I have several chicken, duck and goose hen's who don't like to stay on their nest enough to hatch their eggs. I was thinking of hatching the eggs in an incubator. I have a plain strofoam one, no turner or any thing fancy. I'm new at this and could use some suggestions. Thanks.

-- Marcie Burnett (tmburnet@redred.com), April 04, 2001

Answers

I'm assuming you have instructions with your incubator. Follow them closely. VERY closely. Things we noticed: make sure they have plenty of moisture, especially toward the end. And if you can't turn them twice a day exactly 12 hrs apart, turn them three times a day. That way the longer periods vary. Mark them on one side so you can tell if you really turned them. Don't try to take chicks out too soon, they are better off if they dry a little and fluff up. They don't need to eat right away. Have the food ready, because if you don't, they will hatch when the feed store is closed! (Been there!) God Bless!

-- Cora-Vee Caswell (coravee@locl.net), April 04, 2001.

We are on our 7 th day of incubating eggs ( chicken). Follow all the instructions, we borrowed the incubator and bought a turner. Today we candled our eggs and all show signs of life. My kids were so excited, they know that things can change before they hatch, but it's still exciting. This is our first time trying to hatch our own, the only down fall is we really only want pullets, and I'm sure we'll get cockrels. They won't have a long life, only until they are meaty enough. If thing don't work out we'll buy chicks, that way I can get pullets only. Give it a try and have fun. :o) Be sure to read all the instructions from handling the eggs, to humidity and temperature, to caring for the chicks..

-- Kelle in MT. (kvent1729@aol.com), April 04, 2001.

I remember reading somewhere to unplug the incubator before lifting the top to turn the eggs. After you turn them, then plug it back in. It had something to do with the wafer thermostat going higher than it should, to make up for the loss of heat. You don't turn the eggs the last three days of the incubation period. We mist the eggs lightly with a spray bottle of water these last three days. It seems to soften the shell so they hatch out easier.

-- Lena(NC) (breezex4@go.com), April 04, 2001.

Marcie, We have an incubator like yours. I think Cora-vee covered it all very well. I have never misted mine, but I have a little bowel of water next to the incubator and wet my hands before turning. Good point about not turning the last couple of days. Remember chickens are 21 days, but ducks and geese eggs are longer (30 days I think, you little instruction card should tell you) I always use a pencil to mark an X on one end so I know which ones I have turned. Markers can be toxic to the little embryos. Have fun!!!

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), April 04, 2001.

Marcie, I have hatched out chickens, ducks and geese in a simple starfoam incubator. Ducks and geese take 28 days to hatch and need more moisture, so it doesn't work too well to hatch them in the same incubator with chickens. In fact geese eggs haven't done well for me. They are so big, I think they get too close to the heating element. Watch your temp. close within the last few days before the hatch. I usually have to turn the heat down a little. Take care and have fun! Winona

-- Winona in MO (thompsonwin45@hotmail.com), April 04, 2001.

Hi, here is a trick I use instead of turning the eggs 3 times a day. I cut a 2X4 about 6 inches long and put it under one side of the incubator in the morning then at noon I put it under the other side, then at nite just before bedtime I take it out and leave the incubator level and in the morning start over again. Been doing it that way for the last three years. Hatch out about 50 chicks a month. The only time I lift the lid is to put water in every week and to take out the chicks. Daryll

-- Daryll (twincrk@hotmail.com), April 04, 2001.

Cool trick! I'm gonna try it next time.

-- Lena(NC) (breezex4@go.com), April 04, 2001.

Excellent idea Daryll. I have one of the styrofoam 2 window incubators I bought last Spring. I didn't do everything the "right" way, but did well with 33 of 42 eggs hatching. My no no's were. I marked the eggs with a felt tip Sharpie. Washed most of the eggs because they were all mucky from all the rain we had. Some of the eggs were almost 4 weeks old before they were put in the incubator. All the oldest eggs hatched fine, so I think they are pretty forgiving. I have the auto egg turner, but with Daryll's idea I would save yourself 30 bucks. I think opening and closing the incubator to turn them 3 times a day would do more harm than good. The temperature is the most important part. 102 for a still air incubator. Buy a digital thermometer. I have one I picked up at Radio Shack for 20 bucks that records the maximum and minimum temps. I'm 17 days into doing 7 goose and 8 duck eggs right now. I added the turbo fan and made a expansion ring to raise the lid up 1.5 inches to accomidate the goose eggs per the info. that I've read. My first time doing goose eggs, so I'm fussing more than I really need to I think :) Go for it and good luck. If you have kids they will love the experience. My 2 girls are fascinated by it, me too! Here's a couple pics of my first hatch.

-- Kent in WA (kent@premier1.net), April 05, 2001.

Wow! There must be a lot more people thinking about hatching now than there were a few weeks ago when we needed input! Our 5th grade son just finished a school science fair project to study the effect of turning eggs (in fact the fair is today!) We want him to post his own results on/in Countryside, but I will give you all the bottom line - turning did not make any difference to the number of chicks.

We found it interesting in researching the topic that people with anecdotal responses generally said that turning did not matter, whereas people who replied based on what they had read said that turning would matter, and gave all kinds of "scientific" reasons.

There was an article in Countryside by D.L. Salsbury, DVM, a few years ago (I don't have the issue # here because it's at school today!) explaining the flawed nature of the research that suggested turning was important. It too was anecdotal, but is what set us questioning the turning issue.

We'll do more study with more eggs. I like Darryl's idea as a way of turning. We did not like taking the cover off the incubator and causing the temperature to fluctuate. We did not have an automatic turner. Darryl - how did you stop the eggs from rolling?

-- David C (fleece@eritter.net), April 05, 2001.

I filled the incubator with enough eggs that they couldn't roll around. Daryll

-- Daryll (twincrk@hotmail.com), April 05, 2001.

Very interesting David. I'll look forward to seeing what your son came up with on the egg turning. I remember reading somewhere that it made less than a 10% difference in hatch rate. If you were hatching out thousands of eggs then I could see the benifit, but a couple dozen isn't going to break the bank if a few don't hatch. It would be interesting to see a study done on how long you could keep an egg in storage and still incubate a healthy chick. I had eggs that were over 4 weeks old that hatched out fine. 2-3 weeks max is what I read. Guess I better quit reading. Also, another no no that I see everyone posting and read is not to give medicated feed to ducks or geese. I just started on ducks and geese 3 years ago, so I'm no expert, but have fed them right along side my chicks without any problems.

-- Kent in WA (kent@premier1.net), April 05, 2001.

I read a hint I'm going to try with my next batch of eggs and that is to put cheesecloth over the wire just before eggs are due to hatch. I think it would help in the cleanup of the shells. Rita

-- Rita Glyn-Jones (felfoot @twlakes.net), April 05, 2001.

I have/am using an incubater for the first time. out of a dozen hen eggs, only 3 hatched and they were a day early. One of them will not use it's legs. It can move them but can't stand or walk. One of the chicks looked like it was not done. It had a BIG glob {don't know what you call it} still attached to it's belly. It died after a day. Was my temp too hot? It showed about 99degrees but it was the first time I had tried it. Maybe the thermostat was not acurate. There are 4 geese eggs that should hatch next tuesday. We'll see.

-- Mona in OK (jascamp@ipa.net), April 07, 2001.

Mona, here's a good web site to trouble shoot incubation problems. Sounds like you might have had your temp. too high. What kind of thermometer were you using? I have 2 digital ones I bought at Radio Shack that vary by only .01 between each other, so I'm fairly certain of temps. I have goose eggs and they are due next weekend, so keeping my fingers crossed!...Good luck.

-- Kent in WA (kent@premier1.net), April 08, 2001.

Here's that URL again. http://msstate.edu/dept/poultry/trouble.htm

-- Kent in WA (kent@premier1.net), April 08, 2001.

Well darn forgot the www...ok here it is again. There is lots of info on hatching here, so a good place to bookmark. http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/trouble.htm

-- Kent in WA (kent@premier1.net), April 08, 2001.

Ok, one last time. This does really work if you get the html right. Sorry.

-- Kent in WA (kent@premier1.net), April 08, 2001.

I give up!...just click on Kent in WA on the previous post and it will take you there. I need to get the HTML book out I guess!...LOL

-- Kent in WA (kent@premier1.net), April 08, 2001.

Mona, the thing hanging from the belly is the remains of the yolk sack. The chick is supposed to ingest it before hatching. If it is hanging out it means the chick was not quite ready. We tested our incubator thermometer against a fever thermometer, and they were different by about 4 degrees. This makes a huge difference for eggs, so be wary. Too hot will kill them, too cool will slow them down.

When we try to figure out incubator problems, we try to imagine what happens in the real world and find it helps a lot. Temperature is a good example - hens frequently leave the eggs to go eat, letting them cool a bit. Still trying to figure how this relates to turning!

-- David C (fleece@eritter.net), April 08, 2001.

Marcie, I just read all your replys. I have one of the old round metal incubators that I used a couple of years ago. I have not used it in almost 1 l/2 years but I'm going to try the thing Daryll told you about just to see if I can do it. Thanks to Daryll. The best thing I could advise you (Marcie), is to get your temperature right and leave it a day or two before you put any eggs into it to be sure the temperature doesn't change after you've had the eggs in there a day or two. As someone mentioned in one of the replys, keep lots of moisture, especially near the end of the hatch. Once when I was a kid back in the 50's, we had a guennie (sp)hen setting on about 50 eggs. A couple of days before she was supposed to hatch, it rained and all her eggs were under water and the mom wasn't on the nest. We moved the eggs over to the side and that night, mom got back on them. A couple of days later, every egg hatched. (This is a true story. I saw it with my own eyes which were a lot younger and stronger then)

-- eagle (eagle@alpha1.net), April 10, 2001.

Marcie, I just read all your replys. I have one of the old round metal incubators that I used a couple of years ago. I have not used it in almost 1 l/2 years but I'm going to try the thing Daryll told you about just to see if I can do it. Thanks to Daryll. The best thing I could advise you (Marcie), is to get your temperature right and leave it a day or two before you put any eggs into it to be sure the temperature doesn't change after you've had the eggs in there a day or two. As someone mentioned in one of the replys, keep lots of moisture, especially near the end of the hatch. Once when I was a kid back in the 50's, we had a guennie (sp)hen setting on about 50 eggs. A couple of days before she was supposed to hatch, it rained and all her eggs were under water and the mom wasn't on the nest. We moved the eggs over to the side and that night, mom got back on them. A couple of days later, every egg hatched. (This is a true story. I saw it with my own eyes which were a lot younger and stronger then) Hope this helps. Eagle

-- eagle (eagle@alpha1.net), April 10, 2001.

David C, have you posted the results of your sons school project? Everytime I read something on hatching eggs it always stresses how important turning the eggs at least 3 times a day. Is this another conspiracy to sell auto egg turners!....LOL I have 2 incubators and have been tempted to try it out myself and really see.

-- Kent in WA (kent@premier1.net), April 11, 2001.

Can anyone tell me if you can start 2 different sets of eggs in the same incubator a few days apart? I ordered 2 dozen from the Feather Barn and my wife and I are going to get 2 dozen from a local farmer in the next couple of days. I haven't heard anything back from my order but am excited to try again(my first dozen didn't hatch..bad eggs I guess). Thanks /

-- James (jameshill88@yahoo.com), December 28, 2001.

I wouldn't try different groups of eggs close together in the same incubator. One of the things that starts eggs hatching is hearing other chicks peeping and cheeping as they get ready to hatch, or after they do hatch. Seems to me you'd run a risk of having the second batch trying to break out before they were ready. They might make it, too young and undeveloped. They might not make it, and get exhausted. Or maybe no harm would be done. But there must be a risk.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), December 28, 2001.

I have about 30 eggs ready to go in the incubator, and I'd like to try to hatch them Daryll's way (tipping the incubator rather than turning the eggs). Has anyone else tried this? The questions I have are whether to open the incubator occasionally to let the eggs cool a bit, and how to keep the eggs moist enough. The shallow water tray that came with the incubator wouldn't work if I tip it.

-- Elizabeth in E TX (kimprice@peoplescom.net), January 06, 2002.

Hi Elizabeth, Get a small paper cup and stuff a couple of paper towels in it and soak them with water. Every week or so lift the lid and pour water into the cup.

-- Daryll in NW FLA (twincrk@hotmail.com), January 06, 2002.

how many hens, di you have altogether? do they have nests? if so made of what? answer theese and i will tell you how to make them lay. not really make of course. -denise yavas

-- denise yavas (denisey89@yahoo.com), January 16, 2002.