday they are put into a brooder with a heat lamp and introduced to water and chick crumbs.

Hook Farm Care Home hire will supply:

INCUBATOR PACK

  • • Incubator – fully automatic (Smart 20 or Rcom 20)
  • • Fertile Chicken Eggs
  • • Instruction sheet
  • • Poster showing the development of a chick
  • • Support and advice if needed

COST OF HIRE

  • 1. Incubator, candle lamp and eggs (any number up to incubator capacity): £240 for one week, £260 for three weeks.
  • 2. Instruction sheet, poster and support are hired free of charge.
  • 3. If you want to keep the chicks to watch them develop, we can supply a brooder with incubator. The brooder will be supplied complete with enough chick crumbs for the period of hire. Brooder hire, for up to two, is £15 per week. The incubator and brooder will be collected at the same time.

Deposit required

  • 1. Incubator : £200
  • 2. The Brooder deposit will be covered by the incubator deposit.

The deposit can be paid by cash or cheque and will be returned in full upon the safe collection of the latter of the incubator or brooder.

DISCLAIMER

Whilst we make every effort to supply fertile eggs, there is no guarantee that all the eggs will hatch.

Contact Alison to check availability by clicking on the Contact button at the bottom of the page.