One of the most fascinating and rewarding parts of raising backyard chickens is incubating chicken eggs. You can let the hens incubate and hatch their eggs. Natural incubation actually offers many benefits… it allows you to be free of work, since the hen does everything, and chickens incubated and hatched naturally tend to be more robust.
However, there are also various disadvantages when you incubate your eggs naturally. Hens that incubate eggs do not lay eggs, so your productivity is decreased.
If you intend to be a serious flock owner, you should understand the basics of incubating chicken eggs.
The first thing you need to do when incubating chicken eggs, oddly enough, is choosing the egg to incubate. They may seem weird—why not incubate them all?—but choosing what eggs to incubate will save you time and resources.
First off, choose the eggs by their physical appearance. There is no point incubating chicken eggs that are deformed, cracked, or have holes. The size of the eggs should be regular. If their size is smaller or bigger than the eggs your chickens usually lay, then there must be something wrong.
But more than the physical, you need to consider the chickens that laid the eggs when incubating chicken eggs. Choose eggs from chickens that have good fertility percentage. Also, choose eggs from chickens that were not disturbed in any way during their mating season. This is to ensure that the eggs they lay are in perfect condition.
Before incubating chicken eggs, they should be properly taken care of. You should not wash them or wipe them, as this will cause their natural coating to be removed. This coating protects them from harmful organisms that can damage the eggs.
Also, before incubating chicken eggs, they should be stored in an area with 55 degrees Fahrenheit temperature and with 75 percent humidity. You should turn the eggs daily, every eight hours for seven days; use markings so you can distinguish the ends of the egg.
As for the actual process of incubating chicken eggs, you first have to choose what incubators you will use. You can use force-air incubators or still-air incubators for incubating chicken eggs. Force-air incubators require less work compared to still-air incubators, and they also hatch more eggs at a single time. Of course, you can use hens, which can serve as your incubator and your brooder. But, again, you will have to be ready for the repercussions of choosing this process.
When incubating chicken eggs, you need to maintain the incubator’s temperature to 100 degrees Fahrenheit for force air incubators. For still air incubators, the temperature should be 102 degrees Fahrenheit. The humidity should be set to 58 to 60 percent until day 18 and 65 percent until day 21. This way, the eggs remain moist. Ventilation is also important.
You should try to turn them four to six times a day. However, three times per day is sufficient enough to properly incubate the eggs. You do not need to turn them after day 17. At this stage, the egg is already close to hatching; turning them can potentially damage the eggs and injure the chick.
Forced-air incubators require less work because they have automatic turners. Needless to say, your hands should be clean before handling the incubating chicken eggs. Eggs, after all, are like babies… they are delicate and should be handled with care.
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Am interested in hatching only female kicks, hens, but I can not distinguish the eggs from which most likely I will get hens. Is there anyway I can distinguish the eggs. I will be very grateful for assistance.