Incubation
For many people hatching their own poultry is enjoyable. To watch as young chicks grow and in time produce eggs for the house is very rewarding. This is a brief guide on how to get good results if you go down the road of the incubation.
After buying in your eggs , you should let them rest for at least 24 hous ideally this allows the eggs to naturally setttle and reach room temperature. Eggs should be stored in a dark place pointy end down and should be turned at least twice a day.
Turning
During the period of incubation your eggs will need to be turned. There are three main ways this is done, manually, semi-automatic, or fully automatic. With the manual method you will simply turn the eggs by hand through 180 degrees at least twice a day. With the semi-automatic turning you can turn all of your eggs at once often by a handle on the outside of the incubator. The fully automatic system uses a motor system to turn the eggs on a time-based system. The key part about turning is for it to be a minimum of twice a day but ideally a lot more and to be consistent. Incubate the eggs either on their end (small end down) or on there sides.
Using an incubator is more practical on a large scale basis. But there is important factors which affect the outcome of your hatch these are; Heat,Moisture,Fertility,Turning and Duration.
Heat: This a very important factor because without being able to maintain a steady temperature in the incubator will result in a number of problems . Before you set your eggs, the incubator should be turned on and the temperature adjusted according to the eggs been set for eg: chickens, ducks and pheasants all need the incubator tobe kept at approx 37.5 C and other birds such as geese and turkeys need to be lower, approx 37.2 C. You might think this is a small difference but in incubation it can be a major disaster, producing deformed chicks and dead in shell chicks causing heart ache.
Moisture: This is very important in the devolopment of the embryo. You need a humidity gauge to read this right .If the moistue is too low, this can result in the chick not being able to break out of the egg and dying in trying to do so. And if the moisture level is too high the young chicks could drown in the shell. To be safe, it is recommended that the humidity level in the incubator should be at 35 precent for 15 days and then should be risen to 65 precent for the 6 or so remainding days.
How do I check Humidity?
Humidity is checked by way of a hygrometer (wet-bulb thermometer, or electronic handheld unit) used in conjunction with a regular "dry-bulb" thermometer. A hygrometer is simply a thermometer with a piece of wick attached to the bulb. The wick hangs in water to keep the bulb wet (hence the name "wet-bulb thermometer"). When you read the temperature on the thermometer and hygrometer, you must then compare the readings to a chart to translate from wet-bulb/dry-bulb reading to "percentage humidity".
From the relative humidity table, you can see.....
60% humidity reads about 87 degrees on a wet-bulb at 99.5 degrees.
60% humidity reads about 89 degrees on a wet-bulb at 101.5 degrees.
80% humidity reads about 93 degrees on a wet-bulb at 99.5 degrees.
80% humidity reads about 95 degrees on a wet-bulb at 101.5 degrees.
Getting your humidity to become as accurate as your temperature is nearly impossible. It is almost completely impossible with a small incubator. Try to get your humidity as close as you can, and you'll be fine. Just being aware that humidity is important, and trying to get the numbers to come in close will be a huge help to your hatch. If you can hold within 10-15% things should turn out fine. Temperature on the other hand, is CRITICAL!!!!! I hate to beat this point to death, but a small deviation in temperature (even a couple degrees) can and will ruin a hatch. Or, at least turn a potentially great hatch into a lousy one.
Fertility: This very important because if the eggs are not fertile there is no chance of hatching. Before breeding you should be feeding your stock on a high protein breeders ration and making sure that you have deloused your stock and taking care to do around the roosters tail. Sun light also plays a key factor in fertility as poultry absorb a lot of vitamins from it. Keep the house clean and free from mites, a good way to do this is by using poultry shield as it protects your birds from mites. Killing mites and treatment should be done 3 days after initial cleaning to get any hatched eggs.
Turning: This is very important in order to stop the embryo sticking to the shell.This should be done a minimum of twice a day. It's an easy task but people either forget or take too long and the eggs get cold . If you have a manual incubator the easiest way to keep track of egg turning is to draw with a non toxic pencil a sun on one side of the egg and a moon on the other. Turning the moon side up at night and the sun side up during the day
Duration: Poultry eggs such as chickens usually take about 21 days to hatch. They can hatch earlier this tends to be heat related for if the incubator is above the recommended temp of 37.5C or 100F . Also chicks can be late hatching this is a result of the temp in the incubator being on the low side.
This is only a guide to incubation and is used by us it is not said to used by you but is here only as a guide.
