- Sep 17, 2014
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I usually bring them inside about the 17th or 18th day. Also if you don't have a Candler you can use a very bright flashlight preferably LED and carefully pick up the eggs and Shine the flashlight from the backside and you can see if the egg is full of chick. In the last 2 or 3 days you can actually hear the chick peeping in the egg if you hold it up to your ear. Whatever you do when the chick starts pipping they will remove one whole end of the egg and sometimes it takes 24 hours don't help them because if air gets in there too soon the membrane will dry and stick to the chick and they will die.Be sure that the eggs that you want hatch are under a Broody hens it's not normal for a hen just to set all the time but when they go broody you will know it there fluff their feathers out and fast and not want to get off the nest. The normal temperature for a chicken is around a hundred and five degrees a Broody hen can keep her eggs warm she'll get down only periodically to eat and drink and get right back on in the dead of winter I will bring my broody and her eggs in and put her in a crate so the babies don't have to hatch wet in the very cold but the mother will take care of them and keep them warm if it's not extreme cold. I am a breeder I use an incubator but would much rather have my hens hatch and raise the babies.