When to Stop Turning Chicken Eggs & Incubator Troubleshooting

Kenny: [00:00:00] So, Pascale, what stage do we stop turning chicken eggs?

Pascale: Yes, that, that would be, yes, around, you know, 18, 18, 19 days, that’s definitely when you should be stopping the turning. That’s for chicken eggs, obviously. If you’re doing, you know, duck eggs, you’ve got a few more days.

Jessica Anderson: Welcome to the Mother Earth News and Friends podcast. At Mother Earth News for 50 years and counting, we’ve been dedicated to conserving the planet’s natural resources while helping you conserve your financial resources. In this podcast, we host conversations with experts in the fields of sustainability, homesteading, natural health, and more to share all about how you can live well wherever you are in a way that values both people and our Mother Earth.

[00:00:49] Brinsea Pre-Roll Ad

Jessica Anderson: We’d like to thank our sponsor for this episode, Brinsea. That’s B R I N S E A, chick incubation specialists. [00:01:00] They’ve been focusing on egg incubator design continuously since 1976, resulting in egg incubators, chick brooders, and incubation accessories. They offer unparalleled practicality, reliability, superior hatch rates, and healthy chicks. Innovation you can trust.

[00:01:20] Why Use an Incubator?

Kenny: Good day, everyone. I am Kenny Coogan, and joining me is Pascale Pearce, Executive Vice President from Brinsea. Today, we’re going to be talking about troubleshooting when incubating eggs. Welcome to the podcast Pascale.

Pascale: Hi, nice to be with you, everybody.

Kenny: Yes, we’re excited to have you. And just briefly, can you tell us a little bit about Brinsea?

Pascale: Yes, well, Brinsea was started in in the UK over 45 years ago, and we’ve, for all this time, we’ve concentrated on developing and, and manufacturing egg incubators and brooders, [00:02:00] breeding products. That’s, you know, we’re the incubation specialists and one of the leading firms in in the world. We export all over the world. So we’re, we’re well known.

Kenny: And why would somebody want to use an incubator versus maybe a broody hen or somebody they already have on the farm or the homestead?

Pascale: Okay. Well, I mean, a broody hen, if she will, you know, sit all the way through is probably the best option. But there’s always, you know, the risk of predation, the risk of her abandoning the eggs or, you know, other birds, if she’s not isolated, you know, picking on, on her and, you know, and the eggs. So there’s always, there was always a risk. Plus, you know, once she’s hatched them, you know, she’s not going to be willing to sit on another clutch so readily afterwards. So yes, it’s it’s a matter of economics, I guess.

Kenny: And incubators can be a wide range of offerings. Can you describe [00:03:00] some of the basic controls an incubator should have?

Pascale: Well, I mean, the, the key, the key is going to be that it controls the temperature in the right range. Typically for, you know, for, for chicken eggs or most, most avian eggs anyway, it’s going to be between 99.5 and 100. degrees Fahrenheit. So, you know, within that range, that’s, that’s the key aspect. Then obviously having automatic turning is a nice feature, but if you don’t, you can turn the eggs manually. It’s a bit more involving, but it works well as well. And then most incubators have facilities for, for humidity, for adding water. And that’s, that’s important too. So that can be done manually. There’s usually some little water reservoirs in the base of the incubator, or that can be done automatically in some of the, of the more sophisticated units. And so that’s, that’s very easy. If you have that feature, you just set the humidity to the percentage you [00:04:00] need, and it does it all for you.

How Often to Turn Eggs in an Incubator

Kenny: Can you talk a little bit about the importance of why the eggs need to be turned and maybe how often?

Pascale: So the avian eggs have to be, have to be turned. If the eggs are not turned, the, the embryo, which sits on top of the yolk, will basically stick to the, to the shell membranes and, and will die.

That’s the key reason. But other important reason is that as you turn the eggs, the, the embryo is, is gonna be exposed to new areas of, of, you know the white basically, which facilitates the, the oxygen exchange and the nutrient exchange and also moves the, the waste away from, from the embryo. So it, it sort of, you know, refreshes its environment. Let’s let’s put it this way.

And how frequently? Well, most uh, incubators with automatic turning will do it on an hourly basis. But if [00:05:00] you have to turn the eggs manually, the minimum is, bare, bare minimum, is twice a day. Three times is better. More often is, is great, but obviously it’s, you know, it’s a commitment.

Kenny: Maybe when I was in late elementary school or middle school, when I had my ducks and my chickens at my house, we would draw an X and an O on each side of the egg, because there’s just a, a grid, and then we would make sure that everybody’s facing one way for the first 12 hours, and then, then you would know which way to go.

Pascale: Exactly, yeah, and that’s still a method that works very well.

Kenny: Now, growing up, I, I mostly had ducks. So, when you’re talking about incubating, how does the species go into play? Can you mix and match ducks and chickens and quail and emu, or do you need to have separate incubators?

Pascale: Right. Emu, you’re pushing your luck a little bit, but [00:06:00] yes, that’s going to be tricky because of the length of the incubation.

But yes, you can certainly mix and match to a certain extent. Obviously, the, the, typically the, the larger the egg, the longer the incubation period. So, I mean, typically, chicken eggs are 21 days. For your ducks, you’re looking at 28 days, typically. If you’re going to do, you know, goose, you’re looking at 30, 32 days. Other end of the spectrum, you know, quail eggs can be between 16 or 18 days.

So, if you want to mix and match, the trick is to, you know, store the eggs and set them at different times so they all hatch at the same time. Otherwise, you know, you would have, you would have issues because you need to stop the turning two days prior to the eggs hatching. And so if you still had some eggs that needed turning while the others are hatching, then, you know, you would compromise the ones that still need to be turned. Plus, there’s also[00:07:00] you know, humidity needs to be much higher for the last two days of incubation so that those membranes once the, you know, chick pips don’t get exposed and dry out and trap the chick inside the egg.

So these are the considerations. But yes, you can, you can send, you know, mix, mix and match species so long as they’re all going to hatch at the same time.

Kenny: What I found a little confusing many years ago when I got into this. Let’s say the animals are laying in one egg every day. How can you store them, or where do you store them, before you put them all in the incubator to begin the process?

Because in my mind, I was like, okay, here’s one egg. And then a day later, okay, here’s another egg, and then the first one’s hatching, and you’re still putting a new egg in, so how do you do that to, how do you time them?

Pascale: Well, the hens do time them, actually. They’ll lay their eggs, and they’ll, they’ll squirrel them on the side of the nest, and then once they’re ready uh, and they think they have enough of a [00:08:00] clutch, then they’ll bring them back, and then they’ll start sitting on them.

So, basically, they’re storing them somewhere, and so the key to storage is it needs to be a cool environment. Not obviously freezing cold, but, but cool, you know, in 50s is, is a good, you know, temperature range. And it needs to be humid so that, you know, the egg doesn’t dry out in, in storage. In Florida, we don’t have cool cellars, but many other parts of the country do. So that’s, that’s a good place. If not, then the door of the fridge is, is, is a good spot as well. It’s not too cold. You know, provided it’s in that, you know, fifties temperature range, then, then you’re, you know, you’re good.

And the other thing to do is to make sure that you turn them once a day. Even in storage, you, you need to turn them. And ideally not store them for more than a week to 10 days. After that, you know, definitely after two weeks, you see a lot more you know, [00:09:00] reduction in, in you know, hatching rates.

[00:09:02] Incubator Humidity, Temperature, Chick Care, & More

Kenny: Alright, so once you got all of your eggs ready and you put them in the incubator, how often do you recommend checking on the eggs? Let’s say the incubators automatically turning them. Can you just come back 21 days later?

Pascale: Nah, a little sooner would be better. At least 18 days, but even that is, you know, I wouldn’t recommend.

So basically, just one more thing is before, you know, if you’ve been storing your eggs in a cool, damp place before, you know, putting them in the incubator, you need to let them warm up to, you know, room temperature so there’s no thermal shock, otherwise they could crack. And obviously, you know, then the chances of hatching would be further reduced. So, you know, no thermal shock. You take them out of your cool storage, let them warm up at room temperature and then put them in the incubator.

And then, well, to me, the best part of incubating is, is actually candling the eggs and seeing what’s going on inside. [00:10:00] You can really start seeing some development around day five. You know, I take chickens as a, as a reference you know, around day five, you’ll start seeing some nice blood vessels developing. And then you know that your egg is, is viable. At which stage, you know, if there are some that are not developing, obviously you can remove them. If they’re not developing, there’s no point leaving them in the incubator.

Kenny: You’re gonna smell it if you don’t remove them.

Pascale: If the egg has been fertilized and, you know, is dying, yes, yes, you would. If the egg is not fertile, like it’s, it’s not really gonna do anything too nasty. But yes, if you have an embryo that’s, that’s dead, then, then yes, that’s when you start noticing it, if you don’t remove it. And, and run the risk of contaminating the others, obviously.

From day five, you can start. I mean, depending on your ambient conditions and whether you have this automatic humidity control or not, you should check, you know, [00:11:00] obviously the water level in the, in the water reservoirs, make sure that you have, some water in the incubator. Otherwise, you know, the the eggs are going to dry out and, you know, the chicks are not likely to hatch. Or if they do, they’ll be pretty weak and won’t survive so well. So, so yeah, I typically, checking on your eggs every two to three days making sure there’s water candling them, removing the ones that, you know are not, not looking so promising.

Note on that is if you’re new to candling and incubation and you have don’t sort of leave it a couple of inspections before you remove the eggs because, you know, it becomes more obvious the difference between the ones that are not developing and the ones that are developing, especially in the, you know, intermediate to late stages. It would be a shame to get rid of an egg that was actually healthy.

Kenny: So we mentioned temperature [00:12:00] and humidity and we’re handling the eggs. What about ventilation? How important is that?

Pascale: Well, humidity and ventilation are sort of you know, two….

Kenny: ….sisters.

Pascale: Yes, absolutely. You can’t have one or the other. So, I mean, all, you know, incubators have ventilation holes. Even if they don’t have them, most incubators these days have a fan that circulates the air inside of them. But even if they don’t and still exposed to an old still air incubator without a fan, there will be some air inlet to get some fresh air inside. I mean, the eggs need to breathe. They’re alive. They need to breathe.

So, so the amount of fresh air that, enters the incubator affects the humidity level. And so the more air is drawn into into the incubator, the lower your your humidity is going to be and vice versa. So another reason for candling the eggs is [00:13:00] to observe the, the size of the air sack. So basically all the, you know, all the eggs are going to dry out to some extent. I mean, they need to lose weight, typically around 15 percent of their original weight, so that once the chick is ready to hatch, it’s got that nice little air sac to dip into first and then externally pick. So that’s quite crucial. If that air sac is, is too large and you know, typically also the membranes are drier, it’s going to be weak and tough for it to, you know, to hatch.

Conversely, if the air sac is, is too small, the humidity level has been too high during incubation. The, the chick is also going to have a hard time and kind of drown inside that, that air sac which is, is a lot more fluid than, you know, than it should. So yes, humidity and ventilation, you know, go hand in hand.

How to Adjust Humidity in an Incubator

Kenny: So one of the most popular questions that we found people asking was, “How to adjust [00:14:00] humidity in an incubator.” So you mentioned the ventilation. I’m assuming when people say like, oh, their humidity is too low, they think they have to add water to the reservoir. But how much water or would you put the lid off to get it lower?

Pascale: if your humidity is, is too low and you need to increase it, then it’s not so much the amount of water that’s in your incubator, it’s the surface area. A very small but tall reservoir is, is not, is not really going to achieve that. So you need to to expand the area. So a shallower but with a more area of water exposed is going to boost your humidity much, much better.

I mean, in some areas of Arizona, et cetera, sometimes the built in reservoirs are not sufficient, and to expand that area of evaporation, you can use, you know some, some sort of kitchen [00:15:00] paper or something that’s going to wick from the reservoir and extend that that area.

That’s crucial. Just having, you know, an inch more of water is not, not going to cut it.

So on the other hand, if you’ve got too much water and sometimes that’s our problem in Florida, the ambient humidity is very high and, you know, we, we have to, you know, to run the incubator dry, not necessarily for the whole period of incubation, but, you know, certainly for some, some days. We tend to weigh the eggs, that’s the most definite way of knowing whether they’re losing the right amount of, of moisture and they’re going to be on track for, for hatching. That can be a bit of a hassle and not everybody wants to, to get involved with that, but, it’s certainly candling the eggs and observing, how fast the air sac you know, is, is enlarging is, is a good indication.

Kenny: We’re going to take a quick break from today’s guest, Pascal Pearce, Executive [00:16:00] Vice President of Brinsea, to hear a word from our sponsor. When we return, we’ll be talking about the most exciting part of incubation, the Pipping Stage.

[00:16:10] Brinsea Midroll Ad

Jessica Anderson: Brinsea products are designed to be long lasting and energy efficient. Their Advance Series incubators and brooders feature the latest state of the art digital control systems, providing instant readings of temperature and humidity to ensure successful hatches and healthy chicks.

Check out Brinsea incubators and more at www.Brinsea.com. That’s www.Brinsea.com.

[00:16:42] When to Stop Turning Chicken Eggs

Kenny: We’re back with Pascale Pearce, Executive Vice President of Brinsea. So, Pascale, we’re getting close to the 18 day mark. What day or what stage do we stop turning chicken eggs? [00:17:00]

Pascale: Yes, that, that would be, yes, around, you know, 18, 18, 19 days, that’s definitely when you should be stopping the turning.

That’s for chicken eggs, obviously. If you’re doing, you know, duck eggs, you’ve got a few more days. But yeah, around day 18 or 19 for, for chicken eggs, you stop the turning. You would remove any moving parts, turning trays, you know, things like that, where the chicks could trap their legs or anything while they’re hatching. A good idea also for a couple of reasons to put some hatching material if it’s not provided with the incubator. A, it makes cleaning easier, but also it, it helps the chicks you know, find some grippy surface.

A lot of the incubators got, you know, nice, smooth plastic bottoms to, to help with cleaning, but not, not so great, you know, for chicks hatching. And so then they can develop splayed legs and that’s not, that’s not a good thing either. Either some corrugated cardboard [00:18:00] or, you know, something like that is, can can give enough grip while they’re, while they’re hatching.

So, and the other key aspect is to increase the humidity. Typically, you know, during incubation, you’d fill half of the reservoirs, you know, there’s usually several. So one or two, and then you’d fill the other, you know, two or three, you know so that you’ve got a lot of humidity building up, so once the chicks pip, the membranes don’t dry out.

And then you don’t open the incubator. That’s the key. Because all that nice, all that nice humidity that’s built up and will build even more once they start hatching because the chicks are wet. So once some start hatching, that humidity will, you know, will explode pretty much. And that’s, and that’s great. There’s no, there’s no detriment to too much. It’s important then to, leave the incubator closed and resist the temptation to interfere. It takes time. I mean, you know, from the first, you know, pip through the shell to the actual, you know, [00:19:00] chick emerging completely, it can be easily 24 hours.

You know, there’s that frustrating stage where they, you know, that first pip and nothing happens. You think, great, I gotta come out. But no, there’s all sorts of things that need to happen. The breathing and the, you know, the blood circulation has to become internal. That’s when they absorb the yolk as well. And, you know, all sorts of things happen. And if you try and help too soon, then you’re bleeding and, you know, possible death. So, just gotta be patient.

[00:19:28] When to Take Chicks Out of the Incubator

Kenny: Right, so when you see the first egg pip, or you hear the first egg pip, you kind of take them out of that automation. All of the eggs.

Pascale: Well, actually, you need to, yeah, you, you, you, ideally, you need to have that done, you know, earlier.

Kenny: So, three days earlier?

Pascale: Yeah. Yeah. That’s right. I mean, you know, if you’re for chicken eggs, if you’re, you know, if you, if you’re ready for lockdown on day 18, 19, and they’re on track, you know, for the next two days, then, you know, then you’re good. Yes. If you, if you forget, [00:20:00] then yes, once you hear the first one, but you’re already possibly leaving it a little late, but that should still work.

Kenny: I know you mentioned that you might not want to open the incubator. You shouldn’t open it within 24 hours. How long can they stay in if you have, you know, half of them hatched and the other half are still pipping?

Pascale: Yes, I mean, they need to dry out before you take them out anyway. Otherwise, they’ll, they’ll chill. Even if you’re going to put them straight away under a brooder, it’s best to, you know, to let them, you know, dry out inside the incubator. It can be a little cramped depending on how many eggs you, you have in your incubator. And they can sort of trample on the ones trying to hatch if they got too far ahead of some of the others, but if you really must, if you have some that are fully dried out and being trouble, it’s best not to lift the lid completely. Just try and squeeze your hand in there and grab the one so you don’t lose that humidity for the other ones that are still trying to hatch. So that’s, that’s my best [00:21:00] advice. But they’ve, they’ve absorbed, you know, the, the egg yolk, and they can survive without food. They’ll need water before they need food for several days. That’s when, you know, the hatcheries ship the day old chicks. It’s because they can survive for several days without, you know, food or water.

Kenny: If chicks hatch and they show signs of weakness or abnormalities, how can you care for them to give them the best chance at life? And I think sometimes people are too eager to play doctor at home.

Pascale: Well, it depends to what extent abnormalities or deformities you know, they’re, they’re born with, but the splayed legs if you put, you know, elastic band, the right size around the legs to keep them holding, that, that works quite well. The other one is if they haven’t fully absorbed the yolk, they will usually survive that. Unfortunately, sometimes there’s, there’s nothing much you can do. And even chicks that look healthy ones, [00:22:00] they, hatched could die, can die, you know, a few days later without , any obvious explanation.

But yes, keeping them, you know, sort of warm. Definitely. Some water and some, some food, you know, is, is is definitely the best, the best help you can give them.

[00:22:18] How to Clean and Store Your Incubator

Kenny: Next month’s podcast, we’re going to be talking, one of next month’s podcasts, we’re going to be talking about how to utilize biology lessons and teaching with children regarding raising chicks and incubators. So that would be a good moral lesson, ethical lesson, about if something happens where the chick isn’t doing that great.

All right, but we’re hoping that all the listeners have a successful hatching season. And after they finished using the incubator, how do you recommend them cleaning it or storing it for them to use it the next time?

Pascale: [00:23:00] Well, I mean, the best, the best way is to do it straight away, which is not, you know necessarily the tendency, but it’s much easier if you, you know, if you clean it straight away. You can use you know, soap or diluted bleach. Definitely alcohol based products tend to damage plastics. So we don’t recommend using those, and not just for the Brinsea brand incubators. It’s, you know, in general incubator, it’s not going to survive so well if there’s alcohol used regularly on it. But whatever it is that you use, it’s just important to, you know, to rinse off any residue that may have, of the cleaning product, that may still linger and to, and to run the incubator until it’s very dry. So you don’t want to store an incubator with some residual moisture in it. You could have some mold growing, which is not what you want, and you could also do some damage to, you know, to the electronics, so you don’t want to do that.

So, [00:24:00] I mean, it’s obviously you need to be careful with, you know, all the mechanical or, you know, electrical parts, not to obviously use water in those parts. A dry brush or, you know, even, you know, the vacuum to, to get the fluff off the fan, that, that sort of thing is, is fine.

I mean, anything, if the base can be submerged in, in water, that’s fine. Don’t put it in the dishwasher. Usually, you know, the temperature’s gonna be too high and it’s gonna warp. So, not, not, not too good. It would be clean, but not necessarily usable again.

We, we find that a lot of the times people don’t put their incubator away. Hatching is addictive, so, you know, during the season, you know, it seems that it carries on. But where you store your incubator also is important, so that there’s no, you know, preferably in a, in a dry, temperate, climate controlled room. Let’s put it this way. You know, too much heat, too much cold is, you know, as I say, could could do some [00:25:00] damage to some of the parts, particularly the electronics. And you know, you could have rodents gnawing at electric cords and, you know, things like that, which not not a good thing either. So where you store your incubators is important, too.

Kenny: Last question, because you just mentioned rodents gnawing on the cords. Where is a good place to put the incubator when you have eggs in it?

Pascale: Ah, right. In, in the house, preferably, or at least a climate controlled, you know, environment, because if, if the temperature drops too low or rises too high the incubator is not going to control the temperature, and so then your hatches is going to be ruined. And so you can have control over that. I mean, you know, inevitable power outages and things like that in, you know, in the summer or even winter are not so easy to control, but but certainly, you know, on a regular basis, if you have your incubator in, in the house [00:26:00] or, yes, if your garage is, you know, at a steady temperature, then that’s, that’s fine.

Kenny: All right. Well, thank you so much, Pascale, for all the information about troubleshooting incubators. We really appreciate it, and we hope everyone has a good hatching season. And thank you so much, Pascale.

Pascale: My pleasure. Happy hatching, everybody.

[00:26:23] Podcast Credits and Brinsea Post-Roll Ad

Jessica Anderson: Thanks for joining us for this episode of Mother Earth News and Friends. To listen to more podcasts and get connected on our social media, visit www.MotherEarthNews.com/Podcast. You can also email us at Podcast@OgdenPubs.Com with any questions or suggestions. Our podcast production team includes Jessica Anderson, Kenny Coogan, John Moore, Carla Tilghman, and Alyssa Warner.

Music for this episode is “Hustle” by Kevin MacLeod.

The Mother Earth News and Friends podcast is a production of Ogden Publications.

[00:27:00] Thanks again to Brinsea, our sponsor for this Mother Earth News and Friends podcast episode. You too can experience the Brinsea difference and maximize your hatch rates with Brinsea incubators that monitor temperature and humidity and are made of antimicrobial materials.

Brinsea ships worldwide and provides stellar customer support to answer all your questions. Hatch your chicks with Brinsea, the leader in innovative incubation research. Learn more at Brinsea.com. Again, that’s www.Brinsea.com

Until next time, don’t forget to love your Mother.

Meet Pascale Pearce

Pascale Pearce is the executive vice president of Brinsea USA. A native of France, Pascale is a graduate of Bordeaux Business School, where she earned a master’s degree in business administration specializing in International Trade.

She started her career in the United Kingdom in 1994 as Brinsea’s Export Manager, and joined Brinsea USA in 1998 shortly after its creation, where she was in charge of business development before becoming executive vice president.

With more than 25 years of experience in the bird breeding and animal intensive care market, Pascale enjoys sharing her knowledge of incubation with backyard breeders to make hatching an enjoyable experience that they’ll want to repeat.

Additional Resources

Thanks to Brinsea, the chick incubation specialists, for sponsoring this episode!

Listen to Pascale’s other podcast episode with us, Candling and Embryos.

Join us for Chick Month 2024!

 Our Podcast Team

Jessica Anderson, Kenny Coogan, John Moore, Carla Tilghman, and Alyssa Warner
Music: “Hustle” by Kevin MacLeod

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