Brinsea EcoGlow Safety 600 Manual De Instrucciones página 4

HD601 INT Issue 01
Caring for Newly Hatched Chicks
Poultry and waterfowl are tough and independent after they hatch but it is essential that basic
welfare is planned and ready before eggs hatch. The following advice is general and will apply to
most species of domestic poultry and waterfowl. It's mostly common sense but it is vital to make
sure chicks don't suffer due to lack of planning. If you breed more exotic species then you will
need to check their requirements specifically.
What to do With Newly Hatched Chicks
Don't be in a hurry to take chicks out of the incubator. Many birds, such as chickens, quail, and pheasants can survive for a
couple of days in the incubator without feed or water. The chicks will have taken nourishment from the yolk of the egg before
they hatched, this will sustain them until they fluff out, gain strength and become active enough to go out and find food. Ideally
chicks should be taken from the incubator after 24 hours. Make sure you have a suitable brooding box or pen ready for your
chicks with disposable bedding or newspaper. Chicks should not be put onto a smooth surface as this can cause splayed legs.
Keeping Chicks Warm
Chicks need to be kept warm after they have been removed from the incubator.
The Brinsea EcoGlow chick brooders are ideal for keeping newly hatched poultry,
game and waterfowl warm. The low voltage heater panels warm chicks directly and
are more economical and safer than infra-red lamps. A typical heat lamp runs at
250 watts compared with 12 to 50 watts consumption for the EcoGlow, depending
on size. When you consider that the brooder is on 24/7, this is an important saving.
These heaters have adjustable height to suit the size and age of your chicks. If you
are worried about whether your chicks are warm enough the best guide is their
behavior – huddled up under a heater suggests they need more warmth. Check for draughts (Brinsea's Chick Enclosure Panels
are great for preventing draughts), adjust the heater height down or get a bigger heater if necessary. As chicks grow they
become much more tolerant of cold conditions and adult birds need no supplementary heating at all.
Feeding Baby Chicks
As soon as your chicks have been moved from the incubator make sure that they have access to water and food to avoid
starvation and dehydration. Food and water should be available at all times. Using a specially prepared chick crumb takes
the worry out of feeding chicks as it is specially made to provide young chicks with all of the nutrients they need for growing.
Make sure that you use a specially designed drinker to avoid the risk of chicks drowning or catching a chill by falling into water. If
you do not have a drinker use a shallow water dish with marbles or clean pebbles set in the water - the chicks will drink in the
spaces between the marbles/pebbles. Do not let feed or water run out!
Cleaning Your Incubator
After hatching clean your incubator thoroughly. As incubators are warm and wet they are ideal breeding grounds for bacteria
and if they have been left with debris from the last hatch of last year they will harbour germs which are highly likely to damage
your next hatch. Use Brinsea Incubation Disinfectant which is both powerful and safe and has been specially formulated to kill
bacteria and fungi associated with birds and is available online from www.brinsea.co.uk. Leave the incubator parts to dry
thoroughly. If they are properly clean they should no longer have a strong odour. Please run your incubator for 24 hours to
ensure it is fully dried out before you store it.
Housing
Young chicks are extremely vulnerable to predators. They can be taken by rats, crows, cats, foxes, mink, etc. If they are in a barn
then make sure rats can't get to them and if they are outside (in warmer weather) check that they are protected from above by
netting as well as from the sides. At night rats and foxes will dig to get to birds so their night shelter must prevent this too. Foxes
are the main threat to adult birds and good quality housing and ensuring the birds are secure at dusk each day is essential to
minimise the risk.