How to Make a Plan for Incubating & Hatching Chicks
by Alexa Lehr | The Pioneer Chicks | April 16, 2024
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There’s no better way to add chicks naturally to your homestead than through hatching them right on the homestead! But before the hatching… comes the incubating. And before the incubating…comes the planning. I know from experience that you work way harder, worry way more than necessary, and help out way too much during your first (and sometimes second) try at incubating eggs! So, in order to cut back on the learning curve and help you dive into the amazing world of incubating eggs and hatching chicks, it’s important that you first create an incubating plan. What do you include in an incubating plan you may ask? Well let’s find out!

#1. Plan Your Commitment to Hatching

First and foremost, you should plan out your commitment to incubating. Obviously if you have come this far and decided to try incubating you have already considered the long time commitment that baby chicks require.

Not only will you have to invest time and money into incubating eggs, but you will also have to think about long term commitment to the chicks you hatch. You should have knowledge not only about incubating and hatching your first batch of chicks, but also about the care and maintenance the chicks need as they grow into adults. You should have those logistics planned out before you consider the next part of your commitment to incubating.

Next you must consider what scale of incubating you plan on doing. Consider these questions:

• Are you hatching eggs just for education and the experience?
• Do you want to hatch chicks to sell?
• Are you planning on starting a breeding program?
• How many times do you want to hatch in a year?
• How many eggs do you want to incubate at one time?

Most homesteaders (including myself) would consider their incubating commitment as a small-scale incubating operation. We don’t have large cabinet size incubators, aren’t collecting dozens of eggs each day, and usually don’t plan on hatching all year round. To learn about choosing the right incubator for your hatching operation, check out What Incubator is the Best for Hatching Chicks.

For the small scale incubating operation, this planning guide is just right for you!

#2. Make an Incubating Supplies List

Now for the fun part, it’s time to make a shopping list! There is some investing you need to do when you plan to start incubating. How much of an investment you make into incubating equipment will depend on your commitment level to incubating.

Here is a list of incubating supplies that I consider essential for the incubating process. The items listed as ‘optional’ aren’t mandatory for a successful hatch but they can be helpful for achieving better hatch rates.

• incubator– choose from: still air or forced draft, fully computerized or semi-manual, large capacity or small capacity
• candling light or bright flashlight- used for candling the eggs
• thermometer and hydrometer– used for monitoring incubating conditions
• distilled water- needed for providing humidity in the incubator
• record book- use for keeping incubating and hatch records
• soft lead pencil– used for marking the hatching eggs
• air cell chart– used during candling to approximate accurate humidity levels throughout incubation
• shelf liner– needed for lockdown
• clean egg carton– may be needed for storing hatching eggs prior to incubating
• sponges (optional)- may be needed for controlling humidity
• spot check thermometer (optional)- can be used to calibrate the incubator
• egg scale (optional)- is helpful for monitoring accurate humidity levels throughout incubation based on egg weights
• pipette (optional)- helpful for filling water pans in certain incubator designs

Once you have a supplies list made, it’s time to get shopping! Local farm stores or online resources can all be used to acquire the supplies you need. Some of my favorite resources include Tractor Supply Stores, Rural King, Amazon, and the Incubator Warehouse.

#3. Pick an Incubating Location

The next part of making your incubating plan is to pick a location to designate to incubating. Environmental factors do a play role in how successful a hatch turns out and how efficiently your incubator can work. A good incubating location will have these features:

• away from direct light sources
• no drafts or strong air currents
• someplace that won’t get a lot of traffic: no bumping, jostling, or other accident prone locations
• any area where you won’t forget about the incubator!
• a sturdy, flat surface for the incubator to be set on
• space surrounding the incubator (or drawers) for storing incubating supplies
• a location with a constant temperature and little environmental fluctuations
• temperate room temperature (65°-70°F is ideal)

The incubator should be placed in a safe, sturdy location where you won’t forget about it but it won’t experience a lot of external environmental changes. If you decide to incubate more than once, you could experiment with different locations and see which location yields the best success rates. However, location is not the only factor that affects hatch rates!

Aside from planning where you are going to locate the incubator, you will also want to plan out where the brooder is going to be located. Ideally you will want your new hatchlings to be indoors for the first few days of their life. Having the brooder near the incubator is also helpful on hatch day for ease of transporting newly hatched chicks. You can consider the same factors listed above for choosing a good brooder location as well!

#4. Choose a Method to Acquire Hatching Eggs

After determining your incubating commitment level, making a supplies list, and choosing an incubating location, you now need to decide how you are going to acquire fertile hatching eggs. There are three main ways you can acquire hatching eggs:

• buy them online and have them shipped
• collect eggs from your own flock (if you have a rooster)
• buy from local breeders or from farms within traveling distance

Of the three methods, mail ordering hatching eggs is the most risky (for obvious reasons). Aside from the risk of broken eggs and cracked shells, shipped eggs also don’t produce the best hatch rates due to factors such as rough handling, temperature fluctuations, or prolonged storage. Paying for shipped eggs is also a risky investment since they need to be shipped as fast as possible but they still may not yield successful hatch rates.

Collecting eggs from your own flock is the easiest and least expensive option. However, this is dependent on having a rooster present with your hens. Your flock must have good fertility, diverse genetics, and a proper diet in order for the eggs you collect to yield good hatch rates.

Lastly, you also have the option for acquiring eggs from local breeders or farms that sell hatching eggs. Doing some research or getting the word out may help you find a local resource for acquiring hatching eggs. Often times, buying from a breeder or a farm that specializes in breeding certain chickens is a good way to get successful hatch rates. The breeder has already consider all the factors that need to be in place for good fertility rates, quality hatching eggs, and getting the best success rate from the hatching eggs they sell.

Pick an option, do some research, and create your plan for acquiring hatching eggs before moving onto the next planning stage!

#5. Pick a Set Date

Alright, you know how you are going to get eggs to incubate, it’s finally time to select a date to start incubating! The day that you place your hatching eggs into the incubator is called the ‘set date’. Determining the set date will be dependent on a few factors:

• you have adequate time to acquire all the supplies you need for incubating (this includes allowing time for mail ordered supplies to arrive and be cleaned)
• consider when your hatching egg source will have eggs available and ready for incubating
• be able to set aside at least three weeks where you can pay attention to incubating the eggs (it takes 21 days for eggs to develop and hatch)
• allow at least five more weeks after the eggs hatch to dedicate to chick care and raising your new hatchlings to a more self-sufficient age

Incubating is a fun time commitment! Just make sure you allow yourself time to go through all the proper steps of incubating in order to have a successful hatch and enjoy the fruits of your labor!

Generally, spring time is a good season to plan on incubating eggs. Breeders will usually have hatching eggs available throughout the spring and summer months and the weather during those seasons are ideal for incubating and raising chicks. Just look at nature, most baby birds are hatched out during the spring and summer months, so we should take our cue!

Also, make sure you don’t make any extensive travel plans or other huge time commitments during the period that you will be incubating and hatching chicks. Once you pick a set date, you should be committed to carrying through with the rest of your incubating plan!

#6. Make an Incubating Calendar

Now that you have a start date (the set date), you can plan out the following 2-3 months that will take you through incubation, hatching, and chick raising! It’s a good idea to dedicate a specific calendar as your incubating calendar. That way you don’t get any other dates or activities mixed up with what needs to happen throughout incubation.

On your incubating calendar, you will want to mark these dates and make these plans:

• set date: pick a date and time (e.g. morning, afternoon, evening) to set the eggs
• prior to set date: allow time to collect hatching eggs if you are gathering eggs from your own flock
• one week prior to the set date: plan on cleaning and gathering incubating supplies as well as acquiring hatching eggs
• 2 days prior to set date: do a test run of your incubator to ensure it maintains proper temperature and humidity and that the turning mechanism works properly
• 24 hours prior to set date: for shipped eggs only, allow them to set undisturbed; start incubator
• day 7 OR 10 of incubation: plan to candle the eggs
• after 2 weeks of incubation (optional): candle again on day 14
• day 18 of incubation: plan lockdown
• day 20 of incubation: get brooder ready
• hatch day: can occur anytime on or after day 21 of incubation
• after hatch: plan on cleaning up incubating equipment and caring for your chicks!

Keep the calendar near your incubating station so that you can easily keep track of important dates. You can even cross off days throughout incubation to help you keep track of what day of incubation the eggs are on.

#7. Keep Incubating & Hatch Records

The last thing you need to do to prepare for incubating eggs is to create a method of keeping records. Keeping incubation and hatch records is important for ease of troubleshooting as well as so you can record what methods you use for incubating the eggs. If you incubate eggs multiple times, you can compare methods and see which ones resulted in the highest hatch rates.

To keep incubation records, I recommend you designate a notebook or binder to the sole purpose of keeping track of records and such. You will want to record just about everything you do to prepare for incubating as well as what you do throughout the incubation process.

Here are a few things to make sure you record:

• how you acquired hatching eggs and what breed(s) of chickens you are hatching
• what incubator you use and what the settings are
• everything you planned out on the incubating calendar (including dates and times)
• create a candling chart to mark development
• if you are weighing eggs, make a weight chart to keep track of egg weight loss throughout incubation
• Optional: record when you see each egg pipped (during hatching), can be helpful during a draggy hatch
• Optional: record when each chick has successfully hatched, helpful during a draggy hatch so you know when would be a good time to remove chicks from the incubator

You will also want to make sure you record any changes in incubation settings, environmental changes, or other incidents that occur throughout incubation that may affect the hatch rate of the eggs. While thorough record keeping is not essential for a successful incubation process, it does make troubleshooting the hatch much easier and helps you learn and improve your incubating skills.

Keep your record book or binder near the incubator so you remember to record things as you go through the incubation process! Get our Raising Chicks Records Journal to make keeping incubating records super easy and streamline!

After the Incubating Plan…

Now your incubating plan is all set! It should look something like this:

1. Commitment– Determine your commitment level, which will influence what equipment you invest in and ensures you have a plan for when your chicks hatch.
2. Supplies– Make a supplies list and start acquiring the necessary incubating equipment.
3. Location– Choose a proper location for the incubator as well as plan out where you want the brooder to go too.
4. Fertile Eggs– Decide how and where you are going to acquire fertile hatching eggs from.
5. Set Date– Pick a date you want to put the eggs in the incubator by, this will determine when you get the eggs and ensures you are all prepared before this date!
6. Calendar– Make an incubating calendar based off your set date.
7. Records– Designate a record keeping book or binder and start making notes of how you prepared for incubation!

With a good plan in place and important dates all laid out, you should be all set to move onto the next phase of incubating eggs on the homestead! You have all your equipment, you know when and how you are getting hatching eggs, and you are all set up to start incubating. So what’s next?

To help you out, I have broken down the incubation process into three comprehensive articles:

• Incubating Part I: The next phase in the incubation process is learning how to store your hatching eggs once you get them as well as knowing how to properly program your incubator to the correct settings for incubating chicken eggs.
• Incubating Part II: This phase covers setting your precious hatching eggs and learning how to candle them.
• Incubating Part III: The last phase walks you through how to do lockdown and knowing what to do during the hatch!

Time to Start Incubating!

Well, you have a plan and you know where to go next, so it’s time to start incubating chicks on the homestead! If all the pieces of your plan are in place, you can go right on ahead to the storing and prepping portion of the incubation process! If you’re still waiting to complete your incubating plan, then you can still read ahead and learn what needs to be done next. Planning may seem like a time-consuming part of incubating, but it’s not complicated once you’ve done it a time or two. After a few hatches, your confidence will grow and planning, prepping, and recording will become second nature.

You’ve got an incubating plan, and pretty soon you will have cute little fluff balls to care for! Learn how to raise them the pioneer way by joining our modern pioneer newsletter community! Get bi-weekly tips for caring for chickens (and chicks) on the homestead and feel free to ask us any questions you have!