What exactly do I need..

You'll need police clearance and a risk assessment form. Sorry - it's all mad.

That's all sorted already - I'm (or I was) a teacher, so keep up to date with my CRB - risk assessment has been done (I need to keep the vicious 9 week old kitten away, lol) .. it's now time to start planning the chicks

Avoid the Rcom, most people who I know have them have very little in the way of success with them.

To be fair all you need is a good basic reliable incubator and if you are looking at spending the sort of money that will buy you an Rcom then you would be much much better to buy a Brinsea, another good reliable alternative is a Novital Covatutto 24 Auto Turn.

We have and do use both Brinsea and Novital incubators here with exceptional success.

As for when they hatch, you need a source of heat and rearing in a shed I would suggest an infra red lamp. A chick drinker they can;t drown in and sufficient feeders.

If you are hoping for "visitors" then you really need to do risk assesment in which you must amongst other things give thought to bio security - both yours and your visitors. A foot dip tray is required with disinfectant before entering the shed and to avoid damage to shoes then you will need little slip on shoe covers - it only takes one person to get poo on their shoes and their parents to complain that you ruined their kids £35 lelli kelly's which just happen to be their favorite - trust me theres always one!!

You also need to provide hand washing facilities regardless of whether they handle chicks or not.

Also members of the public on site requires liability insurance, you are responsible for them whilst there even if supervised with parents/carers, if one gets ill or hurts themselves you are liable - even as an unregistered business - technically this is true even if you have kids to play for a birthday party or similar - any person on your property who gets injured can sue you and you ARE liable - even the postman delivering post can - its not likely that they will but the law is on their side! Not that i'm saying you need insurance for kids parties and friends to play but the world has gone mad!

These are the main reasons we do not allow visitors on site here as a general rule.

As for hadling chicks - care and supervision is required - chicks are delciate and kids have a tendancy to be a little heavy handed, supervising 1 child playing with chicks is hard I'd hate to do it with 10! They WILL get dropped. Chicks are not toys they are living things - you know this but try explaining this to a group of excited little kids! Sorry to be a grump but you really need to give this a lot of thought!

Thanks so much for the info... I will give it a lot more thought. I hadn't thought through all the public liability issues.. or sanitary needs.

Hmm.. Will consider again re the children coming, but will definitely be hatching some chicks for us. I've already found homes for any cockerals

Thank you.

It might be safer to take the chicks to the nursery when they are big enough. That way the liability/hygiene issues are their problem, not yours, and all you need to worry about is the welfare of the chicks, in transit and whilst being handled.

Good idea Hilary, all you need is to provide heat in transit - this can be done with hot water bottle or a heat pad (you know the sort you buy that have a chemical reaction and then you boil them to reactivate them!)

Our local school is hatching 12 eggs, provided by me, in an incubator hired by them, to be transferred to a brooder hired by them, in one of their classrooms. Staff members will be responsible for daily care (they have done this before and I can be contacted if there are any queries or problems) and when chicks are too big/they have had enough of them (!) I will bring them back to my place.

The children get to see the hatching process and enjoy having fluffy chicks in the classroom for a few weeks, and the school is responsible for all the health/hygiene stuff.