I need help.

[windnleavesfarm]

I am new at this incubation thing and i have just a few questions... i have four roosters and 12hens therefore my eggs are fertile. so questions:
1. Can i hatch eggs even if my hen isnt broody? if i go out in the morning right when they lay there eggs bring them in the house and put them in the incubator will they still have a chance of hatching?

2. For chicken eggs what is the correct range of temp and humidity because im getting all sorts of answers i have a sheet i printed out and it says that the temp should be 99.5 - 100. And the humidity should be 60% - 65%.

 

[Veer67]

Your hen doesn't need to be broody to have fertile eggs so go for it!

 

[windnleavesfarm]

And last
3. Do i need to rotate the eggs every day? I have a lot of other activities to take care of and idk if can can rotate them as often as they need to be. (ive been told to rotate them 5-6 times a day? Is that right)

 

[Veer67]

I think that this page on BYC will help: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-incubate-hatch-eggs-just-21-days-from-egg-to-chicken

 

[Sphinx]

I think that this page on BYC will help: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-incubate-hatch-eggs-just-21-days-from-egg-to-chicken

This link has great, thorough advice.

Collect the eggs daily, and save them in a cool, dark place (like your basement) with the fat side up until you've got enough to incubate. Then put them in the incubator. Don't start incubating until you have collected all the eggs you want to hatch. Having a staggered hatch (putting in a couple eggs a day for several days) is a royal pain. Just don't do it!

If you don't think you can turn them 5-6x a day, consider an incubator with automatic turning.

I personally like to keep the humidity at around 35%-40% humidity until day 19, and then I bump it up to 80%.

 

[yinepu]

I am new at this incubation thing and i have just a few questions... i have four roosters and 12hens therefore my eggs are fertile. so questions:
1. Can i hatch eggs even if my hen isnt broody? if i go out in the morning right when they lay there eggs bring them in the house and put them in the incubator will they still have a chance of hatching?

2. For chicken eggs what is the correct range of temp and humidity because im getting all sorts of answers i have a sheet i printed out and it says that the temp should be 99.5 - 100. And the humidity should be 60% - 65%.

forget everything people tell you about humidity percentages

go by the air cell development of the eggs or weight loss (the lines next to the days shows where the bottom of the air cell should be on that day of incubation)




everyone's home environment will be different.. things like aquariums, location in the house of the incubator (bathroom?.. bedroom?.. ) will affect the relative humidity.. has it been raining?. are the shells porous?.. is the relative humidity around and in your home 16% or has it been 80%?.. all of those things will affect the humidity

people who live in dry climates will need higher humidity than someone with 99% relative humidity who lives along the coast!

If you let the eggs tell you what they need you will have much better hatch rates than going by what someone on the internet tells you that works for them in their home

for example.. I go DRY.. no water added at all during hatch or incubation.. it works for me in my home.. it won't work as well for someone who lives in the desert with their windows open!.. if I tried 40% humidity this year I would have chicks drowning in their shells.. so I go by the weight or air cells to tell me what those particular eggs need in my home in my incubator at this particular week out of the year!

 

[Animal lover342]

I don't do dry hatches because it has not work for me personally. I tried to hatch a duck egg on a dry hatch and she had such a problem hatching that I had to help her. Humidity just helps keep the membrane softer so it's easier for the chicks to hatch.

 

[windnleavesfarm]

Oh one more question!
4. Do i need to sanatize the eggs? If so how? I saw some egg washing toweltes in TSC but will those work?

 

[Animal lover342]

It should be fine. We hatched chicken eggs straight out of the nest box with no problems.

 

[Sphinx]

Oh one more question!
4. Do i need to sanatize the eggs? If so how? I saw some egg washing toweltes in TSC but will those work?

No, don't sanitize. The egg has a natural antibacterial on them that is good to keep there. If you have a very, very dirty egg, maybe scrap the worst off with a fingernail (or choose not to hatch it).