Advice on hatching eggs

[Flarestar]

Hi, recently a friend of my gave me a box of about 10 eggs to hatch at my house (she was going on vacation and was afraid the hen would be killed by a dog or eagle). I have no experience in hatching eggs, no incubator, and no hen to hatch the eggs(currently). Does anyone have any advice? My friend has left state so I can't give the eggs back to her. Here in Arizona, its hot (not hot enough, I think) but definitely not humid. My sister has taken the eggs, put them outside and put a blanket on top of them. One egg has a crack in it, none of the others do. Please help! Thanks

 

[Webersome123]

Firstly, you need to obtain an incubator, either buy one or make one. There's many easy, cheap and effective homemade incubator designs on BYC. You can store the eggs for up to 14 days, but set them as soon as possible for optimal viability.

Incubation

Chicken eggs must incubate at 97-102 degrees in a forced air incubator, an incubator that has a fan to keep the air circulating. In a still air incubator or an incubator that doesn't have a fan, keep the temp at 99-103. The optimal internal egg temperature is 99.5F. Turn them at least three times every day.

Arizona is dry climate so I wouldn't recommend dry incubation, or adding no water in the incubator. Use a hydrometer to keep the humidity at around 40%RH. Try candling them, or shining a concentrated beam of light through them in a dark room. By day five, you should see veining. You should also use candling to check air cell growth.

Chickens hatch in 21 days. At the last 3 days, stop turning, add another cup of water to raise the RH to 70%. Good luck!!