Are you considering hatching chicks in your classroom? You should! There’s nothing I do in my classroom that compares to the excitement of hatching and brooding chicks! And it can definitely be done without too much fuss. Here’s everything you’ll need to know about hatching chicks in your classroom!
What You Will Need
Phase 1: Incubating
The incubation period for chicken eggs is 21 days, so you won’t need your brooder set up quite yet. You will, however, need an incubator.
My co-teacher and I have used ones like this in the past.
We previously used these foam incubators because they’re cheap and hold a lot of eggs.
Unfortunately, we’ve had the plastic viewing pane pop loose from the foam due to the humidity inside the incubator. With that in mind, as well as the digital inconsistencies of the cheap thermometer, I’d recommend getting a better model if you have the funds.
In recent years, we upgraded to Brinsea incubators, and they’re AMAZING! They save so much worry and are much more accurate. They even have an alarm to let you know if your temperature or humidity is out of your safe range!
And if you only want to set a few eggs to hatch, I have a friend with this model:
She always has a nearly 100% hatch rate with this machine, and she pretty much sets it and forgets it. All you have to do is add water now and then to keep the humidity consistent. The foam machine is definitely more fickle when it comes to regulating temperature and humidity.
Here’s the basics of what to look for in an incubator:
You definitely want to choose a model with egg turners! Turning the egg multiple times a day is essential, so unless you want to manually rotate your eggs every few hours, get an incubator that does it for you!
Models with fans are a plus, too. The fan prevents the air from getting stale and will give you a better hatch rate.
The included thermometer is a plus, but can be a bit off on these cheap ones. With the foam incubators, we always used an extra thermometer to make sure it was reading accurately. An aquarium thermometer is best, because it’s not affected by humidity. Even expensive digital thermometers have an accuracy rating of +/- 2 degrees, so a cheap mercury thermometer works just as well for this purpose.
You will also need some sort of light source and a dark room if you plan to candle your eggs. This can be a special candling light, a DIY candling box, or even a flashlight will work, too.
Phase 2: After They Hatch
Although incubating the eggs is just as exciting for me as brooding chicks, there’s really not too much work involved once you set up your incubator. Raising chicks, however, does have a bit more work involved.
You’ll need a box to keep your chicks in. Cardboard will get messy too quickly. I use a large rectangular plastic tote.
Your chicks will definitely need a heat source. You can definitely use a heat lamp, but they get very hot and can be both a burn hazard to small children, as well as a fire hazard. My co-teacher has used a regular 100 watt bulb in a desk lamp for years, and it’s always kept the chicks warm enough. Last year, we started using a brooder plate to save electricity and lose the safety hazard of a hot bulb. This is another product I love and will be purchasing a second for this season of chicks!
For food, you can easily find chick starter feed at Tractor Supply, Rural King, your local feed store, and even Amazon. Just look for “starter” feed, since it’s formulated specifically for newborn chicks. You can get this unmedicated or medicated, which helps prevent against intestinal diseases in your chicks.
You can place the food in a bowl (which they might spill and poop in), or a chick feeder.
Water can also be placed in a bowl, but a chick waterer is easier to manage. Whatever water source you use, you should put marbles or stones in the bottom of the pan to prevent a newborn chick from drowning.
Line the bottom of your box with newspaper or large construction paper to make clean up easier. Then layer pine shavings on top. When the brooder starts to stink or look messy, transfer the chicks to a cardboard box while you change the paper and sawdust out for new.
How to Hatch Chicken Eggs
Finding Eggs
I raise my own chickens, so we don’t have to look too far for hatching eggs! If you want some of my eggs to hatch, please email me and I can ship them to you! 🙂
Your best bet for hatching eggs will be someone local who owns both hens and at least one rooster. Although hens don’t need a rooster to lay eating eggs, they do need a rooster to breed with in order to have fertile eggs for hatching.
Ideally, the farm that supplies the eggs will take the chicks when you are done with them, as well. I have read that hatcheries who supply the eggs and take the chicks back are likely to destroy the birds, since they can’t sell them to other customers. Please try to find someone to take your chicks home to love! You could even start your own backyard flock!
Okay, so you know you need fertile eggs. But it’s also important to care for the eggs properly before incubating. Relay these instructions to your farmer:
- Collect the eggs as soon as possible. Eggs need to be less than 7 days old, and the fresher the better.
- Soiled or cracked (even thin surface cracks) eggs shouldn’t be used for hatching as they welcome bacteria and can contaminate the whole batch in the incubator.
- A little bit of dirt can be wiped off with a dry rag, but DO NOT WASH the eggs!
- Eggs should be kept in a cool room (NOT in the fridge) in an egg carton. Make sure the pointy end is down, so the air pocket is at the top/wide end of the egg.
- Even before incubating, eggs should be rotated twice per day to keep the yolk from sticking. This can cause the air pocket to be in the wrong spot, which can actually lead to a chick suffocating during hatching. I just tip my egg carton on its side and rotate it morning and night.
Setting Up Your Incubator
Obviously, you need to follow the directions for your own incubator model. Usually, you will need to plug in the incubator a few hours to allow it to regulate its temperature before you add eggs.
You’ll also need to add some water to create humidity. You instruction manual should tell you how to do this.
The ideal temperature for egg incubation is 99.5 F and humidity should be kept at 50-55% until day 18.
Once your incubator is warmed up, set your eggs in the turners with the pointy end down. Check again to make sure that there are no cracks, and always use clean hands to handle the eggs.
And that’s it! Unfortunately, it’s now a waiting game.
Candling Your Eggs
About day 7 or 8, there should be enough progress inside of the eggs to candle them. You can do this by taking your egg to a dark room and placing the pointy end of the egg over a small light source, such as a flashlight.
If the egg is growing properly, you should be able to see some blood vessels!
If you see a large blood ring, that means that this embryo has died and should be removed from the incubator.
Any eggs without blood vessels were not fertile and should be removed, as well. Eggs like these or embryos that have “quit” will rot and explode in your incubator – spreading bacteria and contaminating the whole batch!
You’ll also want to candle on day 17 before you lock down your incubator for hatching. Check out our day 17 candling video! It’s amazing to see the life going on inside what looks like an ordinary egg.
Read more about how to candle and what to look for here.
Hatch Day
On day 18, you’ll need to “lock down” your incubator. This means candling to weed out any bad eggs, then removing the egg turners and raising your humidity.
About day 21 (they can be early or late, as well) you should start seeing some pips! A pip is a small crack in the shell where the chick is starting to emerge.
Once you see a pip, make sure you keep the lid closed on the incubator. Losing humidity at this point can make the membrane dry out and prevent the chick from ever getting out.
Even if a chick has hatched and is running amuck in the incubator – keep it closed to allow the others to fully hatch. Chicks need to dry out in the incubator, and do not like to be alone in a brooder, anyway.
Also avoid the urge to help the chick hatch. They need to absorb the yolk and blood vessels before they hatch, and helping them could actually cause them to bleed to death if they haven’t finished this process.
When you feel that the chick has fully dried (at least a few hours) and no other eggs are at risk, quickly move your chicks to the brooder set up and place them under the heat lamp or brooder plate.
They’ll nap a lot! Make sure they have food and water available and check often to make sure none look sickly or are in danger of being trampled. If they’re noisy, they’re probably cold or lonely. Make sure they have enough warmth and some siblings to snuggle with!
Lesson Plans
These development eggs from Learning Resources are awesome for showing the students what’s going on each day of incubation! These are perfect for the days we don’t candle and allow them to see that there is still progress being made inside the egg.
I have created a Chicken Life Cycle pack for you to use with your chicks (of course I did, I’m a crazy chicken lady)! Click here to see the blog post about all the STEM and Literacy activities that are included in the download!
More Information
For more information about hatching eggs:
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