The Incubator Experiment [Part 1]

One of the free roaming hen where I live selected my Generator house as the best spot to brood. This is not the first time I have had this space taken over by a brooding hen. But this time was different, I have a plan for this hen, I want to hatch chicks for myself. And this hen could be my Incubator.

I noticed it took the hen two days to lay each egg. There were four eggs down and it was time to learn all I needed to know about brooding, incubation and hatching eggs and that called for some research.

The hen naturally knows how to take care of her eggs till it broods, but if an artificial incubator is to be used, the temperature should be around 37°C with good humidity and the eggs will have to be rotated regularly.

Now I needed to get the right eggs to be hatched, and the egg in this crate looked good, they are the everyday eggs you buy from the shop. locally known as agric eggs.
they are unfertilized eggs. Layers are given special food that makes them drop this unfertilized eggs mainly for consumption. They have a zero percent possibility of hatching making it not good for this experiment.

I had to go to a local market to get real eggs. I prefer using local fowl for this experiment because they have better resistance to sickness. And the local eggs are fertilized. With a higher probability of brooding.
I got four egg and had them tagged with a green marker. This will help me identify the eggs after hatching, Though the odds are better with local eggs, I still had some challage.
<sub>- If the eggs are too old, the brooding process will fail.
- The mother hen may reject the foreign eggs.
- After brooding, she may take them all away.
- Differentiating the chicks may be a problem.</sub>

Today I had the opportunity when the hen left her eggs for feeding, I used the opportunity to place the extra eggs among the others. I noticed the eggs were warm and hope she will not reject the eggs I slipped in due to a change in temperature or the fact that I touched them.

Now she has a total of nine eggs to keep warm, the eggs I bought have the green markers tagged for easy identification

When it came back, it seems it did not recognize any difference in number, now I have between 19 to 20 days to watch and wait with my fingers crossed.

• Will it work at all?
• Have you tried something of this nature?
• What happens if it hatches early and the chicks are taken away?
• is there anything I have missed or did not take into consideration?

Media Credit

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Captured by	@manuelhooks
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