Cackle hatchery's Hatchery Surprise- Anybody got this before?

[jc12551]

Mine ships out 3/10. I can't wait! This is the first time I've ordered chicks online.

Woohoo! so excited for you

I got my ship notices yesterday. My surprise ships on June 2 and my regular order (10 Spitzhaubens, 5 EEs, and 15 cochin bantams) ships 4/22. I was totally bummed by the April ship date. I told them I would order more bantams if they could fulfill the other chicks earlier but otherwise I wanted them the first of April. But the end of April is the soonest they can do the Spitzhaubens

Its ok though, because I have 7 week old TSC chicks in one half of the brooder, 9 silkies from Heirloom Orpingtons in the other side, 6 silkies from Heirloom Orpingtons in the grow out pen, and I have agreed to buy a sex link breeding pen and olive egger breeding pen from them. Hubby better start building lol

 

[CGinJCMO]

Getting ready !!

Love it. Where do you have the heat lamp (or other heat source)? Looks like something I need to build.

CG

 

[Serenity30]

Love it. Where do you have the heat lamp (or other heat source)? Looks like something I need to build.

CG

we will have heat domes on the top towards the back where we have the screen and Thank you !!!

*Update on our Brooder*

(Puppy pads with odor control under our shavings to
help with of course odor and droppings)

 

[mnhomestead]

Getting ready !!

Love the look of your brooder! What are the dimensions and how many chicks do you think you'll be able to fit?

Thinking about ordering a surprise pack myself!

 

[elibar90]

I just ordered mine!!!!

 

[Serenity30]

Love the look of your brooder! What are the dimensions and how many chicks do you think you'll be able to fit?

Thinking about ordering a surprise pack myself!

4ft wide/3ft deep/14in high/3ft total height. My husband figures around 80 to 100 chicks depending if we get water fowl. Water fowl we going to setup in a different area.

We might be making another one identical to this one, considering we have 2 hatchery surprises 1 week apart.

 

[SlipsWife]

4ft wide/3ft deep/14in high/3ft total height. My husband figures around 80 to 100 chicks depending if we get water fowl. Water fowl we going to setup in a different area.

We might be making another one identical to this one, considering we have 2 hatchery surprises 1 week apart.

We had a brooder about the same size and after a couple of weeks, 50 chicks got to be way to many, I can't imagine 80/100 in that small of an area. I think I read somewhere that they need about .5 sq ft per chick for the first 4 weeks? So for a 4x3, 12 sq foot brooder it should be good for 24 chicks? I could be totally off and if you've brooded in an area that size with that many chicks before then ignore me! lol We've already kicked ours out into a grow out pen at 1 1/2-3 weeks old. Of course they have power in numbers for warmth and there's a cold front coming in tomorrow so we might need to supplement heat for a night or two but they are NOT coming back in...

ETA: I just figured up how many we had in our brooder and it was 36 standards and 4 bantams, we had the others (roosters) in another brooder. It was less than 2 weeks and we knew they needed to get outside or have a larger brooder.

 

[Serenity30]

They go outside in grow out pens at 2 weeks old. Only thing going in there is chicken (chicks). Our water fowl if any are going in another brooder we have.

 

[SlipsWife]

They go outside in grow out pens at 2 weeks old. Only thing going in there is chicken (chicks). Our water fowl if any are going in another brooder we have.

I knew you knew what you're doing!

2 weeks is my new 'go outside' age for any group numbers over 10. Even then they will probably be outside at 2 weeks unless they are really, really, really cute bantams...lol Next year I'm going to hold off (don't tell my husband he was right!) until mid-March or so. The 1-2 night sever cold fronts are causing more problems with the moving out process.

 

[Serenity30]

Today is Ship Day for our first Hatchery Surprise of 2014.

Tending to things around the house and refreshing my email for my tracking number.
I also have over a dozen Black/Blue Copper Maran Hatching eggs being shipped today !!