Incubating chicken eggs can be an exciting activity, but care is needed to ensure the best hatch rates. Follow our instructions below for the best hatch rates:
Incubator and Egg Preparation
- Incubator Prep (prior to egg arrival)
- Clean and sanitize your incubator, egg turners, and all incubator parts
- Test your incubator. Turn on your incubator, set your temperature and humidity (99.5F and 50%RH), and allow the incubator to run and stabilize temp/humidity
- Verify your incubator’s internal temperature with a separate thermometer. Even if your incubator is brand new or worked well the last time, all incubators have hot/cold spots, have failures, or lose calibration at some point. It is worth the extra time to ensure you have a good hatch
- Verify your automatic egg turners are functioning correctly and will turn your eggs at least 3 times daily
- Egg Prep (Upon egg arrival)
- Wash your hands prior to handling your hatching eggs to prevent contamination
- Inspect your hatching eggs for damage or cracks prior to placing the eggs in your incubator. If you have not received the quantity of hatchable eggs you purchased, please email us immediately at Info@sandysoilfarms.com. Provide your order number, the quantity of damaged eggs, and pictures of damaged eggs/packages.
- Upon receipt of your eggs, Place your hatching eggs indoors with the pointy end down for 24 hours to allow the egg contents to settle and acclimate to room temperature after their journey
Incubation (0-18 days)
- Again, verify your temperature is stabilized at 99.5F and the relative humidity is 50%
- Gently place eggs in the incubator egg rails, pointy end down
- Ensure that your automatic egg turner is turned on and will turn the eggs a minimum of 3 times per day.
- Mark the current date on a calendar as day 0 and start counting your incubation days the following day as day 1
- Mark day 18 as the Lockdown date and day 21 as your hatch date. Mark day 7 & 14 to candle your eggs
- Over the next 18 days, check your incubator regularly for accurate temperature, humidity, and function of the egg turners
- Do no open your incubator unless absolutely necessary for the next 18 days to prevent drops in temperature and humidity
Candle your eggs (Day 7 & Day 14)
- Candling your eggs and removing any eggs not developing is vital with chicken eggs.
- Non-developed eggs left in the incubator will likely become contaminated and burst, contaminating your entire incubator with smelly bacteria
- Candle your eggs and remove any eggs that didn’t develop or stopped developing on day 7 and day 14
Lockdown (Day 18)
- On day 18, stop the turning of your eggs
- Move your eggs to the hatching floor or hatching baskets. Do so as quickly as possible to prevent unnecessarily long duration drops in temperature and humidity
- Increase the relative humidity to 70%RH
- Increase ventilation of the incubator, through removing hole plugs/opening vents to allow oxygen during hatching
- Do not open the incubator after day 18, as this will cause a drop in humidity and shrink wrap your chicks in the eggs
Hatching (Day 21)
- Day 21 will be your primary hatching day for the majority of your chicks. Chicks can hatch anywhere from 19 days up to 23 days (depending on temperature accuracy and consistency)
- Wait at least 24 hours from the first hatch before you open the incubator. Sudden decreases in humidity can shrink wrap the remaining chicks in their shell
- After 24 hours from your first hatch, quickly move your hatched chicks to their brooder and close the incubator to allow more chicks to hatch. Move chicks again after 24 from the first hatch