10 Tips for Hatching Svart Hona Chicks

10 Tips for Hatching Svart Hona Chicks
by Alexa Lehr | The Pioneer Chicks | April 30, 2024
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I specialize in breeding, hatching, developing, and selling the rare Svart Hona chicken breed on my homestead. Over the years, this breed has taught me a lot about managing and breeding a rare poultry breed. Svart Honas tend to be a tricky breed to hatch on the homestead. However, slowly learning how to get the best hatch rates from my Svart Hona eggs has also taught me a lot about incubating eggs and hatching chicks. In this article, we’ll discuss some key tips for hatching Svart Honas that can also help you become better at incubating and hatching other chicken breeds as well!

#1. Use a Broody Hen

My first and preferred method for hatching Svart Hona eggs is to use a broody hen. Broody hens get the best hatch rates. If you have a broody hen… use her to hatch your Svart Hona eggs! Svart Hona hens are dedicated broody hens and they make great mothers once the eggs hatch as well. However, other breeds known to be broody (Orpingtons, Cochins, Silkies, etc…) can also be used to hatch Svart Hona eggs!

Here’s the basic system I follow when using a broody hen to hatch Svart Hona eggs:

• seperate a broody hen into a brooding box (a good test to see if she is dedicated to brooding)
• let her brood on an empty nest for 2-3 days while I collect hatching eggs
• give the hen a clutch of hatching eggs
• take care of food & water needs on a daily basis and clean up any broody poops from the brooding pen
• prep brooding pen for chicks 1-2 days prior to hatch day
  • large flake wood shavings as litter
  • chick starter feed
  • chick-level feeder and water

For more resources on using a broody hen to hatch eggs, make sure you check out How to Care for a Broody Hen and this Broody Hen Troubleshooting Guide.

#2. Wait 24 Hrs.

If you mail ordered your Svart Hona hatching eggs, you will want to let the eggs rest for 24 hours before putting them in the incubator or placing them under a broody hen. Shipping eggs through the mail can result in the contents of the eggs being jostled and disturbed. Giving the eggs a day to rest allows the egg contents to reposition and can result in better development rates.

Shipped eggs commonly have misplaced air cells. You can tell if an egg has a misplaced air cell by candling each egg. The air cell should be located evenly at the blunt end of the egg. Misplaced air cells may be positioned off-center of the blunt end of the egg or on one of the sides of the egg. Eggs with misplaced air cells can still be incubated, however, their hatch rates are often lower.

If you ordered your Svart Hona hatching eggs from Black Feather Farm (the business side of my homestead), follow these steps once you receive your hatching egg order:

• carefully open the double boxes to find your reciept and the packaged egg cartons
• open the egg cartons and check for broken eggs
• remove any broken eggs
• leave the eggs individual wrapped in the plastic wrap they were shipped in
• let them rest in a temperate location for at least 12 hours
• unwrap each egg and candle all of the eggs, look for misplaced air cells and hairline cracks
• set the eggs in your incubator

#3. Candle Once

Svart Hona eggs do best when they are candled once during the incubation period. Traditionally, hatching eggs get candled on day 7 of incubation and again on day 14 of incubation. However, I like to candle my eggs only once prior to lockdown. I candle my Svart Hona eggs on day 10 of incubation to check for development.

By day 10 of incubation, you should be able to clearly see a dark shadow and blood vessels of a developing embryo within each egg. Any eggs that are clear or have a blood ring are not developing and should be culled. Eggs with murky contents I like to leave in the incubator at least until I candle again at lockdown just to be sure they are not actually developing.

It may be tempting to candle the eggs early or to candle them again prior to lockdown, but the less you disturb the eggs while they incubate, the better your hatch rates will be!

#4. Weigh for Humidity Control

One incubating trick that I have found very helpful for hatching Svart Hona eggs is to weigh the eggs throughout incubation. Weighing hatching eggs and monitoring egg weight loss is one of the best ways to control and monitor humidity levels during incubation. Incubating eggs will loose roughly 13% of their original weight over the span of the incubation period. You can calculate the specific weight that each egg should be on any given day of incubation using a few simple mathematical systems.

Make sure you get this Candling Eggs Guide for Incubating that also contains an egg weight charts to making weighing your hatching eggs simple and seamless!

Monitoring egg weight loss allows you to customize your incubator’s humidity levels based on the average egg weights. When most of the eggs in the incubator weigh exactly what they should on candling day, then you will know the humidity levels are where they should be. If most of the eggs weigh less than what they should, the humidity levels need to be higher. If most of the eggs weigh more than they should, the humidity levels need to be lowered.

#5. Stop Turning a Day Early

Svart Hona chicks are notorious for not being in the right hatching position. In a normal hatch, one way to troubleshoot this is to stop turning the eggs early. Once eggs stop being turned during incubation, the embryo can then begin to shift into a proper hatching position in preparation for pipping through the eggshell and the actual process of hatching.

When hatching eggs are turned for too long, the embryo isn’t able to fully shift into hatching position. Hatching eggs must be turned at a minimum, 3x a day, during the first week of incubation. During the second week of incubation, turning is not as important but it is still a good idea to have the eggs turned at least 3x a day. By the third week of incubation, turning is not mandatory. However, during a traditional hatch, egg turning would be stopped at lockdown, which is 3 days prior to the hatch day.

For Svart Honas, I have found that they need a little extra time to position themselves for hatching. I like to stop egg turning a day or two before lockdown (day 16 or 17) when incubating Svart Hona eggs.

#6. Expect Mis-Placed Pips

Despite giving Svart Hona embryos the extra time to move into hatching position, you should still expect mis-placed pips on hatch day. Normally, embryos will make a pip into the air cell anytime between days 19-21 of incubation. Pipping into the air cell gives the embryo its first real breath of air and leads to the next step of pipping through the eggshell. Since the air cell is should be located at the blunt of the egg, a normal pip would be expected at the blunt end of the egg.

However, Svart Honas are notorious for pipping at the pointy end of the egg or in the center of the egg. When an embryo is not fully in proper hatching position it will skip pipping through the air cell and instead pip wherever its head is located. Misplaced pips can often lead to draggy hatches. Normally, an embryo would pip through the air cell, take a break, then pip through the eggshell and take another break.

When an embryo pips away from the air cell, the two breaks are combined and the stage from pipping through the eggshell to finishing the hatching process is prolonged.

#7. Expect Late Pips & Hatching

Svart Honas are also notoriously late ‘pippers’ and hatchers! The normal incubation period of chicken eggs is 21 days. That includes 18 days of incubation and the 3 days leading up to hatch time, which usually occurs on day 21 of the whole process. In a normal hatch, you can expect to see pips any time starting on day 21. For Svart Honas, they don’t tend to pip until very late on day 21 or not until day 22. So, if you are incubating Svart Hona eggs and it gets to be day 21 and you don’t see any pips… don’t panic yet! You should start to see some pips by day 21, and the very latest, by day 22.

There are ways to troubleshoot late hatches, but I have found that no matter what I do to troubleshoot my incubator, the Svart Honas still like to wait until day 22 to pip. However, a broody hen will often have her Svart Hona chicks hatch right on time at day 21!

#8. Keep it Dark

In nature, the hatching environment would be under a mother hen, which would be dark. When using an incubator, I like to mimic the natural incubating conditions as best as possible. Keeping the hatching conditions dark can make hatching less stressful for the chicks. They will be coming out of a dark shell, so hatching into a dimly lit or dark environment will allow them to gradually adjust to seeing light.

Dark hatching conditions also prevent hatched chicks from pecking at eggs with pips or pecking at each other as they learn how to use their legs. While hatching is designed to help chicks develop muscle, they still need a little time to learn how to properly stand and move about once they hatch. Hatchlings will often flip upside down as they struggle to use their legs for the first time. This may tempt other chicks to peck at the umbilical cord on the prone chick. Dark hatching conditions minimizes pecking and makes a more natural environment for chicks to hatch into.

Cabinet-style incubators are often dark because they lack viewing windows. Smaller, educational incubators often have a viewing window that lets in light. You should to minimize the light during hatch time. However, DON’T cover your incubator with a towel or blanket to achieve dark hatching conditions! That will mess with your incubator’s ability to maintain heat, humidity, and ventilation. Instead, keep all lights off in the incubating room and close blinds or cover windows in the room during hatch time.

#9. Don’t Assist Draggy Hatchers!

Since Svart Honas tend to pip late and pip in the wrong spot on the egg, they also tend to be draggy hatchers. A normal hatch should be complete within 24-48 hours of the first pip. However, Svart Honas can take 24 hours alone to go from pipping to actually unzipping and hatching. That means, if they don’t start pipping until day 22, the hatch may not be fully over until day 24 or even day 25!

But don’t be tempted to assist draggy hatchers! I assisted the first Svart Hona chicks I ever hatched and I regret doing so. Assisting hatchlings is not only dangerous for the chick, but it can also become hereditary, leading to future generations of chicks who need help hatching. As long as you can see the embryo moving or breathing, and if you can get some cheeping from the embryo, leave it alone.

I have had Svart Hona embryos pip but then make no further progress for over 24 hours before they actually started to unzip and hatch. Practice patience and be as hands-off as possible! You may need to remove some of the hatchlings from the incubator during a draggy hatch. If the hatchlings have been in the incubator for over 48 hours, you may consider moving them to a brooder while the remaining eggs finish hatching.

For more tips on what to do during a draggy hatch, check out How to Tell if a Chick Needs Help Hatching and When to Remove Chicks from the Incubator.

#10. Incubator Settings for Hatching Svart Honas

Incubator settings vary depending on make, model, and age. However, I thought I’d share with you what settings I have been using with my forced draft Rcom Max 20 incubator so that you can have a general idea of where to start when programming your incubator. Here are the settings I automatically set my incubator to for the first 18 days of incubation:

• 99.8°F
• 50% humidity
• turning every 3 hrs.
• high temp. alarm 1.8°F
• low temp. alarm 2.7°F

A day or two before lockdown (day 16 or 17 of incubation), I switch the egg turning program to ‘OFF’. At lockdown, I increase the humidity to 60-70%. Once I see the first pip in an egg, I turn the temperature down .2°F.

These 10 tips for hatching Svart Hona chicks will help you get the best hatch rates from your Svart Hona eggs! They will also make you more confident when incubating eggs from other breeds of chickens as well. Many of these tips are general principles that you can apply to any clutch of eggs no matter if you are hatching a rare breed or not. The more familiar you get with your incubator and the eggs you are hatching, the more confident you will feel to make tweaks for coaxing the best hatch rates from your hatching system!

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