I've seen some plans and youtube vids of converted freezers made into incubators. Just a thought.
I went to have a look round a friends pheasant rearing farm a few months ago. He rears around 60,000 each season. I found myself thinking that if it he can do it with pheasants why not scale up my bird breeding a bit?
(Not to sixty thousand but up from batches of 10-40).
I'll be interested to see what others suggest in this thread. These are my thoughts, sorry it's a bit rambling.
I had a look around a lovely set up a few years ago. For the brooder space, I think they were about the same size as mine; 6x3ft. On wire mesh. I was told that it's the brooder hood size rather than bulb strength that dictates number of chicks, so she had made big flat hood extensions for her heat lamps out of thin metal sheeting to allow more to fit under. More like electric hen style. She said crushing was a problem with large broods and that when they handled them, (eg. Catching to move into larger pen) they had to expect some casualties and deaths, just because they pile into the corners on top of each other. This would be unacceptable for me at the moment.
I think these were broods of something like 100 chicks. My largest brood has been about 40. This was a big but manageable size for me. I have a 42 egg incubator, but if I switch off the roller mechanism and block up gaps at the sides and remove separator bars I can fit in more. This allows me to start 54-60 hand turning. Candle around day4-5, remove clears, etc and continue with proper set up.
Could you cram in more into your incubators at first and try to end up with 40 good eggs? And hopefully around 35 chicks? Six batches to get your 200.
Someone on here said that they mix age groups, and I've done the same. Once they go outside, I provide two houses, but in one big pen. Smaller chicks inside an inner cage for a couple of days, then all together and after a wee while, all sleeping together. There are some scuffles but not had any damage done. So how about three pens each taking two age cohorts? I cull unwanted males as they become apparent to keep the numbers down. My big pen is something like 8 by 10m with a low wall and trees for entertainment.