Day 1 of Incubation and Technical Side of Incubating
So, as I said the the previous post I got these eggs yesterday (May 20, 2018). The breeder I got them from says the batches she sells were all collected within the last four days before pick-up/shipping. It's a very odd thing how chicken eggs can sit like that and not really start having an embryo form and grow unless conditions are right. I read on a forum I go to, www.backyardchickens.com, that someone stores their eggs in a wine cooler. They claim that that keeps them at the perfect temperature to put the embryo on hold in the time it takes to collect enough eggs to make it worth incubating. I've seen others keep their eggs in the fridge. Apparently there are plenty of people who end up incubating and hatching eggs they got from Trader Joe's!
Now, had I been able to pick out the eggs myself I would have picked only the cleanest. Not that you can't get a good hatch from some dirty eggs (dirty meaning has chicken poop on it), but the success rate is much higher due to the fact that bacterial issues aren't really a thing. Unfortunately I was not able to pick the eggs, even though I drove to New Bern, NC to pick them up, not wanting to trust them with the postal service (at least in my area as I know how careless the post office employees in my city can be, my uncle has worked with the city post office for over 30 years).
I have read you shouldn't wash the eggs, but if you absolutely have to, warm water and a very gentle scrub with a pumice stone (do not quote me on that, go do the research and do what you feel is right). I do not want to wash the eggs, nor do I want to use a pumice stone. The reason you shouldn't wash the eggs is because eggs have what is called a bloom on the outside of them. Eggs are quite porous and the bloom helps keep bacteria and whatnot out of the egg. If you wash the eggs, you risk the chance of washing the bloom off and leaving your eggs vulnerable to bacteria. You would really only need to wash eggs if you planned on them being eaten, not incubated.
So what did I do about the dirty eggs? I took a clean washcloth that I have that has a netting on one side for scrubbing. I put on a sterile, non-latex glove on one hand with which to hold the egg and with my other hand I used the cloth and gently, in circular motions tried to wipe off any mess I could. While it was not perfect, it did get the big bits off.
When it comes to times I will need to handle the eggs, I will again use the glove which I wash after handling the eggs and place, dry, in the carton the eggs came in. I touch any of the dirty eggs last so I don't possibly transfer anything from the dirty eggs to the clean one via the glove. As for the fact the eggs are all sitting on the same thing and getting moved over it by the turner, well, you can't control everything. If I feel I absolutely must do something to lessen bacteria I will probably try a warm water and peroxide solution (which I need to find out the ratio for) and mist the eggs and tray with it.
Here is a picture of my incubator right after I loaded all the eggs. If you can see, I did mark them with Xs to help let me know that the turner is, indeed, doing its job. I put Os on the other side, though I didn't really need to, I just like making absolutely sure I can tell what's going on. Also, as you can see there are letters written in marker on the eggs. While I have talked to plenty of chicken people on the forums who use a sharpie to mark their eggs and things go just fine, I wanted to be extra careful and just use pencil. However, the breeder had marked them before I got them. I'm not even sure what the marks mean. I am guessing color of the hen or the rooster. There are some that say Red, W, B, DK, etc. I have asked the breeder but she has not gotten back to me, yet. *Note* Please don't think that this breeder is bad at what she does. Her great reviews speak for themselves and she was very nice and professional when messaging back and forth. I believe selling Serama chickens and eggs is more of a side job for her so I expect she is busy with other things.
The picture below is just to show size. Seramas, if you don't know, are the smallest chicken breed. They are about the size of an African Grey parrot. So, naturally, their eggs are quite a bit smaller. The eggs between my fingers is actually a lot smaller than most of the other eggs. That is a possible indicator of a newer layer. However, that egg is only the 2nd smallest. If you want to see the smallest, look in the picture above. You'll see a whiter egg (it's actually pretty near as white as eggs you see in the store) in the center cells. That's my smallest. I would like for it to hatch, but smaller eggs tend not to have a good hatch rate and I wouldn't think even a Serama chick would have much room to grow properly in an egg so small. I also have a long, slim egg in the center cells that I don't have much hope for it hatching anything even if it is viable.
So now I will talk more about what I have read in regards to incubating chicken eggs. Chicken eggs take 21 days to hatch. On some occasions the chicks can hatch early or late, just like human babies, but it's usually 21 days.
Eggs need proper heat and humidity to be sure of growth. And of course they need to be turned. You might have seen things where a hen will fuss over the eggs she's sitting on, moving them around under her and turning them over. This is so the embryos get even heating and so they don't stick to the inside of the egg.
A temperature around 99.5*F to 100*F for an incubator with a fan (forced air) or 101*F to 102*F in an incubator without a fan (still air) is best. I have my incubator set at 100*F. I may adjust that back down to 99.5*F once I get my own thermometer in there to give me a second reading on the temp (more on why I have a second thermometer later).
Humidity should be kept between 28% to 50% for days 1-18 (depending on air cell size, which I won't go into just yet as I'm still a newbie to that...and basically everything else). Then, at the start of day 19 you want the humidity to be increased to between 65% and 75%. Humidity plays a big part in the size of the air sac and how well the chick will actually hatch. For right now I will just say that during hatching the humidity needs to be just right so the chick is wet enough to completely come free of its shell, otherwise it could dry out too fast and end up sticking to the shell and becoming deformed or things get broken and there ends up being blood. Too humid, though, and the chick risks drowning due to fluid buildup in the air sac.
If you read other things about incubation and you see the word "lockdown" that simply means the last 3 days of incubation. Eggs do not need to be turned and the humidity needs to stay sort of high so unless something crazy happens you do not open the incubator during these days. If you do, you risk the incubator being unable to bring humidity back up to the proper amount or even not being able to come back to the proper temperature, but mostly it's for the humidity.
During incubation there will be times where you will want to check the progress of your chicks. You do this by doing what's called candling. This means you dim or turn off the lights and use a very bright light to illuminate the inside of the egg. You can buy a candler which has a lovely end that the egg will sit on, or you can just make a little ring with something clean for the egg to sit that will also keep the light source focused on your egg. My incubator, a Nurture Right 360, has a built in egg candler, which I will show off another time.
When candling you are looking for embryo progression. You can candle as early as day 5 of incubation, but most people wait until day 7. That's what I will be doing. During that time you will be looking for good formation of veins and what's called a blood ring. I will go into that when the time comes. I have also read you can candle on days 10, 14, and 18/19. Usually by day 10 you will see which of your eggs are viable and which are not. However, sometimes it can be hard to tell, so some wait until day 14 to throw out any non-viable eggs. That is what I will be doing.
Also, when candling it is good to check size of the air sac. This will help you better control the humidity in the incubator. Air sacs that are too big too soon will need more humidity, air sacs not big enough will need less humidity. I will go into this on day 7 when I candle.
As for turning, you can either turn the eggs yourself which can be very time consuming if you have more than a few eggs, or you can get a turner or an incubator that comes with a turner. Turning the eggs helps make sure the embryo does not stick to the inside of the egg which would mean it could grow deformed or end up dying early on. Many people swear by turners that allow you to stand your eggs upright, with the fat end (air sac) up. I think anything that gives you an extra edge on having a better hatch rate is great. We are not chickens and so have to tweak things in order to get the same outcome, but I've seen loads of people who have just as good a hatch rate when having their eggs laying down. It's really all about what you think is best.
That's pretty much it for the technical aspect of incubating eggs. Now for tips I have read.
-I mentioned further up in this post about a second thermometer. Machines are not perfect. This means if you have an incubator with a built in thermometer and hygrometer (thing that measures humidity) it could be off. It is always best to get a second, or even third, thermometer to measure temperature. I don't think I've read of anyone having more than two hygrometers. You will calibrate your thermometers by filling up a cup with cold water and crushed ice. Place the thermometer into the middle of the cup to get the most accurate reading. Your thermometer should end up reading 32*F/0*C after about a minute. That's how you calibrate it. Those in food service or the health department should know this ;)
Put the thermometer inside the incubator where it will not interfere with the turning process if you have an automatic turner. Part of the reason for having a few thermometers is also so you can check temps for different areas of the incubator. Sometimes heat doesn't reach to an area very well.
-Another tip is to handle the eggs as little as possible and when you do, make sure you wash your hands well before and after.
-To help keep track of turning whether doing so manually or with a turner, mark an X and an O on opposite sides of the middle of the eggs. Meaning X on on broad side (not the ends) and an O on the other broad side.
-Pick the cleanest eggs as you do not want to wash the eggs unless absolutely necessary.
-If you must wash the eggs, use warm water, not cold and try not to scrub.
-If using shipped eggs it is best to allow the eggs to sit upright, with the fat end up, for 24 hours to allow the yolks to settle back into place and to allow the eggs to come to room temperature.
-Do not place eggs directly from cold storing into warm incubator, let them come to room temp first.
-Allow incubator an hour or two to come to temp and humidity before putting eggs in.
-Do not use cold water to fill reservoirs for humidity.
-It is generally believed best to use a pencil to mark the eggs if need be, but many have been fine using sharpies. Either way make sure whatever you use is non-toxic.
I'm sure there are loads more tips, but these are the ones that come immediately to mind. For my eggs I will always be erring on the side of caution as Seramas tend to be more "fragile". I do not use my bare hands to touch the eggs. I use a sterile, non-latex glove. I used a pencil to mark my eggs, even though the breeder used a marker.
Even though my eggs were not shipped, I carried them home myself, they were still in a car ride and I did not want to start incubating at night, even though I was really excited and wanted to get started as soon as possible. So I just let them sit upright overnight.
I will not be candling my eggs daily like some people do, no matter how curious I get. Like I said, I want to handle the eggs as little as possible. That's mostly a tip for Serama hatching, but I think I'd be the same way with regular sized chickens as well.
That's going to do it for this post. I apologize for the length and applaud anyone who has read its entirety. I do tend to be more detailed than most, so if that's not something you want, this may not be the blog for you. Of course, as this is going to be my first blog I actually follow through on, I know I will get better at being detailed yet concise.
Now, had I been able to pick out the eggs myself I would have picked only the cleanest. Not that you can't get a good hatch from some dirty eggs (dirty meaning has chicken poop on it), but the success rate is much higher due to the fact that bacterial issues aren't really a thing. Unfortunately I was not able to pick the eggs, even though I drove to New Bern, NC to pick them up, not wanting to trust them with the postal service (at least in my area as I know how careless the post office employees in my city can be, my uncle has worked with the city post office for over 30 years).
I have read you shouldn't wash the eggs, but if you absolutely have to, warm water and a very gentle scrub with a pumice stone (do not quote me on that, go do the research and do what you feel is right). I do not want to wash the eggs, nor do I want to use a pumice stone. The reason you shouldn't wash the eggs is because eggs have what is called a bloom on the outside of them. Eggs are quite porous and the bloom helps keep bacteria and whatnot out of the egg. If you wash the eggs, you risk the chance of washing the bloom off and leaving your eggs vulnerable to bacteria. You would really only need to wash eggs if you planned on them being eaten, not incubated.
So what did I do about the dirty eggs? I took a clean washcloth that I have that has a netting on one side for scrubbing. I put on a sterile, non-latex glove on one hand with which to hold the egg and with my other hand I used the cloth and gently, in circular motions tried to wipe off any mess I could. While it was not perfect, it did get the big bits off.
When it comes to times I will need to handle the eggs, I will again use the glove which I wash after handling the eggs and place, dry, in the carton the eggs came in. I touch any of the dirty eggs last so I don't possibly transfer anything from the dirty eggs to the clean one via the glove. As for the fact the eggs are all sitting on the same thing and getting moved over it by the turner, well, you can't control everything. If I feel I absolutely must do something to lessen bacteria I will probably try a warm water and peroxide solution (which I need to find out the ratio for) and mist the eggs and tray with it.
Here is a picture of my incubator right after I loaded all the eggs. If you can see, I did mark them with Xs to help let me know that the turner is, indeed, doing its job. I put Os on the other side, though I didn't really need to, I just like making absolutely sure I can tell what's going on. Also, as you can see there are letters written in marker on the eggs. While I have talked to plenty of chicken people on the forums who use a sharpie to mark their eggs and things go just fine, I wanted to be extra careful and just use pencil. However, the breeder had marked them before I got them. I'm not even sure what the marks mean. I am guessing color of the hen or the rooster. There are some that say Red, W, B, DK, etc. I have asked the breeder but she has not gotten back to me, yet. *Note* Please don't think that this breeder is bad at what she does. Her great reviews speak for themselves and she was very nice and professional when messaging back and forth. I believe selling Serama chickens and eggs is more of a side job for her so I expect she is busy with other things.
The picture below is to show...well not only my stupidity but also my annoyance with this incubator. I have not read anything from anyone else with this incubator or others that do turning like this (meaning the eggs are rolled on their sides and are not standing upright). First, my stupidity. I knew the pointed ends needed to face toward the center. Even if I hadn't read it in the manual, I would have figured it out by the way the inner cells are shaped. However, having just come back last night from a weekend trip to the beach and the fact that I didn't get great sleep last night, my brain, once again, turned things around. So this meant that the eggs were facing the wrong way, with the fat ends pointed toward the center, and that meant that when they were turned they would more likely end up with the pointed end perched up on the edge of the turner. Like I said earlier, you want the fat end higher up so the chick is in the correct position when it is time for them to pip.
Now in this picture there is an egg in the back on the left and one on the back right that have the pointed end higher. I had to go in and fix those as well as all the others to get them turned properly. This does not solve the problem absolutely as when I did test runs with the eggs in my fridge (from my sister's lovely hens) the eggs would still sometimes end up partially on the edges of the turner. Sometimes it'd be the fat end, like you see with the egg front and center in the picture, sometimes it'd be the pointed end.
My goal is to handle the eggs as little as possible as hatching Serama eggs is more difficult. This is why I wear a glove to handle them when I must. That way I can lessen the contact my skin has with the eggs. Even if I washed my hands immediately before, I wouldn't trust it.
Eggs need proper heat and humidity to be sure of growth. And of course they need to be turned. You might have seen things where a hen will fuss over the eggs she's sitting on, moving them around under her and turning them over. This is so the embryos get even heating and so they don't stick to the inside of the egg.
A temperature around 99.5*F to 100*F for an incubator with a fan (forced air) or 101*F to 102*F in an incubator without a fan (still air) is best. I have my incubator set at 100*F. I may adjust that back down to 99.5*F once I get my own thermometer in there to give me a second reading on the temp (more on why I have a second thermometer later).
Humidity should be kept between 28% to 50% for days 1-18 (depending on air cell size, which I won't go into just yet as I'm still a newbie to that...and basically everything else). Then, at the start of day 19 you want the humidity to be increased to between 65% and 75%. Humidity plays a big part in the size of the air sac and how well the chick will actually hatch. For right now I will just say that during hatching the humidity needs to be just right so the chick is wet enough to completely come free of its shell, otherwise it could dry out too fast and end up sticking to the shell and becoming deformed or things get broken and there ends up being blood. Too humid, though, and the chick risks drowning due to fluid buildup in the air sac.
If you read other things about incubation and you see the word "lockdown" that simply means the last 3 days of incubation. Eggs do not need to be turned and the humidity needs to stay sort of high so unless something crazy happens you do not open the incubator during these days. If you do, you risk the incubator being unable to bring humidity back up to the proper amount or even not being able to come back to the proper temperature, but mostly it's for the humidity.
During incubation there will be times where you will want to check the progress of your chicks. You do this by doing what's called candling. This means you dim or turn off the lights and use a very bright light to illuminate the inside of the egg. You can buy a candler which has a lovely end that the egg will sit on, or you can just make a little ring with something clean for the egg to sit that will also keep the light source focused on your egg. My incubator, a Nurture Right 360, has a built in egg candler, which I will show off another time.
When candling you are looking for embryo progression. You can candle as early as day 5 of incubation, but most people wait until day 7. That's what I will be doing. During that time you will be looking for good formation of veins and what's called a blood ring. I will go into that when the time comes. I have also read you can candle on days 10, 14, and 18/19. Usually by day 10 you will see which of your eggs are viable and which are not. However, sometimes it can be hard to tell, so some wait until day 14 to throw out any non-viable eggs. That is what I will be doing.
Also, when candling it is good to check size of the air sac. This will help you better control the humidity in the incubator. Air sacs that are too big too soon will need more humidity, air sacs not big enough will need less humidity. I will go into this on day 7 when I candle.
As for turning, you can either turn the eggs yourself which can be very time consuming if you have more than a few eggs, or you can get a turner or an incubator that comes with a turner. Turning the eggs helps make sure the embryo does not stick to the inside of the egg which would mean it could grow deformed or end up dying early on. Many people swear by turners that allow you to stand your eggs upright, with the fat end (air sac) up. I think anything that gives you an extra edge on having a better hatch rate is great. We are not chickens and so have to tweak things in order to get the same outcome, but I've seen loads of people who have just as good a hatch rate when having their eggs laying down. It's really all about what you think is best.
That's pretty much it for the technical aspect of incubating eggs. Now for tips I have read.
-I mentioned further up in this post about a second thermometer. Machines are not perfect. This means if you have an incubator with a built in thermometer and hygrometer (thing that measures humidity) it could be off. It is always best to get a second, or even third, thermometer to measure temperature. I don't think I've read of anyone having more than two hygrometers. You will calibrate your thermometers by filling up a cup with cold water and crushed ice. Place the thermometer into the middle of the cup to get the most accurate reading. Your thermometer should end up reading 32*F/0*C after about a minute. That's how you calibrate it. Those in food service or the health department should know this ;)
Put the thermometer inside the incubator where it will not interfere with the turning process if you have an automatic turner. Part of the reason for having a few thermometers is also so you can check temps for different areas of the incubator. Sometimes heat doesn't reach to an area very well.
-Another tip is to handle the eggs as little as possible and when you do, make sure you wash your hands well before and after.
-To help keep track of turning whether doing so manually or with a turner, mark an X and an O on opposite sides of the middle of the eggs. Meaning X on on broad side (not the ends) and an O on the other broad side.
-Pick the cleanest eggs as you do not want to wash the eggs unless absolutely necessary.
-If you must wash the eggs, use warm water, not cold and try not to scrub.
-If using shipped eggs it is best to allow the eggs to sit upright, with the fat end up, for 24 hours to allow the yolks to settle back into place and to allow the eggs to come to room temperature.
-Do not place eggs directly from cold storing into warm incubator, let them come to room temp first.
-Allow incubator an hour or two to come to temp and humidity before putting eggs in.
-Do not use cold water to fill reservoirs for humidity.
-It is generally believed best to use a pencil to mark the eggs if need be, but many have been fine using sharpies. Either way make sure whatever you use is non-toxic.
I'm sure there are loads more tips, but these are the ones that come immediately to mind. For my eggs I will always be erring on the side of caution as Seramas tend to be more "fragile". I do not use my bare hands to touch the eggs. I use a sterile, non-latex glove. I used a pencil to mark my eggs, even though the breeder used a marker.
Even though my eggs were not shipped, I carried them home myself, they were still in a car ride and I did not want to start incubating at night, even though I was really excited and wanted to get started as soon as possible. So I just let them sit upright overnight.
I will not be candling my eggs daily like some people do, no matter how curious I get. Like I said, I want to handle the eggs as little as possible. That's mostly a tip for Serama hatching, but I think I'd be the same way with regular sized chickens as well.
That's going to do it for this post. I apologize for the length and applaud anyone who has read its entirety. I do tend to be more detailed than most, so if that's not something you want, this may not be the blog for you. Of course, as this is going to be my first blog I actually follow through on, I know I will get better at being detailed yet concise.
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