If you did not use an automatic egg turner, Mark an x and o on each side of your eggs. Twice a day make sure to turn them to the opposite mark. Mama hen does this instinctively, and humans acting like mama need to ensure that they are turned daily as well. This helps the chick get moved around inside the egg as gently as possible, which is essential to a good hatching. An automatic egg turner works in a similar way as a mama hen when she changes positions to make herself more comfortable inside her nest.With chickens, incubation lasts 28 days. This is assuming that all went well and they are standard chickens (not bantams). I will get to issues that may arise during incubation in the next blog.
Day 25 on your calendar is here. Time to take out your egg turner, if you used one. If you didn't, it is time to stop moving the eggs. Very gently place your eggs on the paper towels. Check your temperatures and humidity levels. Humidity at this stage plays the big role. Too low and your chicks cant crack through the shell, too high, and the membranes inside their egg will stick to them when they get out. At this point I take out the sponges and replace with a ramekin of water. I also make sure the temperature of the room is pretty high, in the 80's. This ensures that the incubator doesn't have to work overtime to get back to temp and the chicks don't suffer from a huge fluctuation in temperature.
If you feel it completely necc. you can candle again at this point. You won't see anything much if its still viable. The air sac will be slightly bigger then your first candling, but most of the egg will be very dark, it is filled with a baby! You may see movement, but unless something went wrong during incubation, I suggest you don't candle.
Within the next 4 days you should hear peeps coming from your incubator. The first thing you will see if you were to look into the windows would be a hole in the egg. This is the chick using it's "egg tooth" at the end of its beak to break through the egg shell. Usually within 12 hours of that it will start rocking and you will see it "zip" the top of the egg off where the air sac was. Next it will rock and roll again and finally kick off the egg. A wet, sloppy fur ball will appear. It wall lay belly down and fall asleep, exhausted from all the work it just did coming into the world. Once it awakens, it will finish drying and look and sound like a fluffy, cute chick. It is important not to remove the baby for the first 24 hours of hatch. It needs its rest, to dry and acclimate itself to its new world. During this time too, it does not need food or water. It's egg gave it what it needed for its first day. This gives its' siblings time to emerge as well.
Not all eggs will hatch. The average hatch rate is 75-85%. That means for every dozen viable eggs you place in the incubator, about 8 or 9 will hatch out to chicks successfully. Several factors can play their role in the actual hatch rates. Mostly temperature and humidity levels, but also handling, ambient room temperature, candling and the genes of their parents play a role. We placed 8 eggs in our incubator and hatched out 5. That means our hatch rate was 63 %. This is our second attempt at incubation though, and we made plenty of mistakes. Our biggest mistake was that we opened the incubator way too often. Especially in the last week, when humidity levels are vital. Another issue that we encountered is a very mild winter here. With a woodstove, we cannot keep ambient temperature stable other then by 5-10 degrees. But my next incubation I can learn from these mistakes.
It's always a great idea to keep very clear records. Whether its on your incubation, your flock, or your homestead. We here, want to have a healthy flock that turns over once every two years. We love our birds, but their purpose is eggs and meat. By incubating a new flock now, come fall when our older girls are done laying the new ones will just start. Leg bands are also very useful- especially when there is more then one or two people helping with the chickens. They do not hurt the chickens when used correctly, and can be used to identify age groups, keeps or sells to others, species, etc. The only reputable company that I have been successful in finding them is here. Premier One also has many harder to find products for those just getting into poultry as well as advanced chicken keepers.
Well, that about covers it. I hope I helped anyone interested in starting their own flock or expanding theirs by this blog thus far. I did my best in covering all information on this topic, but if I missed anything or if you still have questions, please feel free to email me or visit my farm's facebook page at any time.
I do not recommend any company that I have not met in person, or that I would not trust my chickens, farm or family to. As of right now, I do not have any affiliations with any companies, but would love the opportunity to should it arise.
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