Hatching eggs is a Goldie Locks type of thing, not too hot and not to cold but just right. On still air incubators the temperature should always be taken at the exact top edge of the eggs and all eggs should be similar in size. lower than that and it will be to cool, higher that that and the temperature will be to high. Of course if your incubator has a fan it is not a still air incubator and it is not so important were in the incubator your thermometers are located. Never never never keep an incubator were it can gain heat from a light source. Someone said their basement stays the same temp all the time, this is great. In that case the incubator doesn't cycle on and off as much which can lead to swings of say between 104 and 96. And it is the just as dark inside a basement as it is under a mother hen.
I am seeing a people having more trouble with hen hatched chickens pipping as I am seeing people having troubles hatching out incubator chicks.
DO NOT leave eggs you wish to hatch in the nest especially at this time of the year. Daily gather all eggs you want to hatch. Use a soft lead penile and mark each egg with the date, and put an O on one side of the egg and a X on the opposite side. Store the eggs SMALL end down in egg cartons kept them in a dark, quiet place with 65 - 75 % humidity but don't store them where water condenses on the egg shell.
Put the eggs in the egg carton with all the Os and all the Xs facing the same way. The Os and Xs represent days of the week to help you remember if the whole egg carton has been moved today. Put the carton in a clean cardboard box and put a brick or something the same height under say the right end of the box. Every day shift the brick (or box) left or right raising different ends of the egg carton. This side to side movement is the same way or motion used to turn eggs in incubators and turning eggs in storage keeps the embryo from sticking to the membrane and dying. Most hens can satisfactory incubate 15 eggs the same size as her own eggs. Sitting eggs much older than 15 days is a waste of time and you may loose the whole setting if a rotten egg explodes in the incubator on under a hen.
Never allow two hens to set in the same nest because they will likely quarrel, fidget, break eggs, over heat and suffocate the eggs creating total failure. I bet that none of you have ever seen a hen build a nest like a robin does. Hens are designed by evolution to hatch their eggs on the ground, song birds on the other hand have fewer eggs so they build their nests in the top of trees were there is less humidity.
Give every hen you want to set her own nest box and place it on the ground were flooding or predators won't be a worry. The box should be big enough that the hen can feel like she is completely hidden or out of sight. 18 to 20 inches deep by 10 -12 inches wide and 12 inches high inside is fine for most breeds. I like to leave a one inch gap between the sides and the top and let the top stick over each side about two inches as well as two inches on the front and back. Some thought needs to be given now on how your going to lock down the hen. I prefer another box just big enough to set the nest box in at hen lock down time, but a couple of strips of small boards with a slot behind them on the front end of the nest and a piece of plastic campaign sign plastic used for a door to slip into place is just as good. Anyway it should be impossible for a chick to get out of the nest unless you open the box and just as hard for a jealous hen to see or harass your broody while she is on the nest.
Use a square pointed of flat faced shovel to dig up a section of turf, grass, dirt, roots, and all. Make it a little bigger than the nest box floor, turn the lump of turf, grass side down, and put it in the nest box. A little wheat straw, or hay goes on top of the dirt for nest material. Wet down the green turf grass and dirt real good before it goes into the coop. Mark one or two eggs as nest eggs and put them inside the nest box to help your hen decide were to lay. Daily collect eggs for hatching and if the weather is either hot or cold collect them twice daily.
When a hen goes broody give her 24 -36 hours to make sure that she is serious about setting. If she is, that night GENTLY give her back her eggs or the eggs you want her to hatch but be sure to remove and discard the marked nest eggs. When a hen takes to the nest check that she hasn't laid another egg. If she has collect that egg as well. Failure to do this could result in finding a proud mother hen with one baby chick and a nest full of half hatched dead chicks. The whole idea is to get all your biddies hatched off together or at one time. You'll have much fewer cases of cross beak, spraddle leg, and other deformities if you practice good hatching techniques. I think that you'll also find that you have fewer problems with brood hens if they hatch a satisfying (for the hen) clutch of chicks than if they must drag around one or two lonely chicks, at any rate if a hen only has a chick or two it makes other hen's chicks stand out in sharp focus and that makes the other hens' chicks targets of opportunity for the chick deprived hen.
I am seeing a people having more trouble with hen hatched chickens pipping as I am seeing people having troubles hatching out incubator chicks.
DO NOT leave eggs you wish to hatch in the nest especially at this time of the year. Daily gather all eggs you want to hatch. Use a soft lead penile and mark each egg with the date, and put an O on one side of the egg and a X on the opposite side. Store the eggs SMALL end down in egg cartons kept them in a dark, quiet place with 65 - 75 % humidity but don't store them where water condenses on the egg shell.
Put the eggs in the egg carton with all the Os and all the Xs facing the same way. The Os and Xs represent days of the week to help you remember if the whole egg carton has been moved today. Put the carton in a clean cardboard box and put a brick or something the same height under say the right end of the box. Every day shift the brick (or box) left or right raising different ends of the egg carton. This side to side movement is the same way or motion used to turn eggs in incubators and turning eggs in storage keeps the embryo from sticking to the membrane and dying. Most hens can satisfactory incubate 15 eggs the same size as her own eggs. Sitting eggs much older than 15 days is a waste of time and you may loose the whole setting if a rotten egg explodes in the incubator on under a hen.
Never allow two hens to set in the same nest because they will likely quarrel, fidget, break eggs, over heat and suffocate the eggs creating total failure. I bet that none of you have ever seen a hen build a nest like a robin does. Hens are designed by evolution to hatch their eggs on the ground, song birds on the other hand have fewer eggs so they build their nests in the top of trees were there is less humidity.
Give every hen you want to set her own nest box and place it on the ground were flooding or predators won't be a worry. The box should be big enough that the hen can feel like she is completely hidden or out of sight. 18 to 20 inches deep by 10 -12 inches wide and 12 inches high inside is fine for most breeds. I like to leave a one inch gap between the sides and the top and let the top stick over each side about two inches as well as two inches on the front and back. Some thought needs to be given now on how your going to lock down the hen. I prefer another box just big enough to set the nest box in at hen lock down time, but a couple of strips of small boards with a slot behind them on the front end of the nest and a piece of plastic campaign sign plastic used for a door to slip into place is just as good. Anyway it should be impossible for a chick to get out of the nest unless you open the box and just as hard for a jealous hen to see or harass your broody while she is on the nest.
Use a square pointed of flat faced shovel to dig up a section of turf, grass, dirt, roots, and all. Make it a little bigger than the nest box floor, turn the lump of turf, grass side down, and put it in the nest box. A little wheat straw, or hay goes on top of the dirt for nest material. Wet down the green turf grass and dirt real good before it goes into the coop. Mark one or two eggs as nest eggs and put them inside the nest box to help your hen decide were to lay. Daily collect eggs for hatching and if the weather is either hot or cold collect them twice daily.
When a hen goes broody give her 24 -36 hours to make sure that she is serious about setting. If she is, that night GENTLY give her back her eggs or the eggs you want her to hatch but be sure to remove and discard the marked nest eggs. When a hen takes to the nest check that she hasn't laid another egg. If she has collect that egg as well. Failure to do this could result in finding a proud mother hen with one baby chick and a nest full of half hatched dead chicks. The whole idea is to get all your biddies hatched off together or at one time. You'll have much fewer cases of cross beak, spraddle leg, and other deformities if you practice good hatching techniques. I think that you'll also find that you have fewer problems with brood hens if they hatch a satisfying (for the hen) clutch of chicks than if they must drag around one or two lonely chicks, at any rate if a hen only has a chick or two it makes other hen's chicks stand out in sharp focus and that makes the other hens' chicks targets of opportunity for the chick deprived hen.
