Are you planning to raise a flock and want to start learning how to hatch your own chicken eggs using an incubator? We got you! We made a complete hatching chicken eggs guide you can easily follow so you can hatch your own chicks at home!
How Long to Incubate Eggs
Incubating eggs is a 21-day process where you will use an incubator to hatch an egg by taking control of the humidity and temperature to help the egg develop into a chick. Incubation is a delicate process because if you mess up vital steps, you will never be able to hatch an egg.
And why 21 days? It is because that is the average time an egg needs to mature, but it can sometimes differ. Other chickens, like bantam, only need around 18 to 20 days of incubation before turning into a chick. And other bird species also need different days to incubate, like duck and goose eggs which need around 28 to 30 days to mature fully.
How to Find Fertilized Eggs?
If you currently have a flock of hens, and one of those chickens is a rooster, then the vast majority of the eggs that your chickens lay will be fertile. When harvesting, take the eggs as quickly as possible and place them in the incubator.
But if you do not own active hens to give you fertilized eggs, try to contact a poultry farmer or someone you know who sells them and ask them if you can buy some. You can also make use of the internet and find legit egg sellers and check if you can quickly get to them or if they can deliver you healthy fertilized chicken eggs.
Steps on Incubating Chicken Eggs
If this is your first time incubating eggs to make them hatch, then make sure that you follow this guide thoroughly. Read these steps, understand them, and apply them properly when incubating your chicken eggs.
1. Preparing the Incubator
When looking for a home incubator, you should keep an eye out for a few important qualities. Even the most basic incubator will have some sort of heat source that can be toggled on and off by a switch and may or may not have a thermostat as well. Additionally, it ought to have a mechanism for introducing moisture into the air contained within the incubator.
At the very least, your incubator needs to be assembled and turned on for at least one full day before you put your eggs in there to hatch.
Before you deposit the eggs inside the incubator and start the incubation period, this period will allow the environment inside to stabilize, giving you time to make any required adjustments. After this period, the incubation period will begin.
It’s all about location! Place your incubator in a room with a consistent temperature and away from windows and direct sunshine. During the incubation period of 21 days, you need to take further precautions to ensure that both children and animals will not accidentally bump into or otherwise disrupt the incubator.
2. Environment
Since the main purpose of this incubation is to make your eggs hatch, you need to create the best environment for them. Set the ideal temperature and humidity inside the incubator to ensure your eggs can progress properly.
| Temperature | Humidity |
| 99°F to 102°F | 45% to 60% |
For the temperature, the ideal range would be from 99°F to 102°F, which is just like an average hen’s temperature. Since the eggs are delicate, you don’t want to cook them by accidentally setting the temperature too hot. Thus, make sure you always check the temperature and maintain it within the ideal range.
As for the humidity, the ideal percentage is between 45% to 60%. It is the right amount of humidity needed by the eggs during the first 18 days. However, for the last three days of the incubation process, turn the humidity to at least 60 percent.
Remember that humidity helps to give your eggs enough air and space to move around. It also gives you control over how much weight your egg loses, which is an important matter during incubation.
3. Setting Eggs
As soon as you have set the temperature and humidity levels in the incubator to their ideal settings, it is time to put the eggs in. The process at this point is what we refer to as setting the eggs.
At any given time, you should have at least six of them housed within. Chicks thrive best when you raise them as members of a flock, and it is particularly important for newly hatched chicks to be with their flock mates during the hatching process. On the other side, if there are fewer eggs, there will likely just be one hatchling or none at all.
4. Turning the Eggs
During the incubation stage, the eggs need to be flipped at least two or three times per day. A great number of authorities agree that it is optimal to rotate them four to five times every day. Eggs should not be turned during the final three days before they are due to hatch.
There is no need to rotate the embryos at this point as they are migrating into the hatching position. During the hatching process, ensure that the incubator is closed to ensure that the temperature and humidity remain stable.
If you are utilizing an egg turner that automatically rotates eggs, you won’t need to worry about rotating the eggs yourself.
Remember to take the eggs out of the turner and place them on the incubator floor three days before the hatching process is scheduled to begin.
5. Incubation Period
The kind of egg primarily determines how much time must pass before it can be viable for hatching. The temperature of the incubator is yet another important aspect that plays a role in the process.
When the temperature is somewhat higher than ideal for that particular variety of eggs, the embryo will mature more quickly than usual. This will result in the bird hatching earlier than expected, which is not good.
You should always aim to have your eggs mature within the intended timeframe that is suitable for the type of chicken that you are raising.
6. Candle the Eggs (7th to 10th Day)
When you reach day 7, it is time for egg candling, where you need to use a flashlight to light an egg and see if its embryo is growing properly.
What you need to do is to get a flashlight; you can use your phone’s flashlight, but it’s best if you use a LED flashlight that is tube-like and small, so you don’t need to hold the eggs when you are candling them.
Ideally, you should candle the eggs and check them one by one. What you are looking for are veins and changes in the embryo of the eggs. But take note, make your candling quick because you can’t bother the eggs for too long, especially if you need to touch them.
Simply candle the eggs and see if there are veins and if the embryo is appropriately developing and healthy.
The embryo is the dark spot you will see during candling, and blood vessels often surround it. As the incubation progresses, the embryo will get bigger and darker, so if you notice that it doesn’t get big, then it might entail that the embryo is dead, and the egg won’t hatch.
7. Lockdown Day
The lockdown stage refers to the final three days of the incubation period, starting from the 18th day to the hatching phase.
What you need to do here is to stop turning the eggs so the chicks will be properly oriented when they hatch their shells. Then, you need to close the incubator’s lid thoroughly since you will need to increase the humidity during this phase.
Make sure that before you close the incubator entirely, do a quick candling and remove the eggs with dead embryos or those with cracks in their shells. Doing so will help you free some space for the eggs that will hatch, and the chicks won’t hurt one another.
8. Hatching Day
When the 21st day comes, which is the hatching day, check your incubator and see if eggs are starting to hatch.
Take note, when you see an egg hatching, do not help the chick break its eggs because it can hurt or kill them. Let them hatch on their own and patiently wait because some eggs tend to hatch around 15 to 24 hours before the hatching day.
Once you see that all your eggs have hatched and you can confirm all chicks are healthy, lower the temperature to 95°F. Finally, carefully place your chicks in your brooder and set the temperature to around 90-95°F. There, wait for the chicks to develop until they can be old enough to go out and roam on the ground.
9. Finishing Up
After hatching and brooding, the last phase is sanitation which you need to clean your incubator. And although this space is not about the chicks, it is still important to consider it.
Ensure you clean the incubator thoroughly by getting all the shells and other stuff the chicks left behind. You need to do this since you’ll be using the incubator again for sure, and incubating eggs means the environment needs to be clean and free from germs.
Summary
If it’s your first time incubating eggs, do not be nervous and follow the steps in this hatching chicken eggs guide. Avoid holding the eggs if it is not necessary, and always keep in mind the right temperature and humidity for the eggs to develop and hatch.
