How I Get 100% Hatch Rate on Chicken Eggs

[Bolfreak]

Keep us updated on how it goes. I personally don't put new chicks/ducklings/goslings with their mother. There are too many hazards and they do not need a mother. I put them in a brooder. To me it's not worth the risk, but if you don't have very many birds and they're inside or in a secure 1/2"x1/2" cage it's okay. Just my opinion.

She has been a great mom so far, very patient and protective. She’s inside the barn inside a hardware mesh box with babies, own food, water and greens. I let her out twice a day if she wants to.

 

[Bolfreak]

Just added the last duckling to the family this morning. She looked at it like, are they multiplying?!? but continued caring for her babies. It’s pretty cute, they use her turkey tail as a ramp.
Now to soak and clean the incubator! It’s gross, I can’t imagine doing this again

 

[Jojociita]

I don’t hatch chicks but I do ducklings
I often get 100% myself including schools I let use all my stuff
My ducks only lay in clean areas in the coop so I never have dirty eggs to clean. But I do cool and mist my egg from day 10 to lockdown. I watched my broody girl get off the nest for 20-40 mins each morning and agsin early evening. She would eat , drink , poo then go wet her belly and go back onto her eggs with a moist belly
This is why I take those steps and they have worked great for me
I didn’t think about the weekly cleaning but that’s a great idea !! I will try this my next batch

I’m still a chick when it comes to the art of hatching, but that’s brilliant. I’ve never read about anyone’s hen doing that, but it makes sense. I get eggs from my coworker, hatch in a diy (I’m on the 4th iteration lol) and after about a week, they go back to him since his hens never brood long enough. It’s a fun and fulfilling experiment for me and he and his wife are always elated! This last clutch had one enormous (chicken) egg hatch into an enormous leghorn chick 3 days early, but no one else even pipped. I was devastated since all 20 were thriving before lockdown. My only guess is ventilation or the fact that the water “channels” i made and use had a few water beads in there that I had sterilized with 3% (then diluted further) peroxide. It was very few for the size of the bator but it basically made all the eggs white or white with freckles. So… no more of that now, since On my way! Nstill only on like my 6th or 7th hatch, I tend to refuse to give up until they go lightweight, feel cool as soon as I touch them, or start to stink. We’re legit 10 days past 22 and they’re all rolling about. I’m baffled! Temp stayed between 99.5 and 101, humidity was a bit higher through the first -8 at 54-60 (trouble with me new concocted incubator) but on lockdown they been around 65 -75 humidity. No clue.

That was long winded, I apologize, but I did want to just say again how amazing Mother Nature is to have the hen wet her belly! Ingenious!!

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

I’m still a chick when it comes to the art of hatching, but that’s brilliant. I’ve never read about anyone’s hen doing that, but it makes sense. I get eggs from my coworker, hatch in a diy (I’m on the 4th iteration lol) and after about a week, they go back to him since his hens never brood long enough. It’s a fun and fulfilling experiment for me and he and his wife are always elated! This last clutch had one enormous (chicken) egg hatch into an enormous leghorn chick 3 days early, but no one else even pipped. I was devastated since all 20 were thriving before lockdown. My only guess is ventilation or the fact that the water “channels” i made and use had a few water beads in there that I had sterilized with 3% (then diluted further) peroxide. It was very few for the size of the bator but it basically made all the eggs white or white with freckles. So… no more of that now, since On my way! Nstill only on like my 6th or 7th hatch, I tend to refuse to give up until they go lightweight, feel cool as soon as I touch them, or start to stink. We’re legit 10 days past 22 and they’re all rolling about. I’m baffled! Temp stayed between 99.5 and 101, humidity was a bit higher through the first -8 at 54-60 (trouble with me new concocted incubator) but on lockdown they been around 65 -75 humidity. No clue.

That was long winded, I apologize, but I did want to just say again how amazing Mother Nature is to have the hen wet her belly! Ingenious!!

I think with ducks abd geese it’s natural to them
Their shells are harder and this helps to soften them( I’m guessing ) for hatch. Chickens don’t do this and maybe that’s why a dry incubation works so great

 

[CrazyChickLady64]

Hello everyone. Firstly I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year!
In 2023, I started hatching eggs for the first time. I had a lot of bad hatches, but eventually I found out what worked the best. I was able to get 100% hatch rate on chicken eggs on the last few hatches. So long as the eggs were fertile and the egg shell wasn't so thin it broke, the chicks hatched healthy and happy. I read a lot of conflicting information online about hatching eggs, such as dry hatching (humidity 30-35%), using higher temperatures (101-102F), and spraying the eggs with 3% hydrogen peroxide before incubating. Some people even take duck and goose eggs out to cool each day, and spray the eggs with water. To me, this seems like the most ridiculous waste of time, and also very risky.
I know many people have had success with dry hatching, but for me it was a disaster. Chicks developed too small and ducklings were incredibly sticky when they hatched, almost caramelized. I also tired spraying duck eggs with hydrogen peroxide before incubation and they would develop but not hatch. I cannot rule it out scientifically, but now I try my best to leave the cuticle on the egg. I use hydrogen peroxide to disinfect the incubator, but I never spray the eggs the first week, and I try not to get too much one them when I am sanitizing the incubator.
The three main points are: a good incubator, temperature not too high, and lots of moisture. You will read that the chicks will hatch swollen if the humidity is too high, which is true, but they start shrinking to normal size immediately after hatching. The way I see it is that, the chick is made mostly of water, so it's better to have a bit too much water, than to not have enough for the chick to develop properly.
So after one year, here is my method to hatching eggs.

How I get 100% Hatch Rate on Chicken Eggs

• Using a Hovabator 2370 with an automatic egg turner.
• Using a Kebonnix incubator for hatching. This is only needed for staggered hatching.
• Using two Govee temperature/humidity thermometers. (They come in a 2-pack from Amazon).
• The incubators are in the warmest room of the house.
• The incubators are kept out of direct sunlight.
• Using eggs less than 1 week old.
• Using clean eggs. Use steel wool or a dry Scotch-Brite pad to clean any tiny spots off eggs. This is especially a problem with duck eggs. The spots hold bacteria and the duckling can develop but die during the last few days of its incubation from infection. Gently rub down the entire duck egg with a dry abrasive pad.
• Cleaning any turds off the eggs with 3% hydrogen peroxide. Do not clean the entire eggs with hydrogen peroxide, only the spots.
• Doing staggered hatches (hatching every week.)
• Sanitizing the incubator every week by spraying it with 3% hydrogen peroxide. Sanitize the incubator before adding the new eggs each week.
• Temperature of 99.5F in the incubators. If one corner of the incubator is 101F that is okay, but no area is below 99.5F.
• Maintaining the humidity of the incubator to be at least 50%. If it goes below 50% humidity, add 3-4 tablespoons of water to the center of the tray in the Hovabator. The humidity may go as high as 70%, but this is fine.
• Removing the eggs from the turners 3-5 days before the hatch date.
• 60-70% humidity for the last few days of incubation. It's difficult to get over 60% humidity in the Kebonnix incubator before the eggs hatch, so I just keep the center tray completely full of water. The Kebonnix can go above 80% humidity once the eggs start hatching, so you may have to open it to let the moist air out. If the eggs were incubated in high humidity, they have a lot of moisture inside and they don't dry out as easily, so opening the incubator during "lockdown" is fine.
• Writing down pip times for the eggs. Leaving 12 hours before assisting chickens and 24 hours before assisting ducks. (18-24 hours is recommended for chickens and 24-36 hours is recommended for ducks).

Be careful about opening the chick’s egg too early (assisted hatch). The chick can get yolk sack infection (omphalitis). The yolk sack can stop absorbing. Even if it absorbs, it can fail to heal properly. The chick can die up to 3 days later. If the chick did not hatch cleanly, put some Polysporin on the naval over the scab where the yolk sack absorbed.

Thank you I have 10 in the bator now started with 12 one never developed one stopped at around 5 days. I have 8 days to go for hatch day (chickens). They are eggs I had shipped so I will be very happy with even 6 eggs making it as the last 12 only 4 hatched and 2 were fully developed but didn't hatch. I will attempt and assist if nothing happens after 12+ hours. Wish me luck.

 

[byc_user]

Thank you I have 10 in the bator now started with 12 one never developed one stopped at around 5 days. I have 8 days to go for hatch day (chickens). They are eggs I had shipped so I will be very happy with even 6 eggs making it as the last 12 only 4 hatched and 2 were fully developed but didn't hatch. I will attempt and assist if nothing happens after 12+ hours. Wish me luck.

Good Luck!
I had some very bad hatches, especially with ducks. Once I had my own eggs I started hatching some every week. The end result of this was a good hatch rate, but small having different groups of chicks/ducks all over the place is a pain in the butt! I recently received 12 Cream Legbar eggs I ordered last fall (their chickens went off their lay) and I put in 30 of my own eggs in incubator along with them, set to hatch Feb 1-2.

 

[GirlsHuntToo]

I wrote this down! Some of this a didn't know! Anyway to make sure they are girls! lol

 

[Somshine]

Very interesting and useful post! Yes I have found that the eggs you put in are pretty important too. Last year I had two hens that always laid abnormally large eggs. The chicks were fine until they started hatching. In those eggs they always started hatching out when they clearly weren't ready. As if you assisted them but I didn't. They'd open that first hole up and you'd see yellow juice running out. Like there was yoke in there. Or even some blood like the vessels hadn't finished pulling in. Some would just stop there and eventually die. A few kept going and made it out but bloody and yolky. Getting kicked around and the hole pecked at by the others seemed to complicate it even more for them. But I noticed I only had this problem in the big eggs from those two hens. They were my favorite but I decided to no longer incubate their eggs after trying a dry hatch on them and getting less success. Then my pink layer had very porus eggs. I noticed they rarely made it to hatch. My others seem to do fine and I often wondered had I only used those hens eggs if I would have had 100%. Started making me realize maybe wasn't incubation that was going wrong but specific hens eggs.

 

[byc_user]

Very interesting and useful post! Yes I have found that the eggs you put in are pretty important too. Last year I had two hens that always laid abnormally large eggs. The chicks were fine until they started hatching. In those eggs they always started hatching out when they clearly weren't ready. As if you assisted them but I didn't. They'd open that first hole up and you'd see yellow juice running out. Like there was yoke in there. Or even some blood like the vessels hadn't finished pulling in. Some would just stop there and eventually die. A few kept going and made it out but bloody and yolky. Getting kicked around and the hole pecked at by the others seemed to complicate it even more for them. But I noticed I only had this problem in the big eggs from those two hens. They were my favorite but I decided to no longer incubate their eggs after trying a dry hatch on them and getting less success. Then my pink layer had very porus eggs. I noticed they rarely made it to hatch. My others seem to do fine and I often wondered had I only used those hens eggs if I would have had 100%. Started making me realize maybe wasn't incubation that was going wrong but specific hens eggs.

I am having this exact problem! I have a red hen and a white-brown (bovan brown mix), my favorite hens, in a pen with a Rhode Island Red rooster. Their eggs tend to be porous and "runny", where you can see the air cell (or something) moving around when you tilt it while candling. I have never had any "runny" eggs develop. Their eggs have poor fertility/viability, and a high percentage that develop do not hatch. I have successfully hatched a few of their eggs and I am still trying. The rest of my chicken eggs are easter egger-type mixes, almost always hatch if they're viable.

 

[Somshine]

I am having this exact problem! I have a red hen and a white-brown (bovan brown mix), my favorite hens, in a pen with a Rhode Island Red rooster. Their eggs tend to be porous and "runny", where you can see the air cell (or something) moving around when you tilt it while candling. I have never had any "runny" eggs develop. Their eggs have poor fertility/viability, and a high percentage that develop do not hatch. I have successfully hatched a few of their eggs and I am still trying. The rest of my chicken eggs are easter egger-type mixes, almost always hatch if they're viable.

The ones that did hatch yolky and bloody typically survived with some doctor care from me. But I got tired of their lives beginning that way so I just decided not to use those eggs anymore. They were older hens which I'm sure had something to do with it.