How We Break All The Rules When Hatching Chicks

This is how we break all the rules with incubating eggs and hatching chicks.

[deannancfarms]

Thank you for being honest and optimistic! I've been raising chickens for 10+ years, and I keep seeing people that have been raising them for a year and then go tell everyone else they're doing it wrong. The community needs more realistic and supportive people like you.

[saltlifegull]

I'm with you on lockdown - I add more eggs to incubator about every week and never deal with lockdown--they all do fine and I remove the ones that hatch while leaving others to continue incubating. Super video:))

[wordswritteninred]

I just found your channel. I am hatching eggs for the first time in decades! lol I have olive eggers. And I have been having such a hard time determining if they are still alive! I thought it was my light, or my eyesight! I have never had such a hard time! THANK YOU for stating that olive eggers eggs are hard to see through! I can stop trying to figure out what I am doing wrong! lol

[lindsayleer]

I love your attitude, took a lot of stress off me. I have babies that are a day or so apart and one that is 5 days apart. I thought I completely messed up now that I’ve hit lock down. I took them off the egg turner and I was going to hope that last egg could hold on long enough for me to reopen and start turning again. Psh according to you I’m perfectly fine turning that bad boy while waiting on these older guys and it’s such a relief lol. Great video. Thank you

[raincoast]

This is a great video, if you think about it, a broody will hatch eggs from multiple chickens that have been laid over multiple days so the ultra scientific method might just be a bid over kill. Thanks for posting.

[StaceyHerewegrowagain]

Love this. Hatching my own chicks for the first time. I like working around the rules.. Sometimes it's the best way! Great advice and video. Thank you so much!

[lifestylehomestead]

Thank you so much for your attainable content. Too many put things into a very strict and narrow way of doing things and I've always been of the mind that there is grace in a folk method.

[CK-ldqi]

Thank you for the honesty. I made my own incubator and just turned the eggs a few times a day. Just as the hen would if she went in there and shuffled them around. My 1st egg hatched 2 days ago the 2nd has pipped as of 4 hours ago and is chirping and pipping as i type. I take the eggs out, talk to them and hold them for a few and put them back. Ive kept the humidity at 35 to 37 % and they are doing great. I daye each egg and wait for its hatching date. The first chick is doing great, eating and drinking just fine and moves around what i called the "starter bin" just fine. It is a tote with food water and the warming light at one end so she may freely go where she feels comfortable. In doing this myself, i just wanted to replicate what works best as if the hen hatched them herself. So yes i appreciate your take on this and agree with all you have said 100%

[abigailmyers]

This is so encouraging! First time incubating and I was stressing this morning because my incubator was leaking this morning as I was trying to get organized for " lockdown ". I was thinking oh no I'm going to have to be opening it on lockdown and it's not going to work if I open it!! But this seems like it might be a lot less stressful. ❤️

[madiemic]

I’m currently hatching my first set of chicks. One hatched last night and was dry and fluffy. The others started hatching hours later and she began to get wet and seem off. Everyone kept saying I couldn’t open the incubator. I decided to open it and pluck her out quickly. I put her in my bra until I was sure she was completely dry and then in the brooder she went.

[michaeleastham]

Thank you this mama Z on dad's profile. We just set eggs last night Jan 30 2023. So excited thank you

[christiansaravia]

i feel like if they were really as fragile as people act like they are, they wouldn't survive without us, but they do as long as the hen is around, and hens aren't as temperamental as most people lol

[hamidseifi]

I like your common sense approach. I have been in dry heat of AZ, muggy humid Miami, very cold high altitude areas and I see hens with happy chicks. Yet to see a single hen with an egg roller under one wing and a digital thermometer under the other wing :) I am on my 3rd incubator trial and it has been stressful. I literally lose sleep during days 20-24. I am about to give up. I have tried everything I have learned from YouTube, wash the eggs in Hydrogen Peroxide, flash light test on day 7 and 14 and remove the infertile eggs, follow strict lock down rules, remove the egg roller, check the temp. & humidity 2-3 times/day, and I get 8-10 chicks out of 46-48 eggs. I do autopsy on the non-hatched eggs and almost everyone of them is a chick that looks full grown just didn't break out of the shell and they stink. I have had 2-3 chicks on each try that was stuck with the tip of the beak sticking out of the shell. I guess that means he got shrink wrapped?? Currently, I live in a dry but warm area. Today's temp range is 48-78 with 30% humidity. I am on day 25. From day 20-21, 10 happy healthy chicks. I waited as long as I could then based on some advise from 3 different YouTube experts (who made me believe that if I open the lid during lockdown, I get hit by lightning), I ran the hot water in the shower, had a spray bottle of warm water handy and gingerly walked the incubator to the bathroom, as quickly as I could, removed the 10 live chicks, did the water floating test, removed 4 non-floaters, sprayed the eggs with warm water, topped off the water at the bottom of the incubator and took the incubator back to the barn. NOTHING has happened since then. Today, I am about to go thru the grim task of autopsy again and load up the incubator for another attempt. Any advise? Should I stop washing the eggs in H2O2? I keep the incubator in the Styrofoam box that it came in and wrap it in a blanket even though our temp never drops below 45 and I am envious of all you guys hatching 90-100% of your eggs. I only have 8-9 hens that lay eggs so it takes me about 15 days to collect 48 eggs for the incubator and I keep the eggs in room temperature. Sorry for the comment

[marciathompson]

My Mother and I hatched chicks in a cardboard box with a drop light when I was a little girl. I've thought it strange how everyone says you have to do this and you have to do that everything has to be perfect I knew it wasn't true. My mother turned them by hand four times a day and sprinkle them with water. As I remember it we only had two that didn't hatch out of two dozen.

[christysmith]

A big thank you for this encouragement!!
I have 12 fresh farmers market eggs in the incubator for my first go. I decided I o keep it simple and try a dry hatch till lock down. Especially since I’m in Hawaii and we are naturally at 50% humidity.
I have quail eggs on their way for the other incubation.
I’m going to try keeping it simple

[__Negan__]

Well, I have a funny story, so I incubate eggs all the time. Now, I usually get a 70% hatch rate, and I do 55% humidity 37.5°C, then 75% humidity on day 18 (also stop turning on day 18) turn every 2 hours, but this month, even though it's going into winter here in Australia I would break most the rules (i did 2 batches)I have automatic turners so I just let them turn every 2 hours but besides that I incubated one batch at 35°C with 40% humidity then 60% humidity for last 3 days didn't stop turn until all the chicks hatched I got a 65% hatch rate
So I broke a lot of rules and only lost a 5% hatch rate

Now on the second batch I did 38.5°C and 75%humidity then raised it to 95% for the last 3 days, I let the eggs cool down for 5 minutes every day for the first 18 days, and turned till the first egg hatched I incubated 20 20 hatched non died, I was shocked I didn't know if it was luck or because the way I incubated them but I know what I'm doing from now on


100% hatch rate...wow

[Bobcagon]

Different perspective on incubation. Personally I think it’s great that you give a different opinion but not straying from what Mother Nature does.I imagine we have got this far from “scientists” evaluating the parameters to which a live hen infuses in order to get results. Hence the incubators. I get the part where the hen is off the nest for sometime. Heaven forbid if the ambient temperature for the day is 80 degrees in her absence. Or the humidity is nowhere near what the experts call for yet she does not fret the situation.

[johnbaggus]

I've just set my first batch of 20 eggs here in Malaysia where the ambient humidity is 80 to 90 percent which I worried about but my farmer friend says they will be just fine as his broody hens are hatching all the time
Which supports your common sense approach
I just did my first 7 day candling and all are alive so far, so thanks for the video it is much appreciated

[loulou]

I’ve been hatching eggs since I was little and at first didn’t have a good hatch rate. As I grew older and got more experienced with hatching and owning birds I’ve learned from my hens and my previous hatchlings, I break all the rules now and have a great hatch rate 😂

[kevinsloan]

Thanks for the comment about the olive eggers i thought i was going blind or something going on day 12 fingers crossed!! Also always wondered about adding eggs hatched on different days i dont have many hens and takes a few days for me to fill a large incubator thanks for the info!!!