New to hatching! Please Help!

[Dolly1218]

Hey everybody! Well I am new to hatching and cant seem to find the right information, everybody is telling me 15 different ways to doing this, and I want high success rates, so please help. Well first, I want to make my own incubator. I would like to use an old fish tank so do I need to do anything special to it? Because most homemade bators are made from styrofoam.. Also do I need to get anything other then a fan, water heater thermostat, heater, thermometer? For the heater I heard to use a reptile tank heater? How do I get humidity? Also if I turn the eggs myself, do I turn them 3x a day, and how are they turned, like to their side or Ive heard on their tips? I understand if you dont want to answer all my questions, as Im sure they have been asked hundreds, so if you could point me to the right place, that would also be appreciated! Thank you in advance everyone!!

 

[mohillbilly]

starters if you want high hatch rates get a good incubator not a fish tank. as far as turning eggs yes turn them at least 3 times a day tho the more you turn them the better.
for humidity a small pan of water or sponges laying in a pan of water works tho in lockdown you need to bring the humidity up for those 3 days.
alot will tell you to candle your eggs a couple time ...my thoughts on that is dont as its not really good to handle the eggs after you set them until you place them in lockdown. and even then i dont candle I just give them 3 extra days after they are suppose to hatch then I candle any left. my hatches generally run 99% or better.

 

[thechickonthehill]

Dolly1218,

Don't despair - you can have a successful hatch in a homemade incubator. I have made 2 incubators myself and often have 100% hatches with my own eggs. I will warn you that it can be challenging and very frustrating until you get everything figured out. I would first recommend that you go to the incubator pages and look at all the different types that have been made. You can find them here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/homemade-chicken-egg-incubator-designs-pictures . Don't be afraid to ask questions about them of the people who made them. Most of them will love to tell you about how they built their incubators and about problems that you may run into.

Then go to the Learning Center and read/study the info about hatching. Here is the link: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-and-raising-chicks . There are several different ways to reach the goal of a successful hatch - it just takes a bit of practice to figure out what works best for your situation.

Hope this helps a bit. Happy Hatching!