← Chickens H20-04 · Module 4 of 7 · Pages: 21 · Worksheets: 6

From egg to chick: broody hens and incubators

Hatching chicks under a broody hen and in an incubator day by day, with temperature, humidity, turning, candling and brooding

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From egg to chick: broody hens and incubators

In short

  • Hatching eggs: from healthy hens with a cockerel, no more than 7 days old, stored at 12–15 °C (54–59 °F), unwashed.
  • Fan-assisted incubator: 37.5–37.8 °C (99.5–100 °F), humidity 45–55 %, from day 18 65–75 %.
  • Turn the eggs at least 3 times a day until day 18, then stop.
  • Candle the eggs on days 7 and 14 and remove infertile and dead ones.
  • Don't open the incubator during the hatch.
  • In the first week chicks need 32–35 °C (90–95 °F) under the heat source; 2–3 °C less each week.

What's inside

Chapters

  1. Broody hen or incubator
  2. Hatching eggs: choosing and storing
  3. The broody hen: natural hatching
  4. The incubator: preparation and conditions
  5. Day by day
  6. Candling eggs
  7. When a hatch fails
  8. The brooder: the first six weeks
  9. Chick health and cockerels
  10. Common mistakes
  11. Printable checklist

Worksheets

  • Incubation log
  • Candling and hatch results
  • Hatching calculator
  • Brooder log
  • Hatching and rearing calendar
  • Hatching shopping list

Fields and checkboxes can be filled in with Adobe Acrobat Reader (desktop and mobile), and the calculator adds up by itself. Filling in may not work in some browsers. A print version comes with the screen PDF.

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