Guide to Hatching Chicken Eggs: Achieve the BEST hatch!

Have you been thinking about expanding your chicken flock? Or are you starting your very first chicken flock and want to raise them from the very beginning? Hatching your own chicken eggs is a very rewarding way to do so, and I’d like to use this guide to hatching chicken eggs to help get you started!

Many homesteaders and farmers agree that chickens are the gateway animal into creating a more self-sufficient lifestyle. For me, I’ve been raising chickens and selling their eggs ever since I was about 7 years old. I only went about 4 years into adulthood and being on my own before I convinced my spouse that we needed to add a small chicken flock in our backyard. Animal care and husbandry is what I have a degree and professional experience in, and if you’d like to learn more about how I care for my flock, be sure to check out my other articles regarding those topics.

So, why hatch eggs instead of purchasing them as chicks?

Regardless if you hatch your own chicks or purchase them as day olds from your local feed store, raising chicks is so fun, and a child friendly way to introduce your kiddos to animal care. For me, the perk of hatching eggs over purchasing chicks is the fact that you are opening your world to a huge variety of breeds, for a much more affordable price tag. The price of hatching eggs varies widely, but in general, a single hatching egg is vastly cheaper than buying an already hatched chick of the same breed. Purchasing hatching eggs and incubating them comes with risks, however. Not all of the eggs will likely hatch, and things could go wrong along the way. And that’s why I’m here, writing you what will likely be my longest article to date, telling you alllll about what could go wrong, how to do right, and holding your hand along every step. I’ve learned this through my own trial and error and want to help take some of the heartbreak out for you!

Sourcing Your Hatching Eggs

It’s kind of incredible how easy it is to find fertile chicken eggs once you start looking. Just do a quick google search, and you’ll probably come across copious amounts of eBay sellers, farm pages on Facebook, and websites directing you to chicken breeds you may have never even heard of before. Do some research and develop a list of breeds you’re interested in and ask around to other local chicken tenders to see if they have any favorite local sources.

When finding a source, there are a few questions I recommend asking about before you throw your money at them. Including:

what are your biosecurity practices?
tell me about your flock health?
can I see pictures of your flock?
can I see pictures of your chicken coops?

You could also go a step further and choose to purchase eggs from a different state and have them shipped in to you. I’ve done that a few times! In order for a farm to ship eggs, they must be what’s called NPIP certified. This means they have annual department of agriculture inspections and tests that the farm must pass in order to ship birds and live embryos (hatching eggs) across state lines. These tests include diseases that could be very catastrophic to your flock if they were introduced, so purchasing from an NPIP farm is about as safe as you can get! That being said, if you are not hatching eggs in order to start your own small breeding project or hatchery, purchasing a couple dozen fertile eggs from your local farm just might be the way to go.

Keep in mind that if you choose to purchase eggs from afar and they have to be shipped to you, it’ll likely decrease the success rate of your hatch by a bit. Industry states that a 50% hatch rate is what you should expect from shipped eggs. Another point in favor of finding hatching eggs locally!

Choosing an Incubator

Let me say that the easiest way to incubate fertile eggs….is to let a broody hen do it for you. BUT hens rarely go broody at convenient times, do they?? So let’s assume that you are planning on using an incubator.

The first incubator I used when I hatched eggs for the first time for my farm was an Incuview All In One. I purchased it secondhand from a friend and it was a good, beginner friendly one to start with. The entire top dome and lid is clear plastic, so you have a great view of any happenings inside during hatch time. It has a built-in egg turner, which is crucial to a good hatch. Some incubators don’t come with a built in turner (and are often much cheaper because of that!) but I will tell you right now that it is 100% worth it to buy one with it built in. It’s far too important to leave to human error!

I accidentally left the bottom of that incubator outside one full day and night, and consequently, it cracked from the sun exposure so it has trouble holding humidity now. Last year, I found a good deal in my local Tractor Supply and upgraded to a Farm Innovator’s 4250 incubator to use in conjunction with my Incuview. The Incuview all-in-one holds about 2 dozen eggs while the Farm Innovator holds 41! Chicken math is about to become a real thing, folks. A couple features I really like about the Farm Innovator’s incubator include how tall it is (chicks have no issue climbing over each other and having enough head room to hatch), and with the built-in egg turners, the eggs are held upright. I find I have better hatch rates using this one just because it keeps the air cell in a better position than when they are laid on their sides.

Features to avoid in an incubator:

I used an incubator last year that had a clear plastic top, much like my Incuview does, but the plastic went all the way down to the floor of the incubator, without a lip to the bottom if that makes sense. So when you take the top off of the incubator, there’s no lip in order to prevent your chicks from running out in all different directions!

As a first time hatcher, you don’t need a huge incubator to start and you certainly won’t need a cabinet incubator – those are geared more toward large operations. I currently have two Farm Innovator’s 4250s and the one Incuview All-in-one, and feel it supports my small hatchery efforts perfectly!

Prepping Your Incubator

It’s almost time to get your eggs! Now is the time to start your incubator and make sure it is running as it should, holding its temperature and humidity levels. I aim for at least 12 hours prior to setting your eggs, preferably 24 so you give yourself enough time to fix any issues that arise.

If you are purchasing a secondhand incubator, take some time well before getting eggs to disinfect it thoroughly. Vacuum out the vents (chicks give off a lot of fluff at hatch, you’ll be surprised how much gets accumulated there!) and use a disinfectant in the trays, turners and water catchment area. Rinse it out super well, and let it air dry.

What temperature and humidity do I need to set my incubator at?

To hatch chicken eggs, set your incubator to 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit. I *highly* recommend purchasing another hygrometer/thermometer combo to set in your incubator to ensure you are getting a good reading. Improper temperatures are a BIG reason hatches fail! You can find a hygrometer/thermometer at any hardware store or in the reptile section of a pet store.

Something like this is what I use. be sure it reads the temperature to one decimal point.

Humidity is a little bit more up to your prerogative, in a way. Run your incubator for at least 12 hours before setting your eggs, without adding any water to the reservoir, to see what your “natural” humidity is in your incubator and your home. My typical reading is anywhere between 20-30%, and according to “dry hatching” standards, falls well within the appropriate range. Generally speaking, try not to have your humidity above 40% during these first 18 days of incubation.

Bringing Your Eggs Home

Your eggs are here! Your eggs are here! Here’s what you need to do now before you get too excited and throw them in the incubator.

Shipped eggs? Let them sit for 24 hours, fat end up, in an egg carton in a temperature controlled room. This allows for the air sac inside the egg to reposition and right itself if it got too jostled during shipment. Sometimes if shipment is rough, they can detach, and that won’t lead to a successful hatch.

Picking your eggs up locally? I’d still allow them to sit for at least a few hours in the same fashion as above. Typically car rides are involved in getting eggs from farm to home, and while it hopefully wasn’t as rough of a trip as shipped eggs, it still doesn’t hurt to ensure those air sacs are where they should be.

Another note: best practice for having a good hatch rate is to refrain from washing your eggs, so as to keep the protective “bloom” in tact on the surface of the shell. Though, I’ve heard from other small hatcheries they’ve had success doing disinfecting dunks with their eggs, so I’ll leave it up to your discretion. If your source is clean and up to date with their husbandry techniques, you’ll have fairly clean eggs to hatch.

Starting Incubation

The day that you set your eggs in the incubator, close it up and press begin starts day 1 of incubation! Your temperature should be reading 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit, and your humidity should be holding steady anywhere between 20%-40%. Your temperature and humidity might slightly shift as you add the eggs, but it should level itself back out once everything comes to the right temperature. Now we wait!

Incubation Process: Day 1 through Day 18

There is not a lot of hands-on stuff you need to do throughout these first 18 days of incubation (unless you have an incubator without an automatic turner, in which case, you will need to be manually turning your eggs at least 3 times a day.) I’ll include a fun infographic below where you can better visualize what is happening inside of your eggs while you wait so patiently.

On day 10, I like to candle my eggs for the first time. This means I take a small flashlight and go to a dark room and shine it through the fat end of the egg to see what is inside. You should be able to see a dark mass inside, and you should be able to see it MOVING!

This never gets old.

I try to limit candling to twice during incubation, so as to reduce the temperature and humidity fluctuations within the eggs and incubator. Between day 10 and 14 is my favorite time to do the initial candling. At that point it should be very clear which eggs are developing and which eggs are not. I take this opportunity to remove and toss any “duds”, to avoid any rotten egg explosions or gas leaks that will affect your other viable eggs.

Days 18-21: Lockdown!

I’d argue that this is THE most important part of the incubation process, and the moment where all of your hard work starts really paying off! Congratulations, your chicks are almost here!

Lockdown refers to the last 3 days of incubation, and for chickens, that is days 18 through 21. During this process, we increase the humidity levels and we keep the incubator CLOSED. The chicks are getting into their final positions inside their shells and are about ready to “internally pip”, which means poke through the air sac in order to take their first breath. Increasing the humidity helps keep that inner membrane pliable and prevents it from behaving like shrink wrap as the chick attempts to hatch.

Up your humidity level between 60% and 70%. You can do this by adding water to the reservoir, or by adding a warm, damp sponge inside. You may keep the temperature setting the same, but you should also remove the egg turner mechanism or turn it off if it is a built in function. The eggs no longer need to turn – they need to stay put and help the chicks get into position!

At this point, take a moment and carefully watch your eggs…you may be able to see slight movement and you might even be able to hear chirping from inside of the eggs! Once the chicks make that internal pip into the air sac, they use their egg tooth at the end of their little beak to start poking out of the shell, or “externally pip”. I find that from the first external pip to hatch usually takes about 20 hours, though it certainly varies between chicks.

Hatching time!

Hear me when I say this: you must resist the urge to open the incubator after your first chick hatches in order to cuddle and hold it! I know it is cute, I know I know. It needs to stay in the incubator to warm up and fluff up, and it also has an important job in there. As it moves around and chirps, it is actually encouraging the other chicks get going on hatching as well. It’s pretty miraculous how after the first chick hatches, there seems to be a wave of them come out next.

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When to intervene? When to not?

Ah, this is the question, isn’t it? Should you or shouldn’t you step in when you see a chick is having a hard time hatching? On one hand, you want the best, strongest chicks to hatch and it can be viewed as a sort of ‘survival of the fittest’ situation according to some homesteaders. On the other hand, you are bringing these chicks into the world through artificial incubation, and as their keeper, you should do everything you can do ensure their success…right?

It is not a black or white issue by any means, so let me walk you through some instances where I’ve chosen to help, and instances where I’ve chosen to step back and let nature take its course.

Like I mentioned earlier, it can take quite a few hours for a chick to make its way allll the way out of the shell. It may look like it is struggling, when in reality, it is just hard work and a very normal process. Sit back and watch and you might be surprised that these little chicks are stronger than we give them credit to be.

I remember an instance when I woke up to an incubator full of little cheepers, and another couple eggs actively pipping and unzipping themselves from their shell. I kept checking back every couple hours and all of them except one had progressed quickly. At the end of the night, that chick had not made a lot of progress, but I knew that it was still within a normal timeframe to hatch.

When I woke up the next day, I could see its little foot sticking out of the hole where it pipped! That was an unusual position, and it is rare that chicks present as breach – they will almost always come out head first. But this little guy obviously got turned around and needed some assistance. So I quickly reached in and grabbed it, and used a warm spray bottle to gradually spray and remove the shell and membrane. I intervened just in time, for the membrane had begun “shrink wrapping” around its little body with how long it was taking. I popped the top off, turned it over and out it came! I placed it right back in the incubator and to this day, that little chick is living a very normal and healthy life.

A fun fact for you to ease your mind about the already-hatched chicks staying in the incubator for a few days: right before they hatch, they absorb what is left of the egg yolk, which sustains them for up to 3 whole days after hatching! This means they do not need food or water for three days after hatching. Isn’t that amazing? So no matter what they tell you, they do not need to come out of the incubator right away, especially if their siblings are actively work their way out of their shells.

After Day 21

Do you still have some unhatched eggs at or after day 21? Don’t throw in the towel just yet – I’ve had chicks hatch as late as day 24. Sometimes there can be cold zones or warm zones in our incubators for various reasons, and that will spur some eggs to hatch earlier or later than the others. At this point, shine a flashlight in and see if you can view any more external pips on the remaining eggs. If not, you are safe to quickly open the incubator to remove the already hatched chicks and move them into the brooder to get their first tastes of food and water. If you see some eggs have externally pipped, keep that incubator closed if you can! Remember, after chicks hatch, they can stay in the incubator for up to 3 whole days before they need food and water. They will have absorbed the rest of the yolk prior to hatching, so they are set!

Are there are few eggs that have not shown any pipping or movement or cheeping, but when you candled them at lockdown you know that a chick has developed inside? You could candle it again if there are no others externally pipping to see if you see any movement. If it is a thick shelled and dark colored egg with a heavy bloom, you may have a difficult time seeing anything. I utilize a method I learned when hatching dark black copper maran eggs called “water candling”. I’ll include a link to a video I found helpful, and you can choose to follow this method too if you want to:

Water candling video: https://youtu.be/z5RlHiTq0MQ

If there is no movement after day 23, that is when I decide to pull the remaining eggs. But if there is any hint of movement, I give them as long as they need to make that first pip!

Brooding Your Newly Hatched Chicks

Congratulations on your new fuzzy little friends! Now it is time to set them up for life earth-side. And that starts with creating a cozy little home called a ‘brooder’ for them to live in while they grow bigger and more feathered.

The basics of a good brooder are as follows: warm, dry, clean and safe. For the first week of brooding your new chicks, you need it to be approximately 99 degrees Fahrenheit for them to stay warm enough. They don’t have any real feathers yet, and will rely on your heat source as warmth.

You can use a heat lamp or a heat plate. Or, if you are lucky enough to have a broody hen in your flock, you can give them to her to take care of! But let’s assume you aren’t that lucky and you’ll have to be mama hen. I know, so terrible. Having to take care of cute little baby chicks? Yuck! ….

Decide what is best for your needs and your setup when it comes to a heat source. If you are using a heat lamp, PLEASE make sure you have a very secure clip on it to ensure it does not fall down into the brooder and start a fire. When using a heat lamp, you also need to ensure your brooder space is large enough for your chicks to escape from the heat if they get too warm. Position your heat on one end of your brooder, and the food and water on the other end.

You can also opt to use a heat plate for your chicks instead of a heat lamp if you have a smaller brooder area and/or are concerned about a fire risk. These heat plates act like a mama hen would: they are hot directly underneath, they have 4 legs to allow a little covered and warm area for the chicks to cuddle under.

There are pros and cons to each heat source option, and I’ll just say that I’ve used both! Decide for yourself which ones will be best for your situation. You will not be wrong. 🙂

As for the flooring in your brooder, you’ll want to select a substrate that isn’t slippery – this will prevent any chicks from developing spraddle legs, aka, having their legs slip out from under them and look like they are doing the splits. I use anything from paper towels to puppy pads to shelf liner! My favorite substrate is a large chipped pine shaving. I like using the shavings that are less dust and more substantive, just to prevent any chicks from ingesting the substrate.

Of course, don’t forget their food and water! In the first few days of their life, I like to include this electrolyte mix to their water, you can also use apple cider vinegar to give them a healthy head start. For chick food, choose a crumble – pelleted food is too large for them to eat at this size. I go for a chick food with at least a 20% protein content.

That is how I incubate my chicken eggs!

I hope this guide was helpful to you and helped to show you that incubating eggs doesn’t have to be scary or unapproachable – if you set yourself up for success, you can have new lil chicks in as little as 21 days from now! Let me know if there are any questions in the comments below, and please let me know if you have used this guide to hatch your own babies. We’d love to read your success stories!