In the New Year, thoughts turn to incubating eggs

Victoria Roberts BVSC MRCVS shares her experience of hatching chicks

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The first decision is how are you going to cope with the potential of 50% male chicks? You will not be able to rehome them, no-one wants them unless they are a breed which can be put on the table. The best thing is for you to eat them since you know where they have come from, their feed, their good life, no travel mileage and humane slaughter. It is not possible to sex them at day old as chickens do not have external genitalia but some breeds have a slightly different colour/pattern at day old and females can grow their wings before males do. This is not 100% sexing so you may want to wait until the feathers between the shoulder blades at around 10 weeks grow. Pointed and shiny=male, rounded and not shiny=female. Definitely 100%!

HATCHING BEGINS BEFORE THE EGG IS LAID!

Begin with feeding the parent stock a breeder ration about four weeks before you expect to set the eggs in the incubator. This will make sure that the embryos are strong and vigorous. There are many models of incubators available from 3-egg (turning by hand) to 100+egg, plus the all-singing-all-dancing new Brinsea Connect holding 58 eggs which is remote-controlled from your smart phone! Simple ones work by convection (gas exchange for the developing embryos) with no humidifier and hand turning, through to state-of-the-art automatic temperature, turning and humidity. I have used Brinsea incubators for many years as they are designed and made in Britain and their customer service is excellent.