Incubation Process of a Chicken By: Erin Webb

Preparation Stage Chick incubation process is 21 days Gather fertilized eggs 2 – 3 days in advance Set up incubator to maintain temperature of 99.5°F Add water for humidifying purposes Mark eggs

From Egg to Chick: Incubation Procedures 1. Obtaining and caring of eggs Gather fertilized eggs from a farmer Eggs should be stored at a temperature of around 50°F until incubation begins Eggs should not be more than 5-7 days old

2. Preparing the incubator Incubator should be out of direct sunlight in a room temperature of 70-75°F Maintain incubator temperature of °F For humidifying purposes, add water to bottom of incubator

3. Preparing the eggs for incubation To ensure proper turning, mark all eggs on one side with an x, the other side with an o

Demonstrating the marking process

During incubation... Turn eggs 2-3 times per day to prevent embryo from sticking to the shell membrane; until the 17 th day

Candling the eggs: Allows you to see clearly the developing embryo stages and dispose of the infertile eggs and/or dead embryos

Examples of Bad Eggs

Examples of Good Eggs

Disposing of non-developing eggs

Embryonic Development Stages

Final Stages of Incubation After the 17 th day... Eggs should not be turned Incubator should not be opened unless it is necessary to add water All chicks which are going to hatch should be out of their shells by the 21 st day

Reasons for Poor Hatches Infertile eggs Eggs too old when set Parent stock weak, unhealthy, or fed a nutritionally deficient diet Improper care of eggs prior to incubation Shell contamination Eggs not turned often enough Temperatures too high, too low, or too variable during incubation Too little humidity in the incubator or occasionally too much Improper ventilation Oxygen starvation

From start…

…to finish!

My Hatching Results