How to Hatch Chicken Eggs in Incubator | Silkies On the Homestead 🐣
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- Our Family loves to incubate chicken eggs on our homestead. We were gifted a small incubator from our good friends and we usually hatch out chicks from our backyard homestead several times a year. Watching the chicks pip their first hole, unzip, and then finally push off the egg shell is always so exciting.
In this video, we will show you how we prepare and get ready to hatch Silkie chicks. To hatch out silkie chicks you need both a silkie hen and a rooster. We put the pair together away from any other types of roosters to ensure that the chicks will be full bred silkies. Unfortunately, our silkie rooster was killed by a raccoon so the kids had to immediately start collecting the hens eggs. Thankfully the silkie hen was enclosed with the silkie rooster for weeks before the raccoon killed the rooster. If a rooster has fertilized a hen she actually remain fertile for 5-7 days after. We started collecting her eggs immediately after the rooster died and put the eggs in the incubator. We collected 8 of her eggs and 7 turned out to be fertile.
The incubator that we have is a Janoel 12 and was an older model that was given to us by our good friends. To set up this particular incubator we had to put 2 tablespoons of water underneath the egg tray and set the temperature for 37.7 degrees celsius. We placed all 8 eggs on the egg tray frame and we usually mark one side with an “X” using a pencil. We rotate the egg daily so that the “X” can be seen one day and then rotate the egg the next day. It takes eggs about 21 days to hatch. On day 18 we put our incubator on “lock down.” This “Lock Down” period gives the chicks time to get into optimal position in egg so their egg tooth on their beak is facing the air sac. On hatch day the chick will pip a hole through the egg using their hard egg tooth which is located on top of their beak. The chick will then slowly rotate its beak breaking away at the egg in a circular motion. This process is called unzipping. Once the egg shell is completely broke into a top and bottom part of egg shell then the chick will put all the remaining energy into one last push with their legs to push off the egg shell.
Once the chick hatches; it will look wet and just lay there from being exhausted. Most chicks will stand up and stumble around and then lie down for a while. The chick will have a string like cord attached from his belly to egg shell. This is very similar to a human umbilical cord where the chick gets all the nutrients it needs to grow and develop. We allow our chicks to rest and the umbilical cord to dry out and detach before moving it to the brooder.
In the chick brooder you need to have a heating lamp and some kind of tub. Fill the bottom of the container with 2-3 inches of bedding. We use pine shaving flakes for our chicks. We usually set the chicks in the brooder and turn on the heat lamp. To make sure the heat lamp is at a good temperature you can use a thermometer to make sure the temp is between 95-100 degrees for the first week. A good way to tell if the brooder is too warm is if the chicks move away from the light panting. If this happens you can light the heat lamp away from the chicks some. Once the chicks have dried up and fluffed out; we usually teach the chicks to drink water by dipping their beak in the water. They will usually figure out how to do this after 2-3 dips of the beak. We also use our fingers and tap on the food and the chicks will usually imitate and start pecking at the food.
We usually hatch out our chickens in the late spring when the chicks are able to get out in the warm fresh air. Fall is not an ideal time because chicks are not fully feathered until they are bout 6 weeks of age. Chicks start out needing a temperature between 100 and 95 degrees. Typically you can lower the temperature each week by five degrees until they are feathered at six weeks. Even at 6 weeks the temperature outside needs to be similar to the brooder temperature before you set them outside. You can start off by setting the chicks outside for 10-15 min on warm sunny days and gradually increasing every day. If the chicks are too cold, they will let you know by loudly chirping often.
Little tip, leave the chicks in the incubator till they are a little dry. You took them out a little too quickly. Hope this helps 😊
Thanks for the tip!
Yah I was about to comment... Don't remove the chicks until they have fully dried and also it helps the other eggs to pip when they hear the other chicks chirping...
This is the most helpful video I’ve found on hatching chicks. Thank you!!
You are so welcome! I’m glad this video helped. Thanks for watching!!😄👍🏼
That opening shot with the chickens was really cool.
Silkies are just adorable!! I had one silkie egg in my incubator with a bunch of other breeds and sadly it died 😢 but the rest of my eggs are hatching Oct 12th
I was told not to take them out of the incubator till they’re dried off .
That is so exciting!!! It is suggested to wait until chicks are dried off because the incubator is a constant temperature. Sometimes bringing a chick out to a cooler temperature can definitely be a shock to their system.
Good info. Hens actually rotate them periodically throughout the day whether they get out of the nest or not. They are good moms 🙂
Wow, that's really cool how God designed them!🤩
So exciting!
your suposto wait till there dry befor moving them
Thanks for the tip!
Awww so cute, you should name one of the greyish white ones stormy!
That's a such a cute name!! Love it!!🥰
All eggs are fertile it’s just if they have been fertilized or not.
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Excellent video! I learned a lot! 9:39…that chick was so funny. I don’t know if any of them are males, but if so, you should name him Beau (short for Beaufort) (and short for Beauvais!)
We totally should!!!! Love that idea!
Mine all died.Day 18 great,day21 all dead.No pip,fully formed,but egg sacs are outside.All wet too. DRY HATCH. Can you help? So frustrating.
So sorry to hear that! Were you able to figure out or save any of them?
We've had a few batches like that. Some are formed but don't make it, while others don't form. When the sac is dry, we use a tiny bit of water and a paintbrush and gently swipe it over the sack. We also make sure there is water inside the bottom of the incubator at all times along with a soaked towel on the side for extra moisture. The dry sac is mostly caused by opening the lid too much. With the six kids in our house, this is tricky for us to keep it closed. 😅
Sometimes, the chick takes up to two or three days to hatch because it hasn't fully absorbed the extra blood from the vessels.
Did these hatch late I have the the same incubator and it’s day 21 and no sign of them hatching yet?
I always wait at least 3 days later just in case.
Do the mama hens stop turning them in the last few days?
Hens usually stop turning their eggs as much as possible at the end. They do this so the position of the chick isn’t disturbed and they won’t get dizzy before hatching. I’ve actually watched some of our broody hens and they don’t even come out to poop in the last couple of days of the hatching process.
@@FisherPriceless So in our hens case, she continued to gather other hens eggs for a couple weeks. When I finally caught on to what was happening, I marked all the eggs that were under her so I could take any new ones away from that day forward. So not sure how she would keep turning some but not others. 🤷🏻♀️ Anyways, when the first one hatched I checked them all and got rid of the duds. Eventually she abandoned the other eggs to take care of the first chick, so I put the rest in the incubator. I don’t know how to tell which ones I should be turning and which ones I should be leaving still. ?? They all seem pretty advanced.
@@beed3202 In this case, I wouldn't turn any more of them because they're most likely within a week from each other. Eggs are not usually affected by not being rotated until the one-week mark. This is cause by the yolk of the egg touching the inside of the membrane shell. When it touches that's when it gets stuck and eventually dies. Since these eggs seem to be close to hatch time, I would just leave them be. On a side note, sometimes it takes a couple extra days for a chick to hatch, so if majority of the chicks hatch within the same time period leave the rest of the eggs in the incubator for around three extra days. I hope this helps and I'll be praying that everything goes smoothly!😊😄👍🏼
Do you have a link for that light please
www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/producers-pride-brooder-lamp-6-ft-cord?store=2043&cid=Shopping-Google-Local_Feed&Google&Shopping&Local_Feed&gbraid=0AAAAAD3fmFM9foUeEqe2JB3gItnqn8DwN&gclid=CjwKCAjws--ZBhAXEiwAv-RNL5cgSK7v9IDCrtibPAb_nUk7RU4BbzYcOkfDM1baGbgDgo35wqmn5RoCd28QAvD_BwE
This is the one we used but i would love to try out the safer versions like this: Rural365 Chick Heating Plate Brooder Plate - 10 Inch Brooder Heat Plate for Chicks and Ducklings with Adjustable Height a.co/d/iYgSvvB
How lone Leave in Hatch
20-21 days is the incubation period for chickens
Name the last one Bradley and another black one Darth Vader
Kids are all about the star wars theme! Looks like we will have to come up with 6 star wars names 😂
Penelopeep
Haha…that is cute! Love that