Guide to Incubating and Hatching Chicken Eggs

Hatching your own fertile chicken eggs can be a rewarding and educational experience. This guide will help ensure that you are prepared and informed prior to the arrival of your hatching eggs and ready for a successful hatch.

Step 1: The Incubator

There are several different features to look for in shopping for a home incubator. The simplest incubator will have a heat source controlled by a switch, that may or may not be controlled by a thermostat. It also should have a way to add humidity to the air inside of the incubator. Other features that may help produce a higher hatch rate include:

A fan to circulate air

An automatic egg turner to turn the eggs periodically

Digital display for temperature, humidity, and hatch day countdown

Your incubator should be set up and running at least 24 hours prior to setting your hatching eggs inside. This period will allow the environment inside of the incubator to stabilize and give you time to make any necessary adjustments before you place the eggs inside to begin the incubation period.

Location is important! Locate your incubator in a room that maintains a constant temperature, is free from drafts, and away from windows and direct sunlight. Also, make sure that your incubator is located where children and pets will not bump or disturb it during the 21 day incubation period.

Step 2: Environment

It takes 21 days to hatch chicken eggs. In order for chicks to develop properly, you will need to make sure your incubator is equipped with a very accurate thermometer and hygrometer (to monitor the humidity). The following are the recommended settings you should maintain for a successful hatch:

Temperature

Forced-air incubator (with a fan) 99.5 degrees F (acceptable range 99-100)

Still-air incubator (no fan): shoot for a range between 100 and 101 degrees F

Humidity

First 18 days the recommended range of relative humidity for chicken eggs is 45-50%

Final 3 days increase humidity to 65-70%

It is not as critical to maintain a precise humidity and you should expect the humidity to fluctuate. During winter months you may find that the humidity is more difficult to maintain and in the summer you may struggle to keep the humidity low enough. Follow your incubator manufacturer’s directions for how best to maintain humidity. Generally, you add humidity by increasing the surface area of the water reservoir and you lower humidity by allowing more fresh air intake.

Step 3: Set the Eggs

You should NOT set shipped eggs directly into an incubator upon their arrival. They need 24 hours to allow the yolks to settle and to reach room temperature. Setting cold eggs in a warm and humid incubator will cause the eggs to crack and the embryos will die. If you are not ready to begin the incubation period on the day that your eggs arrive, you may “hold” your shipped eggs for up to 10 days.

Before you handle hatching eggs always wash your hands thoroughly to prevent bacteria from entering through the porous eggshell. Place the eggs into a cardboard egg carton with the pointed end down and set in a quiet spot in the same room as the incubator. If you are holding the eggs for longer than 24 hours before beginning incubation, prop one end of the carton up a few inches. Rotate which end is propped up approximately every 12 hours. This helps prevent the embryo from sticking to the shell membrane.

When you are ready to set the eggs into the incubator, mark an X on one side of the shell using a soft pencil, and an O on the other end. During the incubation period, you will rotate the eggs. Marking the shell helps you visualize that they have been turned properly and frequently. Even if you have an automatic turner in your incubator, marking helps you ensure that the turner is working properly.

Step 4: Incubating, Days 1-17

The first 17 days you will turn the eggs by hand (if you do not have an automatic turner) at a minimum of every 8 hours. Better hatch rates are usually the result of more frequent turning, but the trade-off is every time you open the incubator it loses heat and humidity. Many people find that hand turning every 6 to 8 hours to be the “sweet spot." If you do not turn the eggs, the tiny embryo can stick to the shell membrane and may die.

During the first 17 days, you will also monitor the temperature and humidity, adding water to the water reservoir as necessary to maintain the humidity. It is good practice to “candle” the eggs (using a high-powered light source to view the growing embryo). Day 7 and Day 14 are the best days to observe changes in the embryo. On Day 7 you should see a small dark spot with a few blood vessels radiating from it. The 7-day old embryo will resemble a spider on the yolk. At Day 14, the embryo is much larger and it should be difficult to see through the egg when candling, but you should be able to see through the air sac at the large end.

If any embryos appear to not be developing at Day 14, remove and discard these eggs to avoid a rotten egg exploding inside the incubator and ruining the rest of the hatch.

Step 5: Lockdown, Days 18-20

We call these final 3 days “lockdown” because you will not open the incubator until after all chicks have hatched and dried off. On day 18 of the incubation period, you should stop turning the eggs by hand or turn off and remove eggs from the automatic turner. The chicks are nearly fully developed and they will position themselves inside the egg to prepare for hatching. You also want to increase the humidity to around 65-70%. Again, the humidity is a range and not an exact number. The day before the hatch you should prepare their brooder to receive the chicks.

Step 6: Hatch Day

On day 21 you will begin to hear peeping from the inside of the eggs. Some of the eggs will likely begin to rock around a bit as the chick “pips” the shell. Hatching takes a lot of energy and it will be a slow process usually taking a full 24 hours for all chicks to complete the hatch. Make sure that the chicks are completely dry and fluffy before you open the incubator to move them into the brooder. The first hatchlings will be okay to go 24 hours without eating or drinking while they wait for all chicks to hatch. Some chicks may struggle to hatch, but do not assist.

Step 7: Clean Up

After all chicks have hatched and are moved into the brooder, make sure to thoroughly clean and disinfect the incubator and all parts following the manufacturer's directions. A 1:10 bleach/water solution is ideal for sanitizing.

Thanks to a friend for telling me about this book.

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

You know what I love? I’m traveling this week and am out of town. The wife sends me little love notes like this: https://youtu.be/OWIpEBxRFWk . She’s on board with the preps. We dug a couple hundred mason jars out of a barn on the back side of the property and she’s been running them thru the dishwasher all week.

How A Water Wheel Generator Can Give You Free, Off-Grid Energy

A small stream can power your home.

From greenfuture.io



Residential solar panels get all of the press for a simple reason — everyone gets sunlight. But there’s an equally green method of power generation that doesn’t get as much attention: the water wheel generator. If you happen to live on a rural plot of land that features a river or stream, you might be able to partially power your home with hydroelectric power.
Thinking of building your own mini Hoover Dam in your backyard? Here’s what you should know before you get started.


How A Water Wheel Generator Works

Water wheel generators essentially work the same way as wind turbines, but they use flowing water instead of blowing wind. The water passes through the water wheel, causing it to spin. The axle of the wheel is connected to a dynamo that turns that kinetic energy into electricity that your home can use.

There are several different types of water wheels, but you’ll usually find one of three powering a residential home. Which one you choose will depend on your water source, how complicated you want your water wheel generator to be, and your energy needs.

The undershot wheel is the simplest and oldest type of wheel. Like the name implies, it works simply by allowing water to flow under the wheel. It’s not very efficient at turning water flow into energy, but its ease of construction and use makes it the most popular

If you’re good with tools and have a DIY streak, you can build your own. You can buy plans, but you can also build your wheel using freely available online plans. You can buy the hardware you need at any hardware store, and the kinetic dynamo can be purchased online.

It’s useful to reflect on what is found when experimenting with this water mill. The first revelation was that the mill could be run without a load on it. By observation it was quickly apparent that the maximum wheel speed was regulated by the water volume over the sluice, the size of the buckets, and the water exiting through a culvert. This meant that as far as electrical generation was concerned its behaviour was closer to that of a solar panel than a wind turbine. Wind turbines need a load at all times or the speed will increase to the point of blade destruction, but with this water wheel this was not the case. This affected the choice of grid inverter and prevented any worries when there was a mains power cut. The loss of mains power would mean the inverter would shut down and remove the electrical load on the wheel.

Typical JDM alternators are preferable when inverting power due to reliability and availability. Storage of generated electricity is best with marine deep cycle batteries; specifically designed to withstand the constant process of charging and draining.

Further reading and information avaliable at:

www.waterwheelplace.com/water_wheel_electricity.html

A cooking cheat sheet from a based chat member: Spices are king because you can incorporate them into your cooking to completely overhaul the flavor of the dish, without actually changing the dish composition or altering the nutritional value of the food. You can use this to give bland meals or dishes you've grown tired of eating new life: there's a million ways to prepare chicken, beef, and vegetables. I'll show you how easy it is to experiment.

Here's the cheat sheet. If you want your food to taste like authentic cuisine of the following countries and cultures, just incorporate these ingredients into it, and the flavor profile will completely change.

GREECE: olive oil, lemon, oregano (the heart of all Greek cooking is lemons, with lemons and oregano you can make anything taste Greek)

ITALY: olive oil, garlic, basil (just these three things blended together can be put on chicken or bread to instantly make it Italian)

FRANCE: wine, garlic, basil, "fines herbes," "herbes de Provence," "quatre epices" (these are traditional French blends of spices you can buy premade in stores, if you can't find them rustic French cooking is literally just Italian but with more wine)

NORMANDY: apples, cider, Calvados (this is pear or apple brandy, the Normans like their drink, cook anything with it and it's Norman)

NORTHERN ITALY: wine vinegar, garlic (Northern Italian cooking is similar to South German and Rustic French, sub out the olive oils for vinegars and you're gold)

SOUTHERN FRANCE: olive oil, garlic, parsley, anchovies (there's a triangle overlap between French, Italian, and rural German cooking, all the people on the boarders used the same things, so you can easily sub things back and forth: people on the sea used more seafood, like anchovies, while people inland cooked with brandies, wines, and fruit)

PROVENCE: olive oil, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, sage (this is where Herbes Du Provence comes from, it's the heart of French cooking. The secret is the marjoram, include it in anything to make it taste more like classical French cooking)

SPAIN: olive oil, garlic, almonds, onion, pepper (true Spanish cuisine is defined by almonds; put almonds and any sort of pepper (black, red, green, smoked, paprika, ect) on it and it will taste Spanish, remember that pepper =/= hot, paprika has no heat and black pepper works fine)

HUNGARY: onions, paprika, lard (Hungarians were poor and lived on a crossroads of trade, so their cuisine is defined by onions, the food of peasants, and paprika, spice that was traded through their territory; combine onions and paprika with beef or chicken and leave the fat in the dish, it will taste Hungarian)

EASTERN EUROPEAN: onions, chicken fat (the flavor of chicken fat harmonizes strongly with cooked onions, this is the traditional flavor of all Eastern European countries, and you can imitate it for pennies, if you're willing to use starch or carbs include potatoes)

NORTHERN EUROPE: sour cream, dill, paprika, allspice, caraway (German and Austrian cooking is defined by dill, allspice, vinegars, and mustards; the difference between rural German and rural French cooking is usually the trade between using wine vs using a vinegar or cider; this is also the difference between French mustard (incorporates wine) and German mustard (no wine). Yes, the French put wine in absolutely everything. Nordic cooking tends to exclude the dairy and lean harder on the dill and allspice)

BRITISH: cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, mustard (nutmeg, nutmeg, nutmeg, this is the lost flavor of Albion and the taste of the colonial period, Townsends is right, you don't eat enough and should cook with it more. German and British mustard are more similar than different, neither incorporates wine. The traditional tastes of Germany and Britain are probably the tastes you associate with Christmas)

A little light reading for ya'll.

Audiobook version