Mary Allen
If you want to decide for yourself when your chicks should hatch, choose the artificial brood. In order for it to succeed, there are a few things to keep in mind. This includes, among other things, the right choice of the incubator.
Incubating chicks artificially is not that difficult, but before purchasing an incubator, it is important to understand the scope of its use. For lovers who hatch only 20 to 30 eggs per season, a surface incubator is sufficient. For breeders who incubate around 100 eggs each spring, the closet incubator may be a better solution. Today incubators have numerous methods of temperature and humidity regulation. However, the device doesn’t do all the work for you. Whether the technology also works must be checked. Finally, real-life growth in the incubator could die in the event of a prolonged power failure.
The incubator is best placed in a windowless room that can still be ventilated. The growing chicks need oxygen. As Alfred Mehner writes in the Poultry Breeding Textbook, experiments with 500 eggs have shown that 156 liters or 4 cubic meters of fresh air are required to hatch. Oxygen requirements are lower for the period before hatching: 1.3 cubic meters of fresh air are needed daily for the 500 eggs. The temperature in the incubator should remain as constant as possible between 15 and 21 degrees Celsius. The incubator has to compensate for deviations of more than five degrees, for example, due to direct sunlight, which in the worst case can lead to temperature fluctuations in the device. The humidity must also be kept constant. Absolute hygiene applies to the incubator. Dirt is a carrier of pathogens that can multiply quickly in heat and humidity. For this reason, dirty eggs and egg trays should not be kept in the incubator. Another precautionary measure against illness is clean clothes and shoes and clean hands.
Closet or Area Breeders?
In surface incubators, the motor is often positioned above the eggs. This creates an effect similar to that of natural breeding by the mother hen. There is a temperature difference from the upper edge of the ice to the lower edge, according to Alfred Mehner up to two degrees. All the eggs are laid in this apparatus at the same time, and only after the chicks have hatched can the process start all over again. Most surface breeders have a capacity of 20 to 40 eggs. If you incubate eggs for show purposes at school or at a young animal show, these are ideal devices because they usually have a larger window and the hatching can be monitored. The water supply for the ideal humidity of 65 to 70 percent during the pre-brood is often done manually.
The cupboard incubator is particularly suitable for a larger number of eggs. At 37.8 degrees, the incubation temperature is the same as that of the surface breeder. However, how the value can be met is slightly different for each device; therefore it is advisable to read the instructions. Depending on the model, cabinet incubators are spatially divided into two. In one area, the pre-brood takes place up to about the 18th day, in the other – in the hatcher – the chicks then peck the eggs on the 21st day. With this subdivision, it is possible to continuously lay new eggs in the incubator and to start incubating. Many of today’s models are equipped with automatic moisture metering, so you only have to fill the water reservoir regularly. For the hatching of the chicks, the relative humidity should be increased to 90 to 95 percent so that the chicks do not dry on the egg skin and can hatch well.
Regular Turning is Vital
Vibrations from pounding machines and high-frequency shocks damage hatching eggs. Nevertheless, the eggs must be moved during the incubation process. The best way to do this is to imagine a brooding hen: By moving her body and her beak, she ensures that the eggs are turned regularly every thirty minutes.
This is important for two reasons: Firstly, turning ensures that the embryo is supplied with nutrients. Part of the yolk comes into contact with the germinal disc and is lighter than the rest of the yolk. Therefore, it tends to always flow upwards. The rotation continuously exposes the germinal disk to new nutrients necessary for growth. Second, turning prevents the embryo from sticking to the inner membrane, preventing it from growing normally, as Anderson Brown writes in the Artificial Incubation Handbook. The yolk is lighter than the white and always rises.
With simple incubators, the breeder has to do the turning himself. In order to always be sure that he has actually turned all the eggs, it is advisable to label each egg. For example, with A on one side and B on the other. One must not forget any, because the consequences are a lower hatching rate. You do not have to turn every thirty minutes, as happens in natural breeding, but at least once a day.
It is much easier with an incubator that is equipped with a semi-automatic turning function. With one of these, it only takes a slight movement for several eggs to turn at the same time: These lie on a horde consisting of several rollers. If you move these rollers forwards or backward, the eggs will automatically rotate. With even larger devices, this turning function is fully automated. The egg tray in the incubator moves regularly from the back to the front and back. The only thing to remember here is that the eggs should no longer be turned shortly before they hatch, around the 18th day of incubation. So that the chick can prepare for hatching.
You Can Also Hatch Eggs
How long can I open an incubator? The brooding hen also provides the best answer to this question. She leaves the eggs for a few minutes a day during incubation – to pick up food or to empty herself. During this time, the eggs lose a lot of heat, and gas exchange also takes place at the same time. A similar effect occurs with the flat incubator if you lift the lid and turn the eggs by hand. In the cupboard incubator, on the other hand, the eggs cool down when the device is filled with new hatching eggs, i.e. for two to three minutes almost every day. Today, many devices are equipped with vents for air regulation, and cooling down of the entire device is not necessary unless stated in the instructions for use.
If despite everything, you don’t feel safe enough or don’t have the time for artificial incubation, it is best to take the hatching eggs to a contract hatchery. There they are “hatched” by experienced staff and after 21 days you can pick up the newly hatched chicks.