McCoy Farm
Hatching method
This is the method of collection, storage, transportation, and incubation that we use here at McCoy Farm.
We are relatively new to this and owe most of what we know and use to the good folks at The Easy chickenhttp://members3.boardhost.com/shilala/index.html?1087043233
Collection
We collect eggs every day, But when gathering for a hatch we check the laying box 3 - 4 times a day. We only keep eggs for hatching that have the right shape and size. I recommend candling prior to setting the eggs to eliminate eggs that have blood spots. One rule to remember”A full bator can be a real slave driver!”, so never set more eggs than you can handle.
Storage
We place the eggs in the coolest room in our house set pointy end down on a couple of towels for cushion
it is recommended that you turn the eggs at least twice a day during storage, we do not but it will not hurt if you
do. The room temperature must stay below 75 degrees to keep the eggs in stasis. We only hold eggs for 7-10 days before we put them in the incubator.
Transportation
When recieveing shipped eggs always expect to lose some to rough handling. Unpack and closely inspect
every egg you receive, look closely for cracks, even then some cracks you will not see till your first candling.
We always set shipped eggs out on the counter pointy end down beside the incubator for 8 hours before we put them in to give them plenty of time to settle.
When carrying eggs to be hatched we place 2 quart ziplock freezer bags full of ice in the bottom of a small cooler, then a folded up bath towel, then the eggs in a paper type carton on the towel. Be sure to place the cooler in a safe secure place when putting it in the vehicle( I used a seatbelt to hold it secure in the seat).
Incubation
The night before we place the eggs out in the room were our incubator is set up and let them settle for 8 hours.
I run the incubator for 3 days(smaller incubators should only need 1 day) prior to setting eggs. We live in a humid area and the relative humidity holds around 60% here all the time so we do not add water to our incubator at first. We place the eggs in the incubator on the morning of day 1 pointy end down and start turning them 6 hours later. We turn the eggs 3 times a day every day. If you have a forced air incubator( has a fan in it) hold the temp at 99.5°F, a still air( no fan) should be at 100°F, ½°f can change the results of your hatch so verify the temperature with 3 thermometers and 2 different people.
A candler can be as simple as a good flashlight in a dark room. We use a 100 watt sealed beam flood lamp inside a small plywood box I cut a hole in. The darker colored eggs need a brighter light to see through.
We candle at day 7 and look for a little kidney bean shape that will probably be moving some. Personally I do not remove eggs at this candling unless they stink.
We candle again at day 14 the egg should look almost full but have an air pocket at the top of it, you may even see the chick move around some, At this point we remove any egg that looks clear or empty and again check for stinky eggs if it smells bad it is bad. We bump the humidity in the incubator up 5% by adding some water at this point. We do not candle again I trust my nose to find any bad eggs.
We keep turning the eggs 3 times a day all the way up to day 18.At day 18 we lay the egg container out flat and separate the eggs out a little to give the chicks room to hatch we leave the eggs in the egg tray so the chicks do not have to fight a rolling egg while they try to break out.
So now if we have done everything exactly right and said our prayers every day and the stars are lined up right the chicks might hatch on day 20,21,22,23. After they hatch they can go for 24 hours without food or water so leave them in the bator till the are completely dry, a simple chill could kill an otherwise healthy chick. Set up your brooder at day 19 and keep your self busy making it a great brooder.
Brooding
We use large plastic containers and a 250 watt red heat lamp I cut out a section of the lid and covered the hole with screen wire(metal) so the heat lamp can be set on the wire and not cause a fire. We only cover ¾s of the container with the lid and open more of it up to get the temp on the bottom to 95°F as needed. We set the food and water at the other end away from the heat. You can buy waters and feeders but we just use what we have on hand. We place a handful or 2 of marbles in the water to keep the chicks from getting their head all the way under water and drowning. We feed 20% chick starter and water with a vitamin and electrolyte supplement for few day then either go to water or water the supplements down some. During the first week we keep some food scattered around on the floor. The chicks will peck at anything and learn what they can eat. Some kind of absorbent material is needed as litter in the brooder, keep it covered with paper towels the first week to give the chicks time to develop good leg muscles, I have heard that cedar shavings are toxic to chicks so anything but that would be fine. You will have to dip each chicks beak in the water once to let them know where they get drink from.
The temperature in the brooder needs to lose 5°F each 7 days, When to put them out side will depend on the chicks and the weather. A good rule of thumb is when all their feathers are in on their backs and the temp outside is warmer than 70°F(or you can keep a warmer light on them)
When first put in with the rest of the flock the big chickens will peck and fight with the new babies, it is best to put the chicks in where they can see the big birds but not be reached by them for a week or so then open up an opening just big enough for the babies to get through, this will give them an escape route when they get attacked by the pecking order upset
Disclaimer
We are not experts we are hobbyist and do this for our love of animals. This is the methods we use successfully
and we hope you have fun and great success with it if you decide to use our method