What in the World is a Hatcher?

What in the World is a hatcher?

A hatcher is just an incubator that is specifically for hatching (the last 3 days).  If you have a large incubator you might be temped to put a dozen eggs one week, then another dozen the next week and another the next week.  (This is what I do in peak hatching season.)  Well, if you have staggered hatches like this it is very difficult to raise the humidity for the eggs due to hatch that week and not have it too high for the eggs that are still on days 1-18.  So the solution is to have a smaller incubator that is used only for hatching only and that is what a hatcher is!  Only crazy chicken people like me are going to need two incubators to hatch chicken eggs!  te he  Only die-hards or professionals have both.  My hatcher is my very first incubator. (below)

This is an incubator plan out of a chicken book.  It was given to me, I kept adding to it to improve it's performance, then finally made a larger one and demoted this to my hatcher.  (I have a sweatshirt on top to insulate it until I got a piece of pink board cut out.  The top is plexi-glass and lets a lot of heat escape.)