After opening your package, place eggs point side down for about 12-24 hours to settle from shipping at room temperature. Use this time to warm incubator and make sure temperature remains stable.
All incubators vary in accuracy of temperature and humidity. We highly encourage the use of a secondary thermometer and hygrometer unit (can be separate or a 2-in-1). It is best to use ones that are meant for incubators as these will give more accurate readings.
Temperature should remain at 99.5 or between 99-100 degrees F. Do not go over 103-105 or chicks could die. Humidity: We encourage a dry/natural humidity hatch for days 1-14 for best results. The natural humidity will end up reading between 20-35%, which is common. Humidity will never read 0% for a dry incubation.
Important Tip: Try not to open your incubator too many times or for more than a few minutes throughout your hatch. A drop in the internal egg temperature just 10 degrees could shock the chick and possibly kill it. Try to just let nature take its course in development. We promise you will see better results.
Incubate and turn eggs at least 3X a day for days 1-14 if you do not have an automatic turner. Day 15 starts lockdown, remove eggs from turner & place on incubator floor grid. Bring humidity up to around 70%, not going over 80%. Humidity will increase as chicks start hatching. Do not open incubator during lockdown.
Chicks will start hatching between days 17-23, depending on stable temps. Do not open incubator until 24 hours has passed from the first chick out of its shell. Chicks can survive up to 48 hours without food or water. We know they are extremely cute but resist the urge to open the incubator as it will harden the egg shell membranes and possibly kill all the other chicks inside their shells.
After 24 hours, you can quickly crack lid to remove the fully fluffed chicks & transfer to brooder. Leave any remaining. Only crack lid & quickly remove chicks one time per day. Doing this quickly will ensure the humidity stays trapped inside the incubator and does not escape. Now you will be placing fluffed chicks into the brooder.
Tip: you can soak a paper towel in hot water and place it in a corner of the incubator, away from electronics. This will help in restoring the humidity that was lost during your chick transfer.
Caring For Your Newly Hatched Chicks
Brooders should have a heat source on one side (*be extremely cautious with positioning heat source as bedding can catch on fire*) and food and water on the opposite. You want a space inside the brooder that chicks can get in and out of warmth. Brooders can be as simple as a plastic bin. Pine shavings are a popular and inexpensive option. Keep your bedding clean and dry to make sure your chicks stay healthy and disease free. If you have the option for wire, this is best after the first 3-4 days. Wire will prevent diseases and deaths. Brooder temp should start out at around 95F and decrease one degree per day. Chicks will be fully feathered between 3-4 weeks and will no longer need heat and can be transferred to their permanent cage/environment.
Food and Water: Food for chicks up to 7 weeks (10 weeks for jumbos) will need to be a minimum 22-30% protein crumble. After 7 weeks, you may transfer laying adults to a minimum 15-20% protein layer crumble. Water for newly hatched chicks can be given electrolyte supplement in their water for the first 2 weeks, if preferred. Make sure to try to find a waterer with a slimmer quail lid/screw top. Chicken water bases are too large for quail chicks. They could drown or play in the water making bedding wet and possible diseases can spread this way. Avoid giving cold water to chicks. You will want to make sure water is room temperature or lukewarm with chicks less than a month old.
Tip: You will want to keep an eye on the behavior of your chicks that are not fully feathered yet. If they are noisy, something is wrong. Always make sure they have constant food and water. Monitor their location inside brooder. If they are all gathered up under the heat source, it is too cold. Try a stronger bulb or place a flat cardboard box on top to trap heat. If they are all on the opposite side of the heat source, it is too hot. Try raising the heat source or using a lower watt bulb. You want chicks to be spread out throughout the whole cage. This is a good mixture in-between which means they are content. You do not want to hear chirping, for chicks, this means they are happy.
For breeding and/or fertile eggs, we recommend keeping 4-5 hens to one rooster. This is the ratio you will want to keep for healthy and happy birds.
If you have any questions or concerns, please message us and we will be glad to help you through your journey!
Something Went Wrong?
No Chicks? All incubators vary in quality so we recommend you keep eggs inside incubator until day 24. Keep all eggs. Please contact us if you have any problems, we are here to help!
Pips and Zips but No or Few Chicks: In this circumstance, humidity was not high enough and/or long enough for shells to soften and for chicks to exit the shell. This will result in the majority of chicks dying inside the shells.
Weak Chick? Give warm water with electrolyte added for a few days. This can help with any sort of vitamins that the chick may be lacking. Electrolytes can save your chicks and we are firm supporters of electrolytes.
Splayed Leg: Typically when this occurs, the humidity was too high. Some chicks outgrow it and some do not. This is something to consider if you are building your own flock.
Deformities: Please know that chicks are not like humans with genetics. 99% of deformities occur because something was wrong during the incubation stage. This could be humidity was too high or your incubator had cold/hot spots, or even the temperature inside the incubator was not stable during the whole hatch. Deformities occur during incubation when chicks are growing.
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