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Having a home incubator is a real opportunity to get a strong healthy poultry population. However, the quality and quantity of hatching chicks largely determines the correct laying of eggs in the incubator at home. This important procedure is preceded by a rigorous selection of eggs intended for hatching, as well as the study of the particularities of incubation of one or another species of bird.
Since the tab and all further processes imitate natural incubation, the latter circumstance is most important. Depending on which bird's egg should get into the incubator, it depends on:
- temperature and humidity conditions in the incubator;
- incubation and pecking time;
- features ventilation and cooling;
- layout methods;
- terms of additional screening of eggs on the embryo.
The closest attention is paid to the selection of high-quality eggs, and it is necessary to control the growth and formation of embryos inside not only at the preliminary stage, but also during the incubation process. Eggs with no signs of development are removed in order not to provoke the growth of pathogenic microflora and not to expose potential dangers to the remaining eggs. 
Which eggs can be laid in an incubator? How in appearance and other signs to identify non-viable eggs and in time to remove them from the incubator?
How to check eggs in an incubator for an embryo?
At the initial stage, the selection of eggs is carried out on external grounds. Before laying the eggs in the incubator, they are sorted according to the shape, size, quality of the shell.
The shell should be intact, flat, without pronounced nodules or unformed areas. The eggs should not get into the incubator with microcracks or unusual marble-like divorces on the surface.
Most often, such defects are difficult to detect visually, so they use an ovoscope or a household lamp to reject eggs. The display of eggs before the incubation into the incubator allows:
- to recognize unfertilized eggs that have been lying for a long time and are no longer viable;
- to see all the smallest defects of the shell;
- determine the location and size of the airbag needed by the chick in the last days before sowing.
For egg hatching eggs, a well-formed yolk is clearly visible against the background of transparent, without foreign inclusions, blackout or turbid protein spots. The yolk is in the center of the egg, and when wiggling and turning, it moves slightly from its place.
When viewed visually and against the light, the shell should not have any defects. Marbling is especially dangerous because pathogenic bacteria, viruses and mold fungi can penetrate through poorly formed areas.
The air chamber is located under the blunt dome in its center or slightly lower. If the air volume inside the shell is large, this may be a sign that the egg has been waiting for sending to the incubator for too long, and its contents have dried. Such eggs are rejected on a par with unfertilized and spilled fuzzy yolk.
How to check for embryo eggs in an incubator? In addition to the initial check of the quality of the egg, during the whole incubation period, another 1-2 such procedures are carried out with an interval of about a week. Already 5–6 days after the eggs were laid in the incubator, at home with the aid of an ovoscope or an ordinary powerful lamp one can see a network of blood vessels penetrating the protein and a dark spot of the embryo.
How to lay eggs in an incubator?
Eggs of all types of birds should be kept cool until they are laid in the incubator. If they are immediately transferred to trays and put in a heated chamber, condensation will begin. As a result, the microclimate will be disturbed, mold will develop and the embryo may die.
Therefore, before laying goose eggs or eggs of other poultry in an incubator, they are kept at a temperature of about 25 ° C in a shelter from drafts for 8–12 hours.
During this time, the temperature outside and inside the shell is equalized, after which the eggs can be laid on trays. The arrangement of eggs in the cells depends on their size, quantity, and also on the type of bird.
How to lay chicken eggs in an incubator? Chickens are the most frequent inhabitants of homestead poultry houses, therefore all the nuances of incubating their eggs always excite experienced and, especially, beginner poultry farmers.
Chicken egg is not the largest, so it can be laid on trays, both upright and horizontally, if there is no shortage of free space. If chicks of a larger bird are to be obtained, then it is advisable to save the eggs on the pointed end or to tilt them a little in order to save. However, better results when hatching are precisely when the eggs are horizontal, which warm up better, less crowded, and easier to follow.
Features egg laying and care during incubation
Experienced poultry farmers on one tray try to lay out eggs similar in size. At the same time, it is not worthwhile to place eggs of different species of poultry nearby, even if they are completely identical in weight, size and shape. If eggs of chickens, geese and other poultry are simultaneously loaded, different incubation times and, accordingly, different conditions at each stage must be taken into account.
First, the largest should arrive at the trays, then, as the sizes decrease, they spread medium and small eggs. The average interval between bookmarks is four hours.
Similarly, they come in incubating different types of birds. At the same time, it is possible to focus on the average time from laying to laying on chicks:
- 17 days for quails;
- 21 days for chickens;
- 26–28 for turkey poults;
- 26–34 days for different breeds of domestic ducks;
- 28–33 days for geese.
At home, eggs are laid in the incubator manually. The device is preheated to a predetermined temperature, eggs are treated with an antiseptic solution or with an ultraviolet lamp. Washing and mechanically cleaning the shells is absolutely impossible!
All eggs in the incubator should be uniformly heated and ventilated. Therefore, in some models there is a mechanism for automatic egg turning. If such a function is not provided, the poultry farmer 10-12 times a day, conducts a coup of eggs in the incubator with his own hands. Such a technique will ensure not only warming up, but also the correct position of the embryo.
It is recommended to check them on the embryo a week after laying the eggs, in order to remove the stunted eggs in time and eliminate bacterial infections from the spoiled egg. After another 6-7 days, repeat the procedure.
For novice poultry farmers, it will be helpful to watch a video on how to lay eggs in an incubator. Since the success of incubation is 80% competently carried out the selection of eggs and its laying, knowledge of all the features of the nuances will help to avoid many mistakes that threaten the death of chicks.
