What to do to incubate chicken eggs without a mommy chicken
@quiltedblessings (1066)
United States
February 29, 2008 11:41am CST
Okay, this may sound crazy, but here is the situation.
My 2 oldest children are in middle school. Their school has a farm. My kids go to the farm every single day, because they love helping take care of the chickens, guinea pigs, etc. Okay, so yesterday, they come home from school, with not one, but two chicken eggs. Supposedly, as a figure it out project, from time to time, they will send home these eggs and let the kids and their parents figure out how to get the egg to hatch, and if it does, then when the chick is a certain age, it goes back to the farm.
So, right now, we have the eggs in a "nest" made of thick bath towels and under a desk lamp. The eggs seem to be staying warm. I have given the kids the talk about how it is very possible that the eggs will never hatch, so they are prepared for that. But I would like to give them every chance at seeing this project all the way through.
So my question is, what should I be doing to "incubate" the eggs? How long does it typically take for an egg to hatch? Weeks? Months? Should I leave them alone under the light, or is that not enough? Help! I've never had any interaction with chickens really. We live in Los Angeles. LOL
Thanks for any help at all!
1 person likes this
5 responses
@Modestah (11179)
• United States
29 Feb 08
you want to keep the eggs at about 99.5 degrees - you will want to keep them in an enclosed area.
you can make a suitable incubator box out of a styrofoam cooloer or any cooler for that matter.
make sure your lightbulb is low wattage if you are using one or you will cook the eggs.
you also need to keep the heat moist. you can actually try hatching out your eggs by incubating them in your braziere and letting your body heat keep them warm enough.
it takes 21 days from set to hatch for regular sized chicken eggs.
check out www.backyardchickens.com they usually have a lot of good information for such things.
2 people like this
@Modestah (11179)
• United States
9 Mar 08
haha,
when I was in Spain a friend and I were walking down a sidewalk in a town and a little plump woman who was sweeping the streets came over to us patting her chest and you would hear a peep peep each time - she kept patting her chest....
we laughed and she reached in and pulled out the chicks she was brooding in there...
I could not imagine the poopy mess she had at the end of the day!
@quiltedblessings (1066)
• United States
29 Feb 08
Holy cow, keep the eggs in my bra? Who would have ever thought of that one! I can just see me trying to not break them in my bra... Well I guess if worse comes to worse, that is not a horrible option. LOLOL
Thanks for the website too!
1 person likes this
@LessSeriously (10)
• United States
29 Feb 08
It's great that you are keeping the eggs warm. You don't need a fancy incubator to hatch them, but you do need to roll them each day. That's what a mother hen would do. One way to help keep track of which side you've rolled them to is to take a pencil and mark an X on one side of each egg. One day the X is up, the next day you turn it so the X is on the bottom. Good luck!
2 people like this
@Modestah (11179)
• United States
29 Feb 08
ah, she can have great fun with this - she can candle them after 7 days and see the little veins forming and the eye. an easy way to candle is to take a toilet paper roll - set the egg on top of the tube - turn off all the lights - and use a powerful flashlight - on the opposite end of the tube. this works great with white eggs - okay with beige and light tan eggs, not so well with dark eggs.
2 people like this
@quiltedblessings (1066)
• United States
29 Feb 08
Thanks so much for this info!
Also, yes, we do want to candle the eggs, so you do it after the 7th day? The eggs were laid 2 days ago, came home from the farm yesterday and went in the "homemade incubator" today... LOL I don't hold too much hope that it will work this time, but it has the kids so intrigued that I think we are going to do this again, though next time be prepared!
1 person likes this
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
29 Feb 08
Between these two site I think you will have all the information you will need:
http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00044/id33.htm
http://www.bigredcouch.com/journal/archives/2007/08/homemade-incubator.html
2 people like this
@kimbers867 (2539)
• United States
1 Mar 08
I can't answer your question but had to comment that I think it is so cool that your kids school has a farm on it. What a great learning experience.
Is this a public or private school?
@johndur (3052)
• Pasig, Philippines
1 Mar 08
e ggs wont hatch when they were overly exposed to too much heat.it would only end up like a boiled egg!lol
moderate warmth is all they needed and its only for more than a week i think...im not that sure.but im sure they will hatch in a few weeks time.
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