To produce chicks from hatching eggs, these hatching eggs are incubated (during the setting stage), after which they are incubated and hatched (during the hatching stage) in a hatcher incubator (1). After hatching, the chicks are taken out of the hatcher incubator (1), after which chicks of lesser quality are screened out and the remaining chicks are placed in transport containers with which they are transferred to a poultry barn where they are first given water and feed. During the first week in the barn, a number of chicks are lost, where when the loss rate exceeds a certain value, treatment with antibiotics is usually applied. According to the invention, at least during a final stage of the further incubation and hatching of the eggs in the hatcher incubator, an active amount of a pheromone composition with the appeasing effect of the mother hen pheromone is provided in the air in the hatcher incubator. In this way, the loss rate during the first week and thus the number of antibiotic treatments can be reduced. The pheromone composition is preferably applied in the hatcher incubator (1) at a specific height in the form of a formulation (7).
