Hatching Time - Chicken Grow out Pen, Layer Addition, 15" tall *REVIEW*

Hatching Time – 15 Inch Units (Brooder, Grow Out & Nesting)

Rating: ★★★★

Recommended: Yes

Pros –

Easy to pressure wash and clean out

Easy clean poop trays

Great for someone who is unable to build something

Fairly easy to put together

Great customer support

Every individual part can be purchased on company website

Cons –

Watering nipples

Water storage tank is too shallow

Food trough can separate and cause gap

No food trough cover

Directions are not enough, online videos need to be watched

My Experience

Water Storage (for single and double layer units) - The storage tank has a large footprint but it’s only a couple inches tall so it’s very shallow.  This is a terrible design for a gravity fed system!  A significant amount of water is below the gravity spout.  It needs to have a smaller footprint with a taller tank so the water does not run out so fast.  The 3-layer plus units come with a larger tank and can be purchased separately.  That larger tank should just be standard for all units.  You can make your own for much less money too.

Water, Vertical Nipples – I prefer the horizontal nipples instead of vertical.

Food Cover – I love the food cover on Quail units and wish the Chicken units had them too!

Food Tray/Trough – You need to check it frequently to make sure it’s snugged up against the cage.  We didn’t notice a little gap between food trough and cage until we saw baby chicks running around outside the cage.  Again, they were too cold for too long and not all survived. It only happed once but it’s something to note.  I now check it everyday.  If it happends again, we’ll drill holes in trough and cage to tie them together like we did with the covers.

Size of Food Trough – I learned the hard way that the trough size is specific to the cage height.  I have 9.5 inch units and a 15 inch unit.  They are Not interchangeable, which I think they should be or be a different color.  I accidentally broke the trough holder on my 9.5 inch cage when trying to put the 15 inch feed trough on it.  They look almost identical.  It was very frustrating. I then put all my feed trays side by side and noticed there’s a size difference.  My mistake and I now know but it was an irritating lesson to learn.

Overall

With all that said, I do still recommend the Hatching Time cages. I give it three out of five stars. I just wish I knew all the above prior to purchase so I could be prepared for the potential issues.  I hope my review saves you all the frustration I went through. We only use the Hatching Time cages for Brooders and Quarantine units, not as housing. This is because I’m personally not a fan of raising the birds indoors.  Our birds go from the brooder to an outdoor mobile tractor cage.