Your hen just laid an egg, and now will fuss so much over it. But if she is not responsible enough, the egg may not hatch. The modern, young chicks may not be effective mothers, so maybe you should think about hatching the eggs yourself. You can do this by incubating chicken eggs.
Set up the incubator
Incubators vary dramatically in cost so you need to figure out the most appropriate one for yourself. Buy a top-notch one, and you’ll just have to put in an egg, and shut off the door. Three weeks after, a young chick will pop out. If you buy an inexpensive incubator, you save a lot of money, but that also means, you’ll have to put in a lot more efforts.
Here is what you should take care of when setting up the incubator.
- Maintain a constant temperature of 99.5 degrees. Anything less or greater than this will destroy the embryo.
- Set humidity to 40% or 50% for around 18 days. Afterwards, you should increase it to 65% to 75%. Humidity and temperature changes can affect the foetus.
Find fertilised eggs
Your chicken eggs will be fertilised only when there is a rooster in your flock. Get the eggs, and transfer them into an incubator at the earliest. You can also purchase fertilised eggs from various online stores.
When selecting the eggs, make sure they are clean, of a good size, and well formed. One point to note: don’t clean the eggs at all or you will spoil their natural coating which is essential for the embryo. Also be extremely gentle with eggs; any sudden moments can damage the embryo.
You should transfer eggs to an incubator immediately, but if you can’t, you can store them in a carton for ten days. However, maintain temperatures between 50 and 60 degrees, and 75% humidity. Also, make sure that the fat side is upwards so that the embryo remains alive.
Incubate the eggs
Before you put the egg in the incubator, turn on the heat. Record the temperature and humidity level, and adjust if necessary. If humidity is more than desired, you can use a sponge with a greater surface area.
Now place the egg, and then check humidity and temperature levels regularly. You may have to add water every now and then so that humidity levels are maintained. Mark one side of the egg with X and the other side with O, so that you can keep track of which eggs you have turned. Do this at least twice during the days. If you can do it more, it would be better, but the total turnings in a day should be an odd number. You can alternate the turning direction so that position of the embryo is varied as much as possible. Turn the eggs only till the 18th day, and then let them hatch on their own.
The egg should hatch in 21 days.
