new to chickens, hatching and everything... does this sound like a good hatching plan?

[Shellebelle920]

Hi everyone. This site has been tremendously helpful in getting ready for my first set of chicks, so I’m hoping you all can give me some more helpful advice. I will make a long story short, I will be picking up a one day old BCM chick, cream Legbar, salmon Faverolles and a blue Australorp on April 5th or 6th. These will be my first chickens ever. I also really wanted silkies and had originally planned on picking up two silkie chicks with this order. However, I began to look into hatching the silkie eggs myself and found an excellent silkie breeder that is going to ship me 6 eggs mid March so that, if successful, they will hatch around the time that I will pick up the other chicks. So the more I began to read about hatching eggs, the more worried I became about not having any hatch at all. I contacted the breeder and ordered two more eggs. I believe she will also be sending an additional egg or two. So at the most, I believe I will have 10 eggs to hatch. Here is my plan, correct me please if you see something that I will be doing wrong.
(Before the eggs arrive I will set up my incubator with infertilized eggs for a few days and double check the temperature and humidity is maintained at appropriate amounts)
1. Once receiving my eggs, i will weigh them and mark the egg with the current weight
2. I will leave them out at room temperature for about 24 hours. I suspect I will be receiving my chickens on day 3-4.
3. I’m praying that the egg(s) is not dirty, as i’m Scared to wash them. Would you wash if you get a dirty egg?
4.I will place the eggs into the incubator pointy end down. Should I put it vertical? Or horizontal with Round end up sitting up more?
5. I ordered the Brinsea Mini 2 advance (7 eggs max), however I naively assumed that the bantam egg tray would accommodate all 10 eggs. It will not, so I was going to send the whole thing back and going with the incuview all-in-one incubator from incubator warehouse. It can incubate up to 27 eggs, does the same things as the Brinsea and is the same price. I will also buy a separate thermometer and hygrometer to monitor the eggs.
6. I am going to run the incubator a touch warm at 100, so I can hopefully get an early hatch. I am going to try to keep my humidity around 40(?) for the first 18 days.
7. On day seven, I will weigh my eggs and hope that they lost about 5% of their weight. If they haven’t lost much weight, I will turn humidity down, if they have lost too much I will turn humidity up. I will also candle them and try to estimate if the air sac is increasing using those diagrams. Should I remove the eggs if nothing is developing?
8. On day 14, I will reweigh/candle and readjust humidity and look for a 10% total weight loss.
9. On day 18, I will reweigh them and then turn the humidity up to around 70 (more or less depending on their weight weight loss) at this point i’m Looking for about a 13% weight loss. I will also turn off the egg turner and position the eggs so that the majority of the air sac is facing up.
10. On day 20-22, spend every waking minute watching to see if the chicks pip. By day 24(?), I throw out the ones who have not hatched.

Does this all sound like a plan? Lol? Sorry this post is so long, I just really hope to get at least 4 or 5 silkie chicks, and this breeder has beautiful birds. It could be the start of a great hobby for my daughter and I. Thanks for any advice or opinions!

 

[ChickenFox]

To be honest I have never been one to weigh my eggs or even mark air cells. I know plenty of people who do though so if that makes you more comfortable then go for it.

If the eggs are dirty I wouldn't recommend washing them. Shipped eggs already have the odds against them and washing isn't truly necessary unless they are absolutely caked with poop or mud. Little bit of dirt never seemed to bother them when I was hatching.

I do believe both the incubators you mention (I have the incuview) require the eggs to be laying on their sides so you won't need to worry about which way to place the eggs.

May I ask why you intend to run a bit hot for the incubation? Yes it can make them hatch faster but it can also lead to an increase in the chances of hatching problems. That half a degree shouldn't hurt them any but I would be very careful to keep an eye that it doesn't go much hotter. When I hatched silkies they tended to hatch a half day faster than the regular sized eggs I had in with them. No promise it's always like that but just my experience.

 

[Shellebelle920]

Thanks for the response! I read a post on here from an experienced Hatcher that said she always runs the incubator a bit high. She seemed like she knew what she was talking about. So I took it as fact. Of course, I can’t find the post to read it over again. Maybe i’ll just incubate at regular temp.

 

[ChickenFox]

Fun thing about incubating is what works well in one part of the country doesn't always work in another. I think just about everyone on here who hatches does things just a smidge differently. Could be anything from higher or lower humidity to a half a degree higher or lower in temp. Just have to find out what works best for you and your region. I wish you luck!
Oh and by no means take what I say as gospel. Lol There are plenty of experienced hatchers on here who will be more than happy to tell you what works for them. Just remember to keep in mind what works for one of us may not necessarily work for you.

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

Thanks for the response! I read a post on here from an experienced Hatcher that said she always runs the incubator a bit high. She seemed like she knew what she was talking about. So I took it as fact. Of course, I can’t find the post to read it over again. Maybe i’ll just incubate at regular temp.

It's always best to run the temp a bit lower than higher if you are unsure of accuracy...... with a lower temp eggs can still hatch, with a higher temp you will cook your eggs.

 

[Shellebelle920]

It's always best to run the temp a bit lower than higher if you are unsure of accuracy...... with a lower temp eggs can still hatch, with a higher temp you will cook your eggs.

Okay. I’m just going to incubate at regular temp 99.6 and pray that I get some chicks out of my first hatch. Thank you!

 

[Shellebelle920]

Fun thing about incubating is what works well in one part of the country doesn't always work in another. I think just about everyone on here who hatches does things just a smidge differently. Could be anything from higher or lower humidity to a half a degree higher or lower in temp. Just have to find out what works best for you and your region. I wish you luck!
Oh and by no means take what I say as gospel. Lol There are plenty of experienced hatchers on here who will be more than happy to tell you what works for them. Just remember to keep in mind what works for one of us may not necessarily work for you.

It all seems so variable! I guess I’ll just pray that I can get some chicks out of my hatch. I think i’ll Stick with 99.6 temp. Thanks again!

 

[savvychickz]

Hi everyone. This site has been tremendously helpful in getting ready for my first set of chicks, so I’m hoping you all can give me some more helpful advice. I will make a long story short, I will be picking up a one day old BCM chick, cream Legbar, salmon Faverolles and a blue Australorp on April 5th or 6th. These will be my first chickens ever. I also really wanted silkies and had originally planned on picking up two silkie chicks with this order. However, I began to look into hatching the silkie eggs myself and found an excellent silkie breeder that is going to ship me 6 eggs mid March so that, if successful, they will hatch around the time that I will pick up the other chicks. So the more I began to read about hatching eggs, the more worried I became about not having any hatch at all. I contacted the breeder and ordered two more eggs. I believe she will also be sending an additional egg or two. So at the most, I believe I will have 10 eggs to hatch. Here is my plan, correct me please if you see something that I will be doing wrong.
(Before the eggs arrive I will set up my incubator with infertilized eggs for a few days and double check the temperature and humidity is maintained at appropriate amounts)
1. Once receiving my eggs, i will weigh them and mark the egg with the current weight
2. I will leave them out at room temperature for about 24 hours. I suspect I will be receiving my chickens on day 3-4.
3. I’m praying that the egg(s) is not dirty, as i’m Scared to wash them. Would you wash if you get a dirty egg?
4.I will place the eggs into the incubator pointy end down. Should I put it vertical? Or horizontal with Round end up sitting up more?
5. I ordered the Brinsea Mini 2 advance (7 eggs max), however I naively assumed that the bantam egg tray would accommodate all 10 eggs. It will not, so I was going to send the whole thing back and going with the incuview all-in-one incubator from incubator warehouse. It can incubate up to 27 eggs, does the same things as the Brinsea and is the same price. I will also buy a separate thermometer and hygrometer to monitor the eggs.
6. I am going to run the incubator a touch warm at 100, so I can hopefully get an early hatch. I am going to try to keep my humidity around 40(?) for the first 18 days.
7. On day seven, I will weigh my eggs and hope that they lost about 5% of their weight. If they haven’t lost much weight, I will turn humidity down, if they have lost too much I will turn humidity up. I will also candle them and try to estimate if the air sac is increasing using those diagrams. Should I remove the eggs if nothing is developing?
8. On day 14, I will reweigh/candle and readjust humidity and look for a 10% total weight loss.
9. On day 18, I will reweigh them and then turn the humidity up to around 70 (more or less depending on their weight weight loss) at this point i’m Looking for about a 13% weight loss. I will also turn off the egg turner and position the eggs so that the majority of the air sac is facing up.
10. On day 20-22, spend every waking minute watching to see if the chicks pip. By day 24(?), I throw out the ones who have not hatched.

Does this all sound like a plan? Lol? Sorry this post is so long, I just really hope to get at least 4 or 5 silkie chicks, and this breeder has beautiful birds. It could be the start of a great hobby for my daughter and I. Thanks for any advice or opinions!

It sounds good, but do not wash the eggs even if they are dirty, there’s a layer that helps protect eggs from bacteria entering it and if you wash it it’ll go away. I’d keep my humidity at 55-65° for the first 18 days then make sure it’s up to 65-70° lockdown days so the eggs will be moistened and it’ll be easy for the chicks to break through. Other than those things your plan sounds pretty good and thought out, by day 7 you should be able to see veining and a heartbeat, if there’s nothing there it’s probably infertile or died earlier. By like day 18, lockdown day, the air cell should be taking up a lot of the egg and the chick will be almost fully grown so don’t worry if you don’t see any movement they probably can’t move lol. Good luck with hatching!! Also silkies are bantams so they’ll be half the size of your standard breed chicks.