POULTRY

There are several important factors ; heat, humidity, ventilation and possibly a cooling time.
Independent quality sensors exist to give you a comparable reading between the digital output of your incubator and the reading of the independent sensor. The sensor should be moved around the incubator for reading the temperature, as there may be « hot spots » to avoid when setting the eggs. The sensor will also give the humidity readings, equally as important as the temperature, allowing the adjustment of the levels of humidity at the beginning, during and at the end of the hatch (lockdown). Some sensors will allow you to monitor on your smart phone the two readings from the beginning to the end, detecting fluctuations which may have occurred during the process.
To avoid the build up of humidity, all incubators are equipped with adjustable ventilation vents to evacuate high levels of humidity and carbon dioxide, thus avoiding a lack of oxygen and condensation. The incubator user manual will give you instructions for setting your temperature and humidity levels, and adjusting the opening of ventilation accordingly, to achieve the required target levels.
Temperature and humidity levels will depend on the species of the eggs. There is controversy concerning required temperature and specificall humidity targeted levels. It is useful, before incubating, to decide on your target levels through research with experienced breeders. Keeping track of this with our iRecord My Hatch app, will allow you to compare from hatch to hatch to see what works for you and your incubator.

It is useful to locate the incubator in a dust and bird free environment. For obvious reasons it need to be out of direct sunlight, away from drafts and off the ground to avoid fluctuating temperatures. The incubator should be kept in a cool environment. It can not cool down air to a required targeted level. You may be lucky enough to have a separate unit for hatching which will considerably cut down on pre and post incubation tasks.

Although very tempting and especially if it is your first hatch, it is very important to avoid opening and shutting the incubator. Each time you open and shut the incubator, your targeted levels of humidity and temperature will drop resulting in constant fluctuations, detrimental to the embryo.

It is useful however, to candle your eggs on certain days. The following is variable according to species :
⁃ before setting to detect any cracks
⁃ Day 3 - this is when the blood vessels start to become visible and the first signs of a heart beat. It is usual to reject any eggs on day 12 that do not show signs of development to avoid rejecting eggs which are actually viable. There exists a detector of heart beats which is useful if in doubt. In our experience, it is sensitive towards the day 6 and throughout the development stage.
⁃ Day 11-12 - the embryo is more or less formed. If the egg is « empty », it should be removed from the incubator to avoid a build up of gas.
⁃ Day 18 - for chickens this would be the lockdown date. It would be different for quail, bantams or geese. The embryo is in the right position (its head is under its right wing and facing the air cell).
⁃ Day 21-22 - Pipping or zipping the egg can occur over a certain number of hours. During lockdown, and according to the type of incubator you are using, opening the incubator could compromise chicks which have already started to pip their shells. It should, unless an absolute emergency, be avoided. Chicks have absorbed enough nutrients to survive until the hatching procedure ends. There is a low survival rate, but not unheard of, of chicks who hatch outwith the predetermined dates. Power outages can happen to even experienced breeders. An independent source of power, such as a generator, could be envisaged to save a hatch from irreparable damage. Your hatching plan can be preregistered with our iRecord My Hatch app, according to generally accepted target levels and fine tuned with your incubator and experience per species.