Incubating Eggs

Sometimes nature gives conflicting signals. The three-foot snow drifts that dot our yard and freezing temperatures say that winter is hanging on. But the calendar, longer days, noisy chicken activity and increased egg production say it's time to incubate eggs. We usually incubate two batches of eggs each spring. We keep a few dozen chicks for ourselves and sell the others. We plan the first hatch for late March. For our little flock, incubation is a month-long process. It takes about a week to collect and select enough eggs for the 42-egg incubator. While the hens will produce more than 42 eggs in a week, we select eggs that are uniform in shape and clean. Cracked, dirty, over- or undersized eggs are kept for dog and human consumption. I place the eggs for incubation in separate cartons on a shelf where they will remain at room temperature until being placed in the incubator. A few days before incubation, I will get out the incubator and turn it on. Ideally, the incubator should be at 100 degrees and 58-60 percent humidity before placing the eggs inside. Once inside the incubator, it takes 21 days for the chicks to hatch. Although there is snow on the ground and temperatures are set to remain below normal for the next week, I proceed with the incubation process. I have to believe that the grass will green and the weather will warm when chicks peep and crack shells at the end of March.