Hatching Basics

Hatching Basics

Get Ready

Rest eggs
If you are hatching shipped eggs, unpack the eggs and put them in a safe place, pointy side down for 24 hours to let them settle. This will let the air cell (pocket of air at the round end of the egg) move back into place if it became detached during shipping. If your eggs arrived late (7 days past the day your eggs arrived at our local post office), you can put your eggs into the incubator right away, but leave the turner off for the first day. 

Check temperature
Now verify the temperature and humidity of your incubator. The temperature should be  99.5 degrees plus or minus .5 degrees.

Check humidity
Your humidity should be between 35%-45%. We HIGHLY recommend that you have one extra temp and humidity gauge to ensure your incubator is reading correctly. We recommend the Govee. You can find it on Amazon.

Set your eggs

This is the easy part!

  • Place your eggs in your turning trays, pointy side down.
  • If your incubator uses a flat tray or doesn't have a tray, lay them on their side.

Turning tray modifications
If you are using turning trays made for chicken eggs, add a small piece of paper towel to each hole to keep them in place or put two eggs in each egg compartment, depending on your trays.

Turning schedule
If you are hand turning, turn AT LEAST three times a day. If you have an auto turner, we recommend setting it to turn every three hours.

Wait!

THIS IS THE HARD PART!!!

Day 1 is the day you place them into the  incubator. From Day 1 to Day 14:

  • check the temperature - it should hover around 99.5 degrees 
  • check the humidity - it should be 35%-45%
  • add water as needed to maintain humidity levels above

Do your best to not open the incubator! If you are hand-turning your eggs, do it as quickly as possible to help preserve the humidity. 

Lockdown

It’s DAY 15 which means….. ITS TIME for LOCKDOWN!!!

  • Take your turning tray out
  • place the eggs at the bottom of the incubator
  • leave a little space between each egg  
  • THE BIG PART….Increase your humidity  to 65%-75%

Within the next 2-3 days you will start seeing some “wiggling”!!!

Hatching

Once your first chick hatches (which can be on DAY 17 or 18) set the clock! 24 hours later, move all chicks that are dry and fluffy to the brooder. Leave any wet chicks in the incubator to dry. 

When you open the incubator to move the chicks, get them out as quickly as possible to preserve the humidity levels, giving chicks that are still hatching the best possible chance. 

Move babies out of the incubator every 24 hours until Day 21. 

Trouble shooting tip: If your eggs are NOT  hatching by day 18, increase your temperature by .5 degrees and increase you humidity by 10%. 

HAVE FUN!

YOU ARE A QUAIL PARENT…. CONGRATS!!

We'd love to know how your hatch went! Email connect@myshirefarm to let us know. If you get less than a 50% hatch rate, we'll honor our hatch rate guarantee. 

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