Setting Eggs in the Incubator

Spring will be here in a few short weeks and part of the plan for this year is to grow more of my own chickens for meat and eggs.  My flock of chickens has a couple of roosters in it, so I will be using my own eggs for hatching since I am fairly certain that they are fertilized.  The roosters that are in with the hens right now will be going to freezer camp in a few short weeks once these eggs hatch.  The roosters that are in the bachelor pen will get their turn with the hens when the chicks are big enough to be moved outside.  The chicks will get to grow in the smaller pen for a few months until they can fend for themselves against the mature hens in the large pen.

I will be using an incubator to hatch my own chicks this year so that should reduce the costs of raising them for meat by a few dollars.  I think I spent over $50 last year on chicks alone, so not paying for chicks this year is definitely a plus.  I plan on growing a couple of mid sized batches of chicks this summer to space out the time consuming butchering process.  I will most likely be butchering most of the roosters and possibly some of the hens depending on how many of each I get from a hatch.  The roosters are usually larger and grow faster than the hens and I would like to keep at least a few hens for eggs since I expect the older girls will go through a molt this year and stop laying for a time.  My plan is to cycle out the older hens once the younger ones start laying well and to try to keep a balance of young layers in the flock.

As far as the incubating process goes I will be using a Hovabator incubator that I bought several years ago when I realized that I may not have a broody hen when I want one.  I got the most basic model that I could afford so there is no automatic egg turner in my hovabator.  I will be turning the eggs by hand every few hours for the next 18 days and hopefully they will start to hatch in about 21 days.  This incubator uses a small heating element and a fan to regulate the temperature of the eggs.  There is a plastic tray that sits in the bottom that gets filled with water to keep the humidity levels in the correct range during incubation.

I tested it out a few days ago to make sure that it would be able to hold the correct temp.  Last night I plugged it in again to allow it to warm up enough to be ready for eggs this morning.  I have been collecting fresh eggs for the past few days and saving them pointy end down in an egg carton on the counter.  I am only using eggs that were clean and didn't need washing for hatching since any bacteria on the egg decreases the odds of having a healthy chick.  I marked opposite sides of each egg with an x and o so I will be able to keep track of turning them.

I filled one of the troughs with water and then gently set the eggs x side up in the turner.  The thermometer sitting on top of the eggs will help me monitor the air temperature inside the incubator.  It needs to stay right around 100 degrees for the chicks to develop properly.  I gently set the cover back down and checked the temperature every so often to make sure that it was warming up properly for the eggs.  Each time I open it the temperature will drop, so I need to make sure that I don't let it stay cool for too long when I am turning the eggs.  In a few days I will candle them to see if they are beginning to develop properly.