• Opening Hours
• Rehomes
• Chickenalia
• Weaners

Incubator Hire School

Have the excitement of watching chicks hatch at school. The exact day the chicks will hatch can be planned, so there two ways of sharing the excitement.You can either have an incubator for the whole 21 days it takes and egg to develop and hatch, or just have one for a week at the end of the development stage so that the eggs hatch almost immediately.

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 deliver the eggs and incubator 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 anticipate that younger age children will not want to wait 21 days for the chicks to hatch, so we offer the service 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. For classes that are sharing the incubation we offer a one week hire with two brooders as there will be a higher proportion of chicks. 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. This gives two classes the opportunity to have the chicks for the same cost.

Our incubators are especially chosen to give the maximum viewing space for the children. The wonderment and excitement of watching a chick hatch is magical for everyone, but children are often transfixed 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.

If you hire a brooder for a week or two it will need some care and attention as the chicks eat a lot and so poo a lot. The brooders are easy to clean and come with instructions.

Hook Farm School Incubator hire will supply:

INCUBATOR PACK

• • Incubator – fully automatic (Smart 20 or Rcom 20)
• • Candle Lamp
• • Fertile Chicken Eggs
• • Instruction sheet
• • Poster showing the development of a chick
• • Ideas for worksheets for KS1 and KS2
• • Support and advice if needed

COST OF HIRE

• 1. Incubator, candle lamp and eggs (any number up to incubator capacity): £200 for one week, £217 for three weeks.
• 2. Instruction sheet, ideas for worksheets 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 £10 per week. The incubator and brooder will be collected at the same time.
• 4. Two week incubator hire and two week brooder hire with 2 brooders is £227.

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.