We are growing our second batch of “in-house” incubated eggs.

As we have had rooster issues, aggressive Barred Rocks (tasty), to old Welsummer (tasty), and Leeroy (yes his name has two e’s) who is young, scared, but currently mating. We decided to load the incubator from off-farm with 41 eggs from My Little Farm in Rose Lake, ID and do a fertility test on Leeroy’s girls by adding 12 more from Spring Creek Acres. I am super excited to see what the offspring look like with a Wyandotte rooster over a barred rock hen. We will get to find out together.

53 Total Eggs in the incubator, eggciting.

Here are the rules for day -10 through 0 of incubation. Known as the time to collect the eggs.

1. 53 Total Eggs in the incubator, eggciting.
2. Check the egg for cracks and determine where the egg sack is. It is the non-pointy end normally. Some eggs are not so obvious, they are ovals or round; so you candle them looking for a solid air sack. I mark the location of the air sack and you want to store it air sack up.
3. If you bought eggs that are shipped, let them sit for at least 24 hours before putting them in the incubator.
4. Store the eggs in a cool environment, 50-65 degrees. The internet says you should also have a humidity of around 50 percent, but my basement is in the temperature range but only 25-30 percent humidity. Things are fine.
5. Make sure and change the angle the eggs are stored at least three times a day. I like to do five, but keep it odd. I show some ways to do it in the video. You don’t want the same side of the egg pointed up in the evening two nights in a row. What you are avoiding here is the embryo attaching to the shell.
6. Get your incubator running and set correctly at least a day before the eggs are going in. 99.5 degrees for chicken eggs, humidity I aim for 40 percent.

We also have a YouTube playlist covering our journey in egg incubation. The installment for this blog is here: https://youtu.be/lgEm9HHAUa0

Have a fantastic day.