Here is my cheat sheet based on many tutorials here on BYC. This is what I am using for my first hatch in a forced air bator:
Dry Incubation
(A compilation of articles by Bill Worrell and others on BYC)
***Special instructions for shipped eggs***
For rolling, detached or disrupted air cells (cells no longer at fat end of the egg but like a bubble level on the long side, rolling or saddle shaped cells), you’ll need to change your hatch plan. They need to sit 24 hours NO TURNING, pointy end down in a Styrofoam Egg Carton with the bottoms cut out for ventilation to possibly reattach air cells. Allow eggs to sit in a moderately cool, somewhat humid place for 12-24 hours before you begin to incubate them. Basements are great. Moderately cool means 65-75 degrees with the fat end UP. After settle period SET Shipped eggs in the incubator in the carton with bottoms cut out as pictured below, do not turn for 36-48 hours to help air cell re-attach. I personally have found that any shipped egg that survives to day 18 lockdown has an awkward but re-attached air cell so I lay my eggs down for hatch. Please refer to day 18 lockdown for more information on why laying eggs for hatching after day 18 is the best way to go. After 36-48 hours begin turning or hand turn by laying the eggs side to side 3 times a day, as in the image below. REMINDER~ Never Set COLD eggs in the incubator.
Day 0
Store eggs to be incubated in an environment that is around 40-50% humidity and the temp is 60 - 70 degrees.
Incubate in an area where the temp is stable within 10 degrees or so, and room humidity between 50%-75% preferably 50%.
Now that you have your room set up, I would plug in the incubator and add no water. Allow the incubator to stabilize for a minimum of 48 hours to be sure it is at 99.5 for forced air (fan installed) or 101 for still air (no fan). While it is stabilizing, get a room hygrometer (instrument that measures humidity) and place it in the room. By controlling the room humidity, you can be more precise with your moisture in the incubator especially the foam incubator's. Since your incubator gets its air from the room, it will have some humidity. If the humidity in the room drops to 40% don't get concerned. The eggs themselves will supply some of the humidity needed inside the foam incubator's. Higher humidity is worse that lower humidity as higher humidity hinders evaporation.
Day 1
Make sure the red plugs are NOT in the vent holes. Your eggs should lose 11 - 13% of their (water) weight through evaporation before hatch day. Now is a good time to number and weigh them so that you can verify their weight loss each time you candle them.
After 48 hours of stable temps place your eggs in the turner with the big end up. Close the incubator and forget about it for 7 days.
Day 7
Open the incubator and candle your eggs with a good candler shining down at an angle through the air cell and side. Mark the air cells with a pencil or sharpie. All the clear eggs can be marked with a “?” and then checked again on day 14 before discarding if they are not developing. Be very gentle when handling these eggs, as the tiny embryos are very fragile at this stage in incubation. After the first candling, close the incubator and forget it for another 7 days. Also while you have the incubator opened, check the humidity inside the incubator. In foam incubators, add a teaspoon or two of water if the humidity is real low. Low being 25%. You can verify that your humidity is not too high by weighing some eggs and seeing that they have lost a good amount of water weight so far. You can also visually see by the difference in the markings for the air cells.
Day 14
Open the incubator and candle the eggs again with your candler. Mark air sacs with a pencil or sharpie, weigh them if you are doing that. Look for a real dark mass inside the egg and a small clear cell at the big end of the egg. This is the air cell. This is where the chick pokes through first to get its first breath of air. If you were using the conventional means of incubation and had the humidity too high for these 14 days, your chick might encounter a good amount of water here. This could and often does drown your new chick before it even has a chance to pip the shell. We recommend that you watch the air cells real close. If too large or growing to fast, you need just a little humidity. If they are no bigger than when you started, then you need to decrease the humidity. If you see any eggs with large amounts of clear spots in them, compare them to the others and if they are very different, discard the eggs that have big clear patches.
These embryos may have died for various reasons while developing. After you candle them, put the lid back on the incubator and forget about it until day 18.
Day 18
Remove the eggs to candle them, mark air sacs and indicate where it dips lowest down the side so that you can place that side up in the incubator/hatcher for them to pip in proper position more easily. Remove the turner if you use one.
Add a very small amount of water to one of the water channels in the bottom of the incubator (or hatcher if you are using a separate one for a staggered hatch) or lay a damp sham-wow cloth across the bottom so that you can simply drip warm distilled water through the vent holes to up the humidity. If you notice the humidity in the incubator is above 65% add only a tablespoon of water or two. If your humidity is below 65% add about ½ of the channel full of water. Using a sponge placed under the vent opening is another way to make it easy to drip water on a sponge without opening the hatcher. If not using a sham-wow or something similar in the bottom, lay some paper towels or similar across the bottom to help protect the chicks' navels and assist in cleanup.
Now lay the eggs into the incubator on their sides with the lowest air cell dip up. Allow the eggs to all touch as it facilitates more rapid hatching as the chicks actually communicate with each other with clicks from within the eggs. Then close the incubator. Keep a close eye on the humidity and make sure to keep it up to 65% - 70% for hatching. You may choose to lower the temp about half a degree. Now, follow the next direction very closely.
DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, OPEN THE INCUBATOR FOR 5 FULL DAYS.
Hate to shout at you but this last 5 days will make or break your hatch. I get a little aggravated when people will go through all the previous steps and then it gets down to the moment, and they can't resist opening the incubator. Every time you open the incubator, you release valuable moisture out of the incubator and allow dry air in. This is what causes chicks to stick to their shell membranes. All you will have to do is lose a few chicks to this and you will change your habits. This means don't open the incubator until day 23.
Day 21
Keep the vent plugs out as the chicks need all the oxygen they can get during hatching. Wait, be patient
Day 23
The chicks should be ready to take out of the incubator and placed in the brooder area. Make sure you have water with electrolytes ready and chick starter in low feeders ready for them in the brooder box. When you take a chick out of the incubator, dunk his beak in the water and make sure he gets a drink. Do this for all of them.
Make sure they have a source of warmth, (i.e. a heat lamp, light bulb, brooder, etc).
I recommend you have 2 incubators (one for an incubator and one for a hatcher). This will help if you have several different hatch dates in one incubator. Keep good records so you know what worked, what didn't and when each egg is due. Remember 21 days is just an average for hatching. A degree or 2 off in either direction can make them come earlier or later.
