Incubating and Hatching Eggs

Incubating and Hatching Eggs

There are so many questions that newbies have when they want to start hatching eggs, either those they have purchased or those from their own flock. I know I had a ton of questions when I first started and I had to look to so many sources to find all of my answers. I am going to try and post as many of the FAQ and their answers here if I can. The format may be some question and answer and some just explanations. I hope you enjoy and please email me if you have a question I haven’t covered!

My hen has laid eggs that I want to hatch what do I need to do now?

First, it is best to collect your eggs as soon as possible, eggs that have been sitting in the nest box for several days are less likely to hatch than those collected daily. If it’s possible, collect your eggs twice a day, morning and afternoon.  You will only want to incubate clean, fresh eggs. Dirty eggs generally won’t hatch as the bacteria on the egg will go into the egg and kill the chick. You don’t want to wash the egg and then try to incubate it either. When you wash the egg you wash off the protective “bloom” and those eggs generally won’t hatch either. If you don’t get enough eggs in one day to fill your incubator then you can place your eggs in an egg carton, large end up. You can rotate these eggs 3 times a day until you have enough eggs collected to place them in your incubator.  These eggs can be kept on a counter at around 70°F for up to a week or 10 days at the most. To rotate them just place one of the ends of the egg carton higher than the other, then to rotate switch sides.

*Tip: I have learned through trial and error; if you are marking your eggs to know what hen/rooster/pen they came out of, mark on the large end of the egg right at the top. When your eggs hatch they will crack the shell all the way around the middle, so if you write on the sides of your eggs you won’t be able to tell what you wrote once they have hatched! Use a regular #2 pencil when marking your eggs.

I had eggs shipped to me, now what?

Unpack your eggs as soon as possible. Don’t let them sit out at your mailbox all day in the heat or cold. If at all possible arrange to pick your eggs up at the post office when they arrive.  Then you will want to place your eggs in an egg carton with the large end up for a few hours to let them settle. The eggs air cell can be damaged during shipping if they were handled rough and this gives the egg a chance to settle and everything go back into place. Some eggs can be salvaged and others are just too scrambled and won’t survive. Once your eggs have had a chance to settle you can load them into your incubator.

Shipped eggs can have a lot lower hatch rate than your own eggs because they are going to be a few days old already once you get them, plus you don’t know how rough of a journey they had getting to you.  Your shipper will do their best to package the eggs in a way that will reduce breakage but if your eggs are handled rough and experience significant temperature changes, not to mention the possibility of being X-rayed, you may have a very low hatch rate. Shipped eggs are a gamble that you should be willing to take before purchasing them. I would recommend doing some test hatches with your own eggs or those purchased locally before trying to hatch shipped eggs.

How long will it take my eggs to hatch?

It is approximately 21 days for most breeds of chickens. Some birds have longer or shorter hatching times. My Serama are a small bantam breed and generally hatch on day 20, while my large fowl Buff Opringtons always hatch on day 21.  The following are typical incubation periods for each bird, plus the optimal temperature and humidity. These are the typical recommendations, you may find for your area of the country and particular breed that you may need to make adjustments to these recommendations.

Bird	Days	Temperature (°F)	Incubation Humidity (%)	Hatching Humidity (%)
Chicken (Large Fowl)	21	99.3-99.6	40-50	65+
Chicken (Bantam)	19-21	99.3-99.6	40-50	65+
Pheasant	23-27	99.6-100	40-50	65+
Quail	16-23	99.6-100	40-50	65+
Common Domestic Ducks	28	99.3-99.6	45-55	65+
Muscovy Ducks	35	99.3-99.6	45-55	65+
Call Ducks	25-27	99.3-99.6	45-55	65+
Turkey	28	99.3-99.6	40-50	65+
Guinea	28	99.3-99.6	40-50	65+
Geese	28-32	99.3-99.6	40-50	65+
Amazons	24-29	98.3-98.6	35-45	65+
Macaws	26-28	98.3-98.6	35-45	65+
Love Birds	22-24	98.3-98.6	35-45	65+
African Greys	28	98.3-98.6	35-45	65+
Eclectus	28	98.3-98.6	35-45	65+

What kind of incubator should I get?

This answer will depend on how much money you are willing to spend, how many eggs you want to hatch and how much time and effort you are willing to put into your eggs during their incubation. It may also depend on the difficulty of hatching your particular eggs.  I personally use Brinsea brand incubators. They are super easy to clean and very easy to use. They are forced air incubators as opposed to still air. One of mine has the automatic turner so I can set my eggs and forget them, besides checking on the humidity every few days. The Styrofoam incubators are reasonable in price and can hold a good amount of eggs. You can get turners for them too. They are difficult to clean and don’t last as long and can harbor bacteria. Still air incubators can be more difficult to hatch out of then forced air incubators. Some incubators will hold a small amount of eggs, around 6-8, while cabinet’s incubators can hold a really large amount of eggs; a few hundred sometimes and also have a hatching area in them as well. Just do lots of research to figure out the best incubator for your particular needs.

How do I place my eggs in my incubator?

Depending on the type of incubator you have and whether it has a turner there may be a few variations of how exactly your eggs will go in the incubator. Some turners have the egg sitting like it would in an egg carton, straight up and down. Others require the eggs to be on their side. Regardless of the orientation of the egg, you want to try and have the larger, rounder end facing up and the pointed end facing down. This is because the air cell is located in the larger part of the egg and this where the chick will break through to breathe once it begins hatching and it needs to be oriented the right way or your chick might not be able to hatch.

How often should I turn my eggs and how?

Your eggs should be turned at least three times a day. If you have an egg turner you may be able to set how often it turns your eggs. I have mine set to turn every hour and a half because I can.  The eggs that I don’t have automatic turners for I turn at least 3 times a day or more, depending on how much I am home and whether I think about it or not.  The reason you turn the eggs is to keep the chick from sticking to one side of the egg. If you are hand turning your eggs you can place a mark, like an X, on one side of the egg so that you can tell which way you need to turn your egg each time.  You want to turn your eggs until the last few days before they hatch. Most people stop turning about 3 days before the chick should hatch. This is so the chick can get situated in the egg as it prepares to hatch. If you keep turning the egg the baby may not be able to get in position and may not hatch.

I have an egg with a crack, will it hatch, and is there anything I can do?

Most of the time cracked eggs don’t hatch. If you really want to try and hatch the egg, because the egg is very valuable, you can try. You can either use a small piece of tape or band aid to cover the crack or use wax from a candle to cover the crack. The main reason these eggs do not hatch is because bacteria go through the crack and into the egg killing the embryo. Some people have reported successfully hatching eggs with these methods, I personally have yet to hatch a cracked egg.

I can’t get my humidity up, what can I do?

If you are having trouble getting the humidity up in your incubator you can try adding a wet sponge to the incubator. You can add a small pan of water as well. When you are trying to get the humidity up you need to remember that surface area works best, meaning a deep cup full of water is going to do less than a large, flat pan full of water. You will get more evaporation and thus a higher humidity with larger surface area. You can also try using hot water to up your humidity if it is really dry/low.

Why is humidity so important?

Humidity may be one of the most important parts of incubating. The humidity can make the difference between a successful hatch and a complete hatching nightmare. There are two things that affect the humidity within your incubator, water evaporation within the incubator and ventilation.  The humidity of the air being drawn into the incubator will also have an effect on the humidity within the incubator.  This is why the area that you live in will affect your humidity and the steps you take in maintaining your humidity. I am in Georgia and we have pretty high humidity most of the year, but in somewhere like Nevada where the humidity is low they would probably incubate differently.

The humidity effects the moisture lost during incubation. The egg must lose a certain amount of moisture through the shell wall as it grows. If the egg loses too much moisture the chick will not be able to hatch because it will be sticky, if the egg doesn’t lose enough moisture the chick can actually drown.  Low humidity will also cause the internal membranes to dry out and harden and become like leather, making it impossible for the chick to break through or move around in the shell. The membranes will “shrink wrap” around the chick and the chick will not be able to move and so it won’t be able to pip and will eventually die.  This most commonly happens when you are too eager to get the chicks out that have already hatched. When you open the incubator to retrieve some chicks while others are still trying to hatch the humidity level drops tremendously causing the remaining chicks to become shrink wrapped and many will die.  So be patient and don’t open that incubator until the last chick has hatched!

How do I know what my humidity is?

There are two ways to be sure your humidity is right, the easy way is to buy a hygrometer. A hygrometer measures the relative humidity. You can usually find a thermometer and hygrometer combination at any kind of garden store.  You want to place your thermometer and hygrometer at the same lever of your eggs. So if you have a Styrofoam type incubator you want them very close to the racks that the eggs are on. This is especially important if you have a still air incubator because there may be different temps and a different humidity at different locations within the incubator. The other option is to weigh the eggs. This is the most reliable way to know you’re maintaining the proper humidity. You weigh the eggs at the beginning of incubation and continue to weigh them throughout incubation every few days. Total weight loss for most poultry is 13%, waterfowl is 14%. You would weigh all your eggs and get an average weight, then after each weigh in get an average weight. You would plot each weigh in on a graph and if your humidity is correct your eggs should match that of your graph. More information about this method can be found online.

When should I candle my eggs?

I generally candle on days 7, 14 and 17. If you are having shipped eggs then try to candle before you place them in the incubator, that way you can check for damaged air cells, more on that in a minute.  I like to candle on day 7 to see if I have any development in my eggs yet. I don’t generally throw any eggs out at this time however. I also candle on the 14^th day to see what type of development I have. I don’t personally discard any eggs until right before I put them in lockdown, which is generally on day 17. If I have a clear egg it goes out. If I have an egg with a red ring, meaning it has been killed by bacteria I throw it out as well. If I have an egg that looks to be fully developed but I can’t tell if it is still alive I will go ahead and put it in lockdown with the rest of the good eggs. I have accidentally thrown out a viable egg before because I wasn’t 100% sure, so now I just go ahead and put them in and hope for the best.

Why/when should I remove an egg from the incubator before it’s due to hatch?

I remove an egg is if it begins to leak or weep fluid, or if it begins to smell. Eggs with cracks I also remove, though some others try to save them.  If the egg is still clear on day 17 I remove it because there is nothing in it to hatch.  Any eggs with a red ring in them should also be removed because they have been contaminated with bacteria and are dead.

I candled my shipped eggs and they have detached air cells, what happened, what should I do?

Many times the postal service is hard on shipped eggs. The eggs get tossed about and the air cell can become detached or even ruptured or broken. You will see this when you candle your eggs. I suggest candling any shipped eggs to see if you need to take any extra precautions with them. Any egg with a damaged air cell should be left to sit, without turning, for about 24 hours on the counter. You can then try and place it in your incubator and not turn it for another 2-3 days. The egg should be placed vertical in the incubator, with the large end facing up. You are attempting to get any free air bubbles to rise to the top and the air cell to re-attach to the top of the egg. After about 72 hours in the incubator without turning you can begin turning the eggs, but try to keep them in a vertical position and turn only 45°. Do not lay these eggs on their sides to be rotated.

Can I eat my eggs that aren’t showing any development?

No, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Can I incubate my chicken eggs with my duck/guinea/turkey/geese?

Yes, you can. You want to make sure that you place the eggs in your incubator at times where they will all hatch on the same day though. So you wouldn’t put your turkey eggs in on the same day as your chicken eggs because they won’t hatch at the same time and you may mess up your eggs (See Humidity/Shrink wrapping).  Although in general the waterfowl will need a little higher humidity than the poultry I have successfully incubated and hatched chickens and ducks in the same incubator right beside each other. Some people recommend lightly misting the waterfowl eggs to increase their humidity but I have had successful hatches without making any changes from my normal chicken hatching.

My chicks are hatching early, will they be ok, what went wrong?

If you are having chicks come premature your temperature may be set too high. It could only be off by only 0.5-1° and still cause problems. Chicks that come too early may not have fully absorbed their yolk and may or may not survive. If you want to attempt to save a chick that has not fully absorbed the yolk sac you can move that chick to your brooder or other clean, dry place and see if it will continue to absorb it or you can gently tie it off and cut it and remove it. Then you can give the chick supplemented water with added vitamin and minerals.

My chicks are hatching late, what went wrong?

The temperature in your incubator was probably too low, raise the temp by 0.5-1°.

My chicks made it all the way to lock down and then died, what went wrong?

Several things can go wrong, but one big mistake is upping the humidity too much at lock down. This can actually drown the chick. Try reducing the humidity at lockdown next time. 

I always open any eggs that have not hatched to see if I can determine what might have gone wrong. Sometimes the chick did not get positioned correctly and was unable to pip. Other times there are just deformities that cause the chick to die.  The chick may have become shrink wrapped due to the humidity being too low and was then unable to move in the shell to pip. This generally happens when the incubator is opened to remove another chick or check on the eggs. Resist the urge to open the incubator!

*Tip: Never feed your hens egg shells left over from a hatch, they are loaded with bacteria and have the potential of spreading disease.

I had a power outage, are all of my eggs dead now?

Not necessarily. If the temperature of the eggs did not drop too low for too long you may be ok. You may lose some of your eggs but some may still hatch, don’t give up hope!

How long after the chick begins to pip before it will hatch?

It can be up to 24hrs for some chicks to hatch. As long as the chick is making some kind of progress, you still hear peeps or see any movement then don't mess with the chick. Don't open the incubator or you will risk shrink wrapping the rest of your chicks. IF after all the other chicks have hatched and you still have one that just isn't making any progress you can assist it if you feel it necessary.

When should I assist a chick with hatching?

I only assist if everyone else has already hatched out and the one chick seems to be in distress. It can take up to 24hrs for a chick to hatch. They will do a little then stop for a while. If you decide to help, only peel the shell off of the chick, do not pull or tear the membrane. If the membrane seems to be dried out you can use a dampened Q-tip and try to moisturize the membrane. If you see any blood at any time, apply a warm moist piece of tissue or paper towel to the area and put the chick back in the incubator. If you continue the chick can bleed to death. Wait at least an hour before re-attempting to help. If you can remove all of the shell you can do that and then put the chick back in the incubator and see if it can get out of the membrane the rest of the way on its own. You don't want to rush them too much because it may not have absorbed all of the yolk sac yet. If the chick is not able to get out of the membrane after a few hours you can gently slide it off a little ways and put the chick back in the incubator to give it a chance to try on its own. If the chick is not able to get out gently pull the membrane back completely off the chick but do not pull on it if the yolk sac is still attached, this is like the umbilical cord of the baby. Leave the chick in the incubator until is absorbs the sac and it detaches on its own. It is possible to tie off the sac and cut it like an umbilical cord but I have never attempted that, I always leave them in the incubator and they either die or they live. I try not to help them if I can help it because most of the ones you have to help end up being weak, but with my Serama I do help them out sometimes and they do fine. But my buff Orpingtons, any that I help usually die or are runty. 

My chicks have hatched but one can’t keep its legs underneath it, what’s wrong?

If your chick looks like it is doing a split then most likely it is suffering from splayed legs. It can occur because the surface of your incubator or brooder is slick. You can put paper towels or cloth in your incubator and brooder to help prevent this. Once you have a chick with splayed legs you will need to brace the legs with some type of bandage/tape to keep them together until it heals. The longer the chick goes this way the longer it will take for it to heal. If it is caught early it may heal in just 2-3 days. You want to bandage the legs so they are in their natural position. 

What do the stages of development look like?

My chicks have all hatched now what?

The chicks can remain in the incubator for up to 24hrs if needed for them to get all dry and fluffy. Once they are dry you are going to want to place them in your brooder. You should get your brooder set up and ready for the chicks before they hatch. I like to turn the light on and get it all warm and cozy for them while they are pipping so I know they have somewhere warm to go right out of the incubator. Your brooder needs to be secure, warm, clean, dry and draft free. You want to have a thermometer in your brooder so you know that you are cooking your chicks or freezing them. Too hot or too cold and they will die. You usually start your brooder at around 95 degrees the first week and can drop it about 5 degrees each week until you get to about room temperature. Once the chicks are feathered out or the temperature outside is nice they can go outside to a safe brooder. 

I have two different brooders for my chicks before they go outside. The first one is a small glass aquarium. I like it because it is really easy to clean and I can see in it from all sides. This is the incubator the chicks go into right out of the incubator. I hatch usually once a week, so they stay in this brooder until the next batch of chicks is ready to hatch, then I transfer them to the bigger brooder. I clean the small brooder before a new batch goes into it. My bigger brooder will hold each weeks hatch until they are ready to go outside into their grow out pen.

*Tip: I always leave one chick in the small brooder from each week to teach the newest hatch-lings how to eat and drink. Usually one of the smaller ones so they don't beat up on the new kids too bad.

What should I feed my new chicks?

You are going to want to get chick starter for your new chicks. They will eat chick starter until about 6-8 weeks of age. Then you will want to switch them to a starter/grower feed. Many times they are called flock grower or flock raiser. You do not need to start your birds on laying feed until they start laying. The laying feed has added calcium for the egg shells so they don't break. Your birds don't need this added calcium and other minerals until they start laying, it can actually be dangerous to feed young birds laying diet. If you have young birds housed with laying birds or birds of all different ages eating together, then it would be best to use a flock raising diet and just be sure you have oyster shell available free choice for your laying hens. 

Courtesy of : Dawnonthefarm