Welcome to the second post in the series “Incubating Chicken Eggs”! This three post series is designed to help you successfully incubate and hatch chicks on your homestead! If you aren’t quite to the stage of putting hatching eggs in the incubator, then you will want to jump back to Incubating Chicken Eggs Part 1. You will learn all about storing hatching eggs and preparing your incubator. If you already have eggs in the incubator, then fast forward to Incubating Chicken Eggs Part 3. That post covers lockdown and hatching. But for now, we are going to take a look at what it takes to set eggs in the incubator and what candling eggs is all about!
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So, you have fertile hatching eggs, the incubator is all set up and has been test run, now let’s get those eggs cooking (in the incubator)! Follow along with these steps to get the fertile hatching eggs ready for incubation.
Once you have programmed your incubator and stabilized the humidity and temperature, it is now time to ‘set’ the hatching eggs, or basically put them in the incubator. First and foremost, wash your hands! Always wash your hands before handling the hatching eggs to keep from introducing harmful bacteria onto the eggs and possibly ruining your hatch. I like to write myself a sticky note to remind myself to wash my hands before opening the incubator and handling the eggs.
Then follow these steps:
There you have it, the eggs are in the incubator and the process of embryo development will begin within 48 hours! Now comes the truly hard part, waiting and resisting the urge to open that incubator too many times! In some incubator models, you will have to open the incubator periodically to refill the water containers for maintaining humidity.
One important thing you can do while you wait is make sure you are keeping adequate incubating records. Keeping records throughout incubation is especially helpful for troubleshooting after the hatch and will help you improve your hatching system if you choose to incubate eggs many times in the future.
Keep a record for each egg on a piece of paper so you can mark its progress and any abnormalities. This can also help if you are hatching several different breeds at one time or if you want to keep track of what eggs came from what hens. Charts and graphs are helpful to make for tracking egg development, air cell sizes, and the weight of each egg if you are weighing them throughout incubation.
Having an incubating notebook or binder is an excellent idea if you plan on doing multiple hatches or if you want to keep all your incubating records together over the course of several spring hatches.
Make sure you head on over to The Trading Post to get printables and resources that will help you keep detailed incubating records! You’ll find journal pages, candling charts, egg weight charts, and more!
Some incubators, especially cheaper ones, do not have an automatic turning system installed. If that is the case with your incubator, then you will have to manually turn the eggs 3-5 times a day. Turning the eggs is most important during the first 2 weeks of incubation (day 1-14). This is when the embryo is doing a majority of its growth and it is important that the embryo does not get stuck to the shell membrane during development.
After two weeks of incubation, you may choose to only turn the eggs once or twice a day until lockdown to limit how many times you have to open the incubator. Here is a brief guide on how to manually turn hatching eggs:
Candling time is always exciting! You get to take a peak into the incubating eggs and see what’s happening! Is there any embryo developing? Did something go wrong? Candling time is always an exciting and nerve-wracking day!
The purpose for candling hatching eggs is that it allows you to make note of any abnormalities in or on the egg and helps you monitor the development of the embryo. It helps you know which eggs in the clutch you set in the incubator are most likely to develop into chicks.
There are many different candling devices that you can buy for candling your eggs, but any bright flashlight often works just as well. Eggs with dark colored eggshells will need a stronger light to penetrate through the shell color. You will candle the eggs three times throughout incubation. Each candling session will be performed the same way, you will just be looking for things. To candle hatching eggs, follow these tips:
If any eggs are deemed as unfit for incubating or not developing, don’t place those eggs back in the incubator. Eggs that aren’t developing may rot and prevent all the other eggs in the incubator from developing.
Look for these things at each candling time:
Discard any eggs with hairline cracks, double yolks, blood spots, meat spots, or mottled shells. Set the remaining eggs in the incubator following the hatching egg setting guidelines we went through previously.
The next period at which you will want to candle your eggs will be after 7-10 days of incubation. After you first set the eggs in the incubator, you will want to create an incubating calendar so you can keep track of when you candle them to check for development.
Some folks like to candle on day 7, which is one week into incubation. Others, including myself, like to candle at about halfway through incubation, which would be day 10. The choice is yours to make.
First, wash your hands! Then, quickly open up the incubator lid and leave it open to remove the eggs to a soft cushion or egg carton. Place the lid back on the incubator once all the eggs are removed. Take each egg and candle it in a dark room. Candle each egg and look for these signs:
Cull (get rid of) any eggs that have blood rings, shadowed contents, or are undeveloped.
If you are unsure if an egg is developing or not, mark it and leave it in the incubator. Keep an eye on it and make sure it does not begin to rot. Rotting is a sure sign that the egg is truly not fertile or developing.
Make sure none of your eggs smell bad or have disgusting substances oozing from their shells. Eggs that smell bad or contain dark substances are filled with bacteria and should be removed immediately. If they are not removed, they could explode and contaminate your whole hatch.
While you have the eggs out for the second candling on day 7 or day 10, you can also monitor the air cell growth and weigh the eggs if you choose. Both of these things can help you determine if the humidity levels have been staying at the correct levels for proper moisture evaporation from the eggs.
Using an air cell chart that is scaled to the appropriate size for the eggs you are incubating is helpful when monitoring the air cell size. If the air cell is smaller then normal, then your humidity is too high, if it is larger then normal, then the humidity is too low. If you want, you can mark each egg’s air cell carefully with a soft lead pencil.
Weighing the eggs requires that you have a small digital egg weighing scale. It also requires that you weigh the eggs before setting them in the incubator so that you know what each egg’s beginning weight is and can make calculations based off each egg’s weight loss. Check out this guide on weighing hatching eggs if you choose to weigh the eggs you are incubating.
Once you are done candling/marking/weighing the eggs, place each egg carefully back into the incubator and close the lid. Make sure the incubator returns to the proper temperature and humidity levels. Candling times are also good times to refill the water container inside the incubator if needed.
After initially determining which eggs have started developing and which ones don’t contain a developing embryo, you have the option of leaving the eggs be until lockdown (day 18) or of candling them one more time to see how development is progressing or to get another weighing session in.
If you want to candle your eggs one more time before lockdown, you can do so on day 10 (if you didn’t do so already) OR day 14. Day 14 would mark two weeks into incubation. I do not candle a second time because I like to minimize the amount of times I open my incubator and remove the eggs.
If you do choose to candle your eggs, look for similar signs as when you candled on day 7 or day 10. Once again, discard eggs that are undeveloped or contain a dead embryo.
A second candling does give you another opportunity to monitor the air cell sizes and egg weights. Again, both of these things can help you monitor proper humidity levels.
The last time at which you should candle your eggs would be on ‘lockdown’ day. Lockdown and hatching is discussed in Incubating Chicken Eggs Part 3.
Well, we just covered two of the most exciting parts of incubating: putting the eggs in the incubator and candling them! Setting the eggs in the incubator starts the developmental process of the embryo. Candling the eggs lets you see which ones are developing. Both are very exciting milestones in the incubating process! By the time you have completed the second candling, you will know potentially how many chicks you might have hatch.
After setting and candling, you are on to lockdown and hatching! You should also start preparing for your chick by setting up the brooder!
Also, you can get full-time support from us throughout the incubation process and raising your chicks afterwards by joining our pioneer newsletter community! Plus, you’ll get access to our free ebook that’s all about raising chickens like a pioneer! That way, once your cute little fluff balls hatch, you can raise them using natural, sustainable homestead methods!
by Alexa
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