Do you ever wonder HOW IN THE WORLD chickens do it???

[Guitartists]

After reading post after post about incubation issues and fretting over my own eggs in the bator. I find myself wondering... How on earth do chickens do it?!

I know, I know... they're meant to do it, hatching eggs and all..... but with so many things needing to be just right.... and so many things to worry about. Do you ever wonder if part of the problem is over-complicating things??? Maybe it's not as hard as we make it??? I dunno.... what do all you pros think??

 

[knynrstylvr222]

First off you should know Im no pro, but I know that Im on my first hatch, I only have one egg, and it has not ad the best incubation so Im just praying hard that the little guy or gal decides to pop out. I can say that after all it has been thru last night it was chirping and rocking a little, so at least until last night it was alive, so I think that it may be over- complicated. I will also say though, if it does hatch I can give most of the credit to Tuffoldhen cause she has helped me the most today.

 

[Tuffoldhen]

A hens job is alot easier thats for sure, it's her nature to hatch..We humans tend to over do alot of things and using an incubator to try our hatching abilities sometimes get the best of us...we strive for that perfect enviroment and sometimes lose....

 

[knynrstylvr222]

Im learning that the stressful way LOL.

 

[Frizzledhen]

I am deffinately no Pro. I have to wonder why, if 2 hens can hatch out 10 chicks in the dead of a Michigan winter, we have so much trouble hatching in an incubator. I have never seen a hen with an alarm clock telling them when to turn their eggs and how many times a day to do it. I have seen hens leave their nest and not come back until the eggs are cold. We fret when the temp in the incubator drops a degree. A chicken can not read a hygrometer so how do they know to increase or decrease the humidity. Someone determined the correct temp, humidity, number of times to turn eggs and when to stop turning eggs. The problem though is that it was not a chicken who determined this.

 

[tataharris]

I've learned that it seems that the less you are worried about the hatching, the more successful the hatch.... On those hatches that you stress about every little thing, making sure the temp and humidity is juuuuussst perfect and that all the little eggs have been turned 1/4 turn every hour (well maybe that's a little much...) you end up with 1 chick (duckling, gosling, etc.) For my hatches of "mutt" eggs I usually have greeeeeaaaat hatch rates

but you know I love them all (and I just keep putting those eggs in there)

 

[knynrstylvr222]

LOL tataharris. This is soo true I will know hopefully soon how trrue it is though if my egg hatches I can say it is a miracle and an egg can hatch whatever the conditions my poor egg has been thru the works.

 

[tataharris]

Good luck to you and your (almost) new baby....