Chicks Hatching below in a
Black chick incubator

When buying in hatching eggs go to a reputable breeder if you want purebred chicks to hatch out.! There are so many people on Trade Me that do not know what they even are selling.!
A must for any serious person contemplating hatching their own chicks out, is definitely a trusted well known brand of incubator which will included a fan and auto turning functions. .

When buying in hatching eggs go to a reputable breeder if you
want purebred chicks to hatch out.!
There are so many people on Trade Me that do not know what they even are selling.!

Hatching  Chicks
&  Incubation

Basic info for hatching eggs & Incubation :
 
If there is one thing you can count on as true, it is that every hatching is always different! 
No matter how you may do everything the same way, every hatching you do will never go the same way as another. . .
The excitement of hatching lots of little fluff balls out every week never wears off !

We get asked time and time again for advice about incubation and hatching chicks from eggs, so have added this page full of helpful hints and tips based on our own hatching experiences. . .   hopefully to help assist many others who may also enjoy the highs and lows of hatching chicks out in an incubator.
With the hatching process comes the excitement of watching your eggs 'pip' and catching the entire hatching process unfold in front of your eyes, with newly hatched chicks chipping right round the egg, then finally braking free by kicking their shell aside, then lying exhausted after all their efforts and energy spent whilst drying off.!

There will always be disappointments along the way even for the most experienced person, there are so many variables to consider, including the affects of any long power cuts, which can be really heartbreaking right at hatching time.!

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What incubator to use to hatch Chick's in ?

Chicks Hatching in a Black Chick Incubator

Buy the best incubator you can afford.!

Temp should be 37.5 *C
Humidity should be 55%
until day 19 when all eggs due to hatch should be moved to your hatching tray and humidity should be raised to 70%
for best results do not open incubator again until most chicks have hatched and are all fluffy and dry!

We definitely recommend using the best incubator you can afford. .    
You really do 'get what you pay for' when choosing an incubator, and as with most things, this is particularly true when it comes to choosing the right incubator!  Be sure to choose one that is both reliable and efficient for your best hatching results.!
                        
Investing in a reliable, trusted brand makes a huge difference in the success rate of all your hatching's with the added bonus of holding their value very well for resale later on down the track as a used incubator should you ever decide you have had enough of the chick hatching business!

Avoid mass produced cheaply made Chinese incubators. . . which are usually nothing more than a polystyrene or plastic box.!  These usually do not hold their temperature or humidity well and often have incorrect readings and are usually poorly constructed out of inferior materials with no insulation!  Many do not even have a fan, which really is a must to keep the temp circulating around evenly. . .
I have heard so many times that these cheap Chinese incubators appear to work fine for the first couple of hatches and then with each consecutive hatch the success rate starts to decline. 
Our own experience using such cheap incubators when we first started out was no exception! 

We thoroughly recommend the Black Chick range of Incubators, and these are the incubator's we ourselves also use here at Poultry Valley, and which we consider to be the best incubator available in New Zealand!
While some may initially think these seem a bit expensive or maybe bigger then they require, you really do get what you pay for when hatching chick's out in a black chick incubator. . . and
I  would recommend these to any serious poultry hobbyist!

An added plus is the black chick incubators hold their value very well as they have a very good reputation. . We have tried, tested & used Black Chicks here ourselves for many years and still do, we have used the large cabinet type of Brinsea incubators too, which were also okay to use (however inclined to rust out) but you just can't go past a Black Chick, which are all cleanly plastic coated, so No Rusty bottoms here!

see All our Hatching Eggs  here

Hatching eggs can be something that is both enjoyable and disappointing at times, however be aware that a power cut does not always mean all is lost.!  It depends on what stage the egg/s are at and also how long the power has been off, so do not despair, all may not be lost, warm those eggs back up as soon as possible and hope for the best.!

There is still hope. . . Warm them all back up, give them a day or two and then candle them to see if there is any movement, or if early stages candle 5 - 7 days later to see if there is any further development, removing any eggs that have not progressed any further. . . you will be surprised to see a lot of eggs will actually survive this, so don't throw them out without at least giving them a fair go, they may hatch a day or two late as a result, but all should not be lost!

It pays to set up broody hens on their own somewhere cozy and safe. 
Often when you try to move a broody hen they will not stay, as they want to sit where they choose, so it is best to move them at night, quietly and gently, putting a couple of eggs or golf balls under them to encourage they stay. . 

Please Note:  If a hen is sitting up in a nest box off the ground, sometimes at hatching a chick (or chicks) may fall out of the nest and not be able to get back, thus causing the mother hen a great amount of stress, as she would be torn between jumping down and looking after the chick or staying where she is on any unhatched eggs, if she gets down to tend to chicks that have fallen out and can't get back into the nest she would likely abandon the eggs to care for her chicks.! 
This is something to think about when setting up a broody hen, obviously it would be better at ground level. .

Setting eggs under
a broody hen or Duck