Raising Chickens From Eggs

Every poultry raiser must know that it is very important for the eggs to hatch after 21 days of incubation from the time they are laid. This becomes much easier if the hen which has laid the egg keeps incubating the eggs. If this is not the case then you have other options which can be used like an incubator when you are raising chicken.

A minimum temperature of 98 degrees should be maintained inside the incubator. A hygrometer or even a thermometer is used to determine the humidity inside it. You can purchase Hygrometers easily, they are very practical instruments and do not cost much. They can come in very useful while raising chickens. They can be bought from any retail shop or even through the internet. It is important to maintain proper humidity conditions inside the incubator for the eggs to hatch. 50 % humidity should be maintained at for the first 18 days and then it can be increased to 80 % for the next 3 days.

Moisture plays a very important role in the hatching of the eggs and a satisfactory moisture level should be kept inside the incubator. Paper cups or pans filled with water and can be placed inside the container for this. It is a good idea to mark the two sides of the eggs so that even heat is applied evenly to all sides of the egg for it to hatch. You can rotate the eggs three to four times in a day for it to be heated properly. You should keep doing it till the hatching day otherwise the chicken inside may be deformed and sometimes you may not even find anything inside the eggs if they are not incubated in the right conditions.

Egg hatchers and poultry owners take help of afore mentioned suggestion, on the other hand there are others feel that the turning process of the egg does not make too much of a difference to the hatching of the egg.

Incubators for Hatching Eggs- The incubator is a very useful apparatus when you are raising chickens and the mother chicken is not around to hatch the eggs. They can be bought easily and are also inexpensive. This can be used very efficiently to hatch the eggs and it gives the same kind of warmth which an egg will get from the mother hens underbody. The incubator can be used in various ways depending on the size and the features it has.

Fertility- There is no surety about the fertility of a hen and one cannot take hundred percentage success rates for granted while raising chicken. The fertility rate depends on a number of factors like the atmosphere, season, variety of the bird etc and one can expect it to be around 56 to 80 percent. There are chances of 75 percent of the eggs hatching. One can decide on the fertility of the egg only after 3 days of incubation, with the help of holding a candle in front of the egg.