How to HATCH CHICKS in a Homemade Incubator

(Page 6 of 6)

March/April 1975
by Vikki & Ted Purve - Smith 
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The newly emerged chick is covered with albumen and blood, and is wet, ugly and still attached to the yolk. As the young bird breathes, its body will expand and draw in the food supply by means of the muscles in the yolk sac wall. Clear away the shell debris if you like, but leave the chick in the incubator until the yolk is absorbed and the down begins to dry. We keep clean water (containing a few drops of cider vinegar) available for the new arrivals and dip their beaks into it to teach them to drink. After five or six hours the chicks get nice and fluffy and we remove them to the brooder box.

RELATED CONTENT

We found hatching our own chicks very exciting and rewarding worth all the time and attention we put into it. Although a hatch of about 60 percent is considered reasonably good, either our method or our luck has given us 100 percent success with all the fertile eggs we've tried. We're looking forward to a lot of chicken dinners.

INCUBATION OF OTHER FOWL
Birds other than chickens can be successfully hatched in an incubator. Our unit now contains some duck eggs, and we plan to try geese and quail. The principles are the same but each species has its own incubation time: Chickens . . . . . . . . . .... . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 days
Ducks ..... . . . . . . . . ... . . . .. . . . . . . . . 28 days
Geese . ... . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . 30-33 days
Turkeys . . . . . . . . ... ... . . . . . . . . . . 28-30 days
Partridges. . . . . . ... ... . . . . . . . . . . . 22-23 days
Bobwhite quail . ... . . ..... . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 days

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Comments

  • Mavis 4/26/2009 2:35:04 PM

    I have a small still air incubator that I have borrowed. I am concerned about one thing-how do you keep the eggs large end up? This one has a small mesh wire over a space that has the water well for humidity. Is there something I can use to keep the ends standing up? If laid out, they lay on their sides. Thanks for your help.

  • Peet Robberts 9/21/2008 12:43:22 AM

    I just build my fitrs own homemade incubator 19/09/2008 the temp inside are 102 at the top of the egg witch seems right but when it's time for turning the eggs do not feel that warm.
    I make use of forced air, still air got to hot.
    Is there any thing to fear or is it just no knowlege off first time.
    12 eggs in incubation

  • shehzad 6/10/2007 12:36:24 PM

    i hatched pheasants 3 times i only suceeded 2 times with 60%
    resuld. this time time i failed badly with 0% result i dont know
    why.

  • Rhonda 5/9/2007 12:35:12 PM

    I love hatching chickens and ducks. I have 45 chickens and 34 ducks
    that I hatched myself

  • TONY 3/10/2007 3:10:30 PM

    i need to know i have a still air hovabater do i just put a load of
    vermurculite in the bottom of the incubater damp or put them in
    tubs

  • ebenezer 2/23/2007 7:32:59 AM

    please send a simply type of the solar or any typeof incubator
    design that can be made easily with low cost
    MOTHER EARTH NEWS RESPONDS:
    you can make a low-cost incubator from the information in this
    article. We do not have an article on building a solar
    icubator.

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