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Small incubator hire
I have a small semi-automatic incubator that can be hired for £22 per month plus postage and packing alongside the purchase of hatching eggs.
Brinsea incubators are very high quality and straighforward to use for the beginner. The semi-automatic nature of the Octagon 10 means that you don't need to turn each egg by hand, you just rock it from side to side two or three times a day. It has two small 'wells' at one end for water to control the humidity and a mercury thermometer and a small knob to turn to adjust the temperature. It will be set to more or less the right temperature when you receive it and will just need a little fine-tuning depending on where you locate it for your hatch.
This page is a basic guide to using the Brinsea Octagon 10 semi-auto. For a bit more information on hatching and brooding (and candling) see here.
Where?
Incubators are best kept somewhere that does not suffer extremes of temperature and is out of drafts. Don't keep it next to a radiator or in direct sunlight or in a south-facing room or shed that will get very warm during the day. A spare room is often a good place. Keep it out of the way of bangs and knocks and vibration - don't keep it on the top of a washing machine, for example.Setting up
Firstly, run the incubator for twenty-four hours to ensure that it is working properly. Keep an eye on the thermometer - it should be around 38 degrees. This is because this model is a 'still air' incubator and the air at the top of the barrel will be slightly lower than at the bottom. Eggs need to be around 37.5 degrees centigrade, so 38 degrees at the top of the incubator is about right. You can adjust the temperature by twisting the little knob on the outside-top of the case with a small screwdriver or with your fingers. One full turn is about half a degree.Fill one of the reservoirs in the barrel with water. This is to ensure that the eggs have the right humidity and mimics the moisture on a hen's body.
After twenty-four hours, if all is well with the temperature, put the eggs in. They need to go in to the incubator either point down or on their 'long' side. There is a piece of matting to put in the bottom to stop them slipping about and to provide the chicks with a steady surface to grip on when they hatch. Once you have closed the drawer, tilt the incubator carefully on one of it's sides so that it is at an angle.
Turning and humidity
Eggs are turned regularly by a broody hen, to prevent the developing embryo sticking inside the shell. To mimic this, you need to tilt the incubator from side to side at least twice a day. If you do it when you get up in the morning and twelve hours after that, that should be about right. You need to tilt for THE FIRST EIGHTEEN DAYS ONLY.Every three days (for this particular model), carefully open the draw and top the water level up.
Candling
Around Day Nine, you can candle if you choose to, to see what is going on inside the eggs.Stop turning
After Day Eighteen, stop turning. This is to ensure that the chicks can orient themelves in the shell for their hatch. Set the incubator upright on it's base.Hatching
On Day Twenty, open the incubator and fill both water reservoirs up to the top. Then wait!Hatching can take slightly longer or, sometimes, slightly less time, than the average twenty-one days. Be patient and don't open the incubator once it has started, as this will dry the eggs out and make it more difficult for the chicks to emerge. Once they are out, they are FINE in the incubator for a maximum of forty-eight hours. I usually wait until there are a few that are dry, then quickly open the draw, whip them out in to a ready-prepared brooder and close the incubator up again.
Finishing up
You will probably find that there are one or two eggs that don't hatch. Leave the incubator on for twenty-four hours after the last one has come out, just to make sure that nothing else is going on. And then you can switch it off, dispose of the shells, wash the drawer in warm (not hot) soapy water and package it up ready to be sent back.
