To produce chicks from hatching eggs, these hatching eggs are incubated(during the setting stage), after which theyare incubated and hatched (during the hatching stage) in a hatcher incubator(1). After hatching, the chicks are taken out of the hatcherincubator (1), after which chicks of lesser quality are screened out and theremaining chicks are placed in transport containers withwhich they are transferred to a poultry barn where they are first given waterand feed. During the first week in the barn, a numberof chicks are lost, where when the loss rate exceeds a certain value,treatment with antibiotics is usually applied. According to theinvention, at least during a final stage of the further incubation andhatching of the eggs in the hatcher incubator, an active amount of apheromone composition with the appeasing effect of the mother hen pheromone isprovided in the air in the hatcher incubator. In thisway, the loss rate during the first week and thus the number of antibiotictreatments can be reduced. The pheromone composition ispreferably applied in the hatcher incubator (1) at a specific height in theform of a formulation (7).
