Knowing how to incubate fertilized chicken eggs is an important skill any enterprising poultry farmer should have. Such skill helps in maintaining a well-sized brood in case you lose birds to sickness or you sell them off for meat.
If you’re running a backyard barn, hatching your own chicks is a delightful way of spending time with the rest of the family – especially the children.
It goes without saying that if you’re going to incubate eggs, you need a chicken incubator. But what if you don’t know the first thing about these things?
It’s easy to go to a store and ask around for an incubator unit, but knowing a little something extra about what you’re buying and how to use it will help you choose a model that you can operate with very little trouble.
First things first – find an area of your barn or house where the temperature is pretty stable most of the time. You have to remember to keep the incubator away from direct sunlight, since the heat of the sun will fry your eggs’ embryos, rendering them, well, dead.
The area should be at a stable, cool temperature where you won’t have any problem with ventilation. You’ll also want to have an electrical outlet nearby for your incubator.
Chicken incubators come in all shapes and sizes. Some of the simpler incubators are nothing more than a small container that can fit three to four eggs at a pinch.
These are made for folks who are either new to the chicken business, or who just want to raise chickens as a hobby. At the other end of the spectrum, there are industry-standard incubators with room for dozens and dozens of eggs.
While all chicken incubators have various functions and devices designed to help you keep track of the conditions inside the incubation chamber, there are some things that a standard incubation unit must have.
The first is a thermostat.
Since you can’t really predict the temperature inside the incubation chamber, a way to regulate the heat inside is an important function. Some incubators achieve this with a heated light bulb – if you decide to make a homemade incubator, you will most likely rely on this method of heating. Just make sure that the temperature does not go below 37⁰ Celsius.
You might also want a way to let air inside for the chickens. Incubators can be pretty airtight, depending on the design, and let’s face it, the eggs (and your chicks) need oxygen to survive.
Some incubators are constructed in such a way that getting ventilation into the incubation chamber is as easy as opening a panel. Heavily designed incubators have built-in ventilation and fans that ensure that air goes in and out in a timely fashion.
The last important thing you should expect from any chicken incubator is a way to measure the humidity. You have to maintain a level of humidity in the incubator – too little humidity, and you’ll end up robbing the chick of important nutrients that it needs to develop further. Keep the humidity up by putting a small basin of water into the incubation chamber.
Once you have the proper incubation you need for your eggs, hatching them should be no problem. Don’t forget to make sure that you turn the eggs every so often so that they develop as they should and don’t end up with deformities or sick.
Good Luck
