Dixie Chooks Poultry And More

I thought I would let everyone know how I incubate my chicken eggs
Incubators 
Incubators should be kept in a room that stays at a stable temperature that is free from any drafts. There are many different types of incubators so do your research before buying them to see what ones are good or bad. When I first started I had a cheap chinese incubator which was ok but didn't have much success with hatching, I then moved onto a river incubator which was better, but I found when I turned eggs by hand I had better success rates but there was still issues with it. Some people have great success with them. I now have Smart incubators which are cabinet incubators. These has given me lots of chicks, they are one of the top of the range incubators but have a high cost. Smart incubators are also semi-manual turn as you need to push and pull a wire to turn the eggs. In your incubator you should also use a thermometer to check the incubator has an accurate reading of temperature and humidity.
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Before incubating eggs 
It is important that your hens are getting a complete diet, as you can run into problems with the eggs, such as embryos that die throughout incubation, eggs that are not fertile at all, and misshaped eggs. When collecting and storing, I keep the egg in a cupboard, in a room where the temperature stays cooler, around 10-15 degrees Celsius. Make sure the eggs are facing pointy end down so the air sack is at the top. For the best results, use eggs that are no more than 7 days old; you can keep them up to 2 weeks, but the eggs won't be as viable.
 
Placing eggs in the incubator 
I suggest that people with egg turners turn their eggs by hand 2 to 3 times a day, as this is what I have had the best results with, but everyone has their own ways of achieving great results. If you decide to hand turn, what I do with the eggs is draw an X on one side of the egg and draw an O on the other. This is so you are turning it correctly and you can write on your phone or a piece of paper that it should be an O in the morning and X at night. Make sure you only draw with grey lead on the eggs not marker(as the marker can seep into the egg causing the embryo to die). I keep my incubator temperature at 37.7 degrees Celsius and humidity between 45%-55% until day 18 of incubation.
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Lockdown 

Day 18 is lockdown day, this is when you stop hand-turning the eggs or take the eggs out of the auto turners. The humidity needs to be raised a bit higher to 65%-70%. If you are having trouble getting the humidity higher, you can add sponges filled with water. After you have done that, the incubator needs to stay closed for best results, as every time you open the incubator, the humidity will drop, causing the membrane in the eggs to shrink-wrap the chick, so the chick will be unable to move and hatch.
 
Pipping & Zipping  
On day 20, some chicks, usually bantam breeds, may start to pip, and bigger breeds on day 21 and sometimes even day 22. Pipping is where you will see a little hole in the egg; they may not have any more progress for 24 hours or even longer, so don't worry if you don't see any movement at this time, as they are absorbing the egg yolk. Once the chick inside the egg has finished absorbing the egg yolk, they will start the next phase, zipping.
Zipping is where the chick will use its egg tooth to puncture holes all around the shell until the top is almost off, the chick will push the top off and emerge from the shell.
 
Once hatched 
It may be tempting to take out the chick but the chick needs to dry and the other chicks all need to hatch as well. Chicks can stay in an incubator for 24 hours without food and water as the egg yolk they absorbed gives them the nutrience they need for that period of time. This gives the other eggs that haven't hatched yet time to hatch before opening the incubator, which could cause them to become shrink wrapped. After 24 hours since most of the chicks have been hatched you can take them out of the incubator and put them into a brooder box. Most of the chicks should have finished hatching or almost finished hatching by this point day 22-24. If they haven't hatched they may have died through incubation or hatching. Chicks that are late hatching compared to the others may end up having leg issues such as splayed leg as they may have been stuck in the egg for to long.
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Candling eggs 
You can candle eggs at day 7 to check if the eggs are growing chicks. To candle the eggs you can use a torch or the light on your phone. Wait until its dark or go into a dark room. Then you need to place the light at the big end of the egg where the air sack is and then look at the eggs for any blood vessels. You can also candle the eggs at day 12, and 18 before they go into lockdown to make sure they are still alive and their are no rotten ones that may explode.