The Best Chicken Egg Incubator

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How To Buy Or Make The Best Chicken Egg Incubator

Choosing the best chicken egg incubator is an important step in ensuring the survival of your chicks. There are all sorts of chicken egg incubators available, so you should define your needs well before you make your purchase. Most incubators from popular manufacturers will work well. Therefore the choice will come down to the scale of your operation and what you would like to do with the incubator. Here are a few recommendations. Also, be sure to read to the end to learn about best practices when using chicken egg incubators.

Noeler Chicken Egg Incubator

The Noeler Chicken Egg Incubator is a popular and highly-rated choice on Amazon. With the Noeler incubator, you can hatch up to 48 eggs at a time and for a variety of fowl. The Noeler incubator hatches chickens, duck, turkey, goose and quail eggs, too. At the time of writing, this incubator has 48 reviews on Amazon, and all but one are 5-stars! Many customers are even reporting that 100% of their eggs hatched.

This incubator really has it all: digital temperature and humidity control, the ability to choose your hatching day, energy-efficient operation, and automatic turning! Never waste any more time or change your plans to turn the eggs. A really great buy for the price!

Best Incubator For Smaller Operations

If you are just starting out with chickens, or have never used an incubator before, we recommend the Currens egg incubator. With this incubator, you can hatch up to 7 eggs, and not just chicken eggs! This incubator is perfect for other kinds of fowl, too. You can hatch turkey, quail, duck and goose eggs, too. There is a digital display that will show you the current temperature, so you can always maintain optimal conditions for hatching. Add water to maintain the ideal humidity level and be sure to turn the eggs regularly; the instructions recommend turning 3-4 times daily.

Best Incubator For Larger Operations

If you have been raising chickens for a while, or if you have a larger operation, you may want to get an incubator that will hatch more eggs at once. You may also want to save time with an incubator that turns the eggs for you. Those are the features and conveniences you will get with the Happybuy 72-Egg Automatic Chicken Egg Incubator. Like the previous model, you can also hatch quail, goose and duck eggs with this incubator.

In addition, you will never need to worry about turning the eggs with this model. That’s because there is an automatic tray that turns the eggs 1 full rotation every 90 minutes. This incubator works with a dual power supply, so even in the event of a power outage, you won’t need to worry about your eggs not hatching. An automatic sensor is responsible for monitoring the temperature and moisture, so you will give your chicks the best chances of hatching.

This is incubator uses forced air, which is the type we recommend.

Most customers were very happy with this incubator, however there have been some critical reviews, mostly having to do with the condition in which the unit arrived, and the moisture monitor. Therefore, if you buy this incubator on Amazon, we recommend communicating with the seller first to verify packaging.

Which Type Of Chicken Egg Incubator Is Best?

You should know that there are forced-air incubators, which work well for maintaining a stable temperature. Force-air incubators work by circulating warm air with one or more fans. This is a natural method for hatching eggs. In addition, it will provide the most stable temperature for the young embryos. This, in turn, makes it easy for you to measure the temperature. This procedure can be much more complicated in the smaller still-air models, which is the second type of incubator.

Remember, however, that the forced air machines are more expensive than the still-air variety. In addition, they are much bigger, so you should consider whether they are worth the investment. This may be the case if your hatchery is large enough. However, if your operation is smaller, then a still-air model will be adequate, as well as being much cheaper besides.

When you have chosen the best chicken egg incubator for your operation, be sure to follow these simple tips for successful hatching.

How To Hatch And Raise Chickens From Eggs

If you are going to raise poultry, you should know that chicken eggs must hatch after a 21-day incubation period. It’s best your hen wants to continue to incubate her own eggs. However, if she doesn’t, you always have the option of hatching the eggs using an incubator.

You should keep the incubator at a temperature of about 98 to 99 degrees Fahrenheit. You must also measure the humidity inside the incubator. For this, you can use either a hygrometer or a thermometer. Hygrometers are not expensive and are readily available. You can even buy one in a cigar shop or online, for example. Keep the humidity at at least 50% for the first 1-18 days. After that, your incubator should have a maximum humidity of 80%.

Remember that you should always maintain an adequate moisture level in the incubator. Paper cups or a pan with water both work well for this purpose. Apply the heat evenly to the eggs and mark them with an O on one side and an X on the other side. This way, you will know which side requires the most heat. Repeat this process at least three or four times each day. If you start with the X sides, turn the eggs and heat the O sides next. Do not skip any steps in this process and continue until hatching day. Remember that if you skip, the eggs will become deformed from the inside and possibly will not hatch!

Some egg hatchers and poultry owners swear by this above procedure. However, others say that eggs will always hatch, regardless of whether you turn the eggs.

How To Hatch Chicken Eggs In An Incubator

An incubator can come in handy if no hen is available. In addition, chicken egg incubators are not expensive, and are readily available online and in stores. An incubator is simply a machine that keeps eggs warm and moist until they hatch, similar to when a hen hatches them. You can find incubators with an almost endless range of options.

How To Determine If An Egg Is Fertile

The fertility rate of hens fluctuates. It is almost never 100%. Instead, it varies from about 56% to about 80%, depending on the condition of the hen, the season and the bird type. In addition, you can expect that about 75% of fertile eggs will hatch.

You can determine whether or not the eggs are fertile prior to incubation. Do this after about 3 days by using a procedure call candling. Simply hold a candle in front of the egg. As you do, you could see the faint silhouette of a chicken embryo. Seeing this embryo will tell you that the egg is fertile. If the egg has any abnormalities, such as cracks or other damaged spots, you should discard them as they will develop an unpleasant odor.

Aside from candling, you may find it easier to use a light bulb. Simply place the light bulb in a can or a small box. Punch a hole through the can or box so that only a small percentage of light escapes. Place the egg over the hole, similar to the candling procedure.

If you notice the egg is cloudy or if you notice a prominent mass, you can assume the embryo has been fertilized. On the other hand, if the inside of the egg is clear, you are looking at an unfertilized egg.

Using these simple procedures, you can determine the quality of an incubated egg and hatch the best baby chicks.