Incubation Process

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We pull eggs daily and store in cool approx 55deg room for 7 days. Eggs collected for the week are then put into the incubator. This allows a 1 week gap between hatches to allow for late Hatcher and cleaning of the incubators and Hatcher between runs. We do not clean our eggs but do remove any dirt and poop from the eggs upon collection. This is just our process and other people are die hard must clean prior to incubation. That is entirely your call. Try both ways and see what works for you. Our pens do not get muddy or overly dirty and our hens dont brood very regularly so poop is not really an issue for us. 

We set our incubators for 99.8 deg and 55% humidity for the first 20 days with automatic egg turning every 2 hrs. If you do not have an automatic turner make sure to turn your eggs at least 4 times a day. After 20 days our eggs go into Lock Down in a Hatcher. The hatcher is set at 97deg and 75% humidity and eggs are no longer turned. The hatcher should not be opened unless absolutely necessary! We find our eggs hatch between day 22 and 23. Leave hatched chicks in hatcher until fully fluffed and dry or fluid will dry like concrete on them causing mobility issues and potential health issues. Hatching can occur anywhere between day 21 and day 26. We typically see after the first chick hatches the other follow withing 24hrs. 

Since we have staggered incubators (meaning we have all stages in the incubators at once) we only candle day 7 when we put in the current weeks eggs into the incubator. This way the incubator is only opened once a week.