Hatched Chick

Hatching chicken eggs is a fun way to get your flock of birds. Kids will be especially thrilled when those tiny beaks start to poke out of the shells.

You will need an incubator to provide correct warmth and humidity for the eggs and a brood box for the chicks a few days after they have hatched. You’ll also need a chick feeder and a waterer.

Fertile eggs can be obtained from farmers markets, feed stores, local adds or hatcheries that deliver nationwide.

Hatching chicken eggs should take no longer than 21 days. You must be available to monitor the incubator and turn the eggs 3 times each day during this period.

The day before you get your eggs turn the incubator on, so that it can reach the correct temperature. It needs to be 99.5 degrees. Check the temperature with a thermometer if your incubator doesn’t have a temperature reading.

The humidity in the incubator is very important. For the first 18 days it should be 50% humidity and for the final days it should be 70% – 80%.

A simple way to provide moisture to the air inside the incubator is to put a couple of paper cups of water inside. To test the humidity level use a hygrometer

Use a pencil to mark each egg with a cross on one side and a circle on the other. This will help you keep track of which eggs you have turned.

Place the eggs into the incubator and make sure that the large end is slightly higher than the pointed end. This is the position that an egg will naturally assume when it is on a flat surface.

Pipping – When a chick becomes too large to absorb oxygen through the pores of its eggshell, it uses its egg tooth to peck a hole in the air sac located at the flat end of the egg. This sac provides a few hours worth of air, during which the baby bird breaks through the eggshell to the outside.

There is a good reason for not raising the pointed end. If the pointed end is higher, then the chick may end up with it’s head at that end of the egg. When it attempts to pip, the chick will break the membrane containing fluid at this end of the egg, rather than than the air bubble at the other end and it will drown inside the shell.

Turn the eggs three times a day. This ensures that the developing chick doesn’t stick to the shell and become deformed. Stop turning the eggs when you reach day 18.

Keep the temperature in the incubator at a steady 99.5 degrees. If the temperature rises above 103 degrees then the chicks will most likely die.

The chicks will hatch on day 21. You can leave them in the incubator for up to 48 hours after hatching, but it is normal practise to remove them to the brooder box after 24 hours. They don’t require any food or water for the first 3 days, as they will receive all that they need through the yolk that was drawn into the chicks stomach before it hatched.

Hatching Chicken Eggs Video

If you would like to learn more about hatching chicken eggs and raising chicks we recommend Success With Baby Chicks: A Complete Guide to Hatchery Selection, Mail-Order Chicks, Day-Old Chick Care, Brooding, Brooder Plans, Feeding, and Housing