Incubating chicken eggs at home is very interesting, but rather troublesome. In order to get healthy, fluffy, sweet offspring in a timely manner, you must strictly follow a number of rules that you will find in our article. We will describe in detail the whole process of incubating chicks, ranging from the selection and laying of material into the device, ending with the happy, long-awaited birth of small birds.
Selection and storage of eggs
Choosing the right raw materials for an incubator is important, it makes up 50% of success, because even if you give the incubation process a lot of time and do everything correctly, an egg taken in advance, dirty or irregularly shaped, reduces the chances of getting a healthy chick to nothing. Incubator eggs can be picked and stored for no longer than 5 days after the chicken has laid them down. They should be stored in clean conditions, with an air chamber - that is, with a round end - upwards, in temperature conditions of 10-12 ° C.
Familiarize yourself with chick breeding rules using an incubator.After the refrigerator, the material is strictly not suitable. Here is a list of aspects that we strongly recommend to consider when selecting for healthy offspring:
Important! To keep the shell clean, in a place where the chicken will lay eggs, pre-fill with clean sawdust. It is worth changing them often, until the chicken has soiled them.
- Purity. On the surface of the shell has its own microflora, which must be preserved during the entire incubation period, so the material before laying in no way should not be washed. Initially select as clean as possible copies, in extreme cases, you can gently wipe them with a dry cloth.
- Freshness. As already mentioned, the testicle should be no more than five days old, so that the chick can be removed from it in the conditions of an incubator.
- Smell. High-quality raw materials should not have a sharp, rotten, unpleasant smell. Tolerance - a small moldy, grape "flavor".
- Proper storage conditions. All raw materials that have not been stored properly will not work for an incubator.
- Correct oval shape. A suitable testicle should have a symmetrical round shape, slightly elongated at one edge. Ball-shaped or too long items must be disposed of.
- The average size. It is not necessary to take too small material - weak chicks will hatch from it, it is not necessary to choose a very large one - there may be two yolks in it. The optimum weight of one regular egg should be 50-60 g.
- Lack of physical damage. Ensure that the shell is intact, free of cracks and dents.
Check the eggs before laying on the incubation, you can make a self-made ovoskop.Having enlightened the shell with an ovoscope, you must discover inside three main health conditions:
- one round yolk, located in the center, without touching the walls;
- the air chamber is present, the size of a teaspoon (not more) and is located at the blunt base;
- egg color does not cause suspicion: it is light, uniform, without spots and streaks.
Did you know? Nature laid down that the hen, hatching eggs, can itself remove some of them from the nest, at its discretion. This suggests that the chicken probably knows that the egg is defective and it does not make sense to hatch it, since a healthy chick cannot be made from it.
Terms and conditions for incubation
Since you have placed the future chicks in the incubator - the incubation period began. For not yet formed chickens and cockerels, it is exactly 21 days. Before starting the process, everything must be prepared. First of all, the device should be thoroughly cleaned, sanitized and ventilated.
Secondly It is better to mark one end of the eggs (stupid or sharp - not important) in advance, for example, with a cross. This is done for convenience, so that you do not get confused when you turn them over in the future.
While preparing the incubator, the material for the bookmark can remain at room temperature for up to 7 hours. This will help him warm up evenly from all sides. After the “settlement” of the future chicks in the device, the temperature in the incubator for eggs should reach within the first 2-3 hours 37 ° C. In the future, according to the instructions, it will constantly change.
Did you know? There are incubators with trays equipped with automatic egg turning. It is very convenient, it allows not to open the device when it is undesirable to do it.
Growing chickens
Now begins a long, painstaking and at the same time interesting process of incubation and the formation of new lives of little birds.
Egg incubation mode
In order to visually display a graph of the temperature regime, as well as the moisture regime, turns and ventilation from the beginning to the end of the incubation of chicken eggs, you are provided with a special table.
Period | Dates, days | Temperature conditions | Humidity level | Egg turning | Ventilation |
1 | 1-11 | 37.8 ° C | 60-65% | Every 6-7 hours | - |
2 | 12-17 | 37.6 ° C | 55% | Every 4-6 hours | 2 times for 5 minutes |
3 | 18-19 | 37.3 ° C | 48% | Every 6-7 hours | 2 times for 20-25 minutes |
4 | 20-21 | 37 ° C | 65% | - | 2 times for 5 minutes |
As you can see, the whole process is divided into four periods and each of them has its own temperature and humidity indicators.
For breeding birds, you can make an incubator out of the fridge yourself.In addition, turning and airing eggs is also not every day. The operation of the incubator should be checked regularly, up to 5-6 times a day.
Important! If the device fails and stays in this form for longer than 4 hours, the chicks will die and there will be no litter.Proper, productive incubation of chicken eggs requires strict adherence to all incubation regimes shown in the table.
Terms of hatching chicks
On the twenty-first day of the incubation period, you can expect the appearance of small birds. It will take them from 5 to 7 hours to get out and completely get rid of the shell. After the chicken is “born” and completely dried in the incubator, it can be moved to a nursery or just a cardboard box with a convector.
The first days the temperature in the box should be maintained within 33-35 ° C, on the third day it can be lowered to 29 ° C. Gradually, the chicks will get used to room temperature.
You will be interested to know how to grow turkey poults, quail and ducklings in an incubator.Small chicks are very susceptible to various diseases and viruses. To prevent high mortality, many people advise that they give birth to antibiotics from birth, or at least a weak solution of potassium permanganate.
We hope that our article, tips, as well as the table of incubation of eggs in the incubator will help you to bring out healthy, strong, cute chicks, from which later, good chickens will grow.