Incubation is mostly boring – and that is exactly what you want. Stable temperature, appropriate humidity, and knowing when to leave eggs alone are what make hatches successful. Small adjustments matter, but patience matters more.
This guide covers how we incubate and hatch chicken, turkey, guinea, duck, and goose eggs, including shipped eggs, local eggs, and species-specific differences. It reflects what has worked for us across many hatches – not a guaranteed formula.
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Eggs do not need to go straight into the incubator. They can be held for up to 7 days with minimal impact on hatch rates. Beyond 7 days, fertility and hatch rates decline noticeably – beyond 10 days, the drop is significant.
Store eggs pointy end down or on their sides in a cool, humid location – a basement or cool room around 55-65°F works well. Do not refrigerate. Refrigerator temperatures are too cold and the dry air damages the bloom. Turn stored eggs once or twice a day to prevent the yolk from sticking to the shell membrane.
Shipped eggs follow the same rules once they arrive, with one addition – rest them wide end up first to let air cells stabilize before moving them to storage position.
Never put eggs into a cold or uncalibrated incubator. Run it empty for at least 24-48 hours before setting eggs so temperature and humidity stabilize. What the display reads and what is actually happening inside are often two different things.
We always verify with independent tools – a separate digital thermometer and a separate hygrometer. Built-in gauges on most incubators are notoriously inaccurate. A one-degree temperature error held over 21 days will affect your hatch. A two-degree error can wreck it.
Place your independent thermometer and hygrometer at egg level, not at the top of the incubator where the built-in sensors usually sit. Heat rises – the reading at the top is not the reading at the egg.
Chicks, turkey poults, and guinea keets follow nearly identical incubation requirements, though turkeys and guineas need an extra week. This section covers the standard dry incubation method we use for all landfowl.
Landfowl Incubation Quick Reference
After unpacking shipped eggs or collecting local eggs, we candle every egg before incubation. This lets us catch obvious cracks or damage before anything goes into the incubator. See the Candling Guide ↓ for what to look for.
If eggs are dirty, we gently scrape off what we can. We avoid washing eggs whenever possible – the natural bloom protects the egg from bacteria.
The “Wet Sponge” Logic (Washing Eggs)
Eggshells have pores like a sponge. If you wash a dirty egg with cool water, the egg contracts slightly and pulls dirty water – and the bacteria in it – right through the shell.
Rule: Scrape dirt off. Don’t wash unless you have to, and always use water warmer than the egg.
Eggs rest on the counter for 12-24 hours before going in. Shipped eggs rest wide end up. Locally collected eggs can rest on their sides. We bring the incubator to 99.5°F and 45-50% humidity before loading.
The “Shaken Soda” Logic (Shipped Eggs)
Shipping scrambles the air cell inside the egg. If you incubate immediately, the air cell may end up on the side or bottom – and the chick needs that air cell to breathe when it hatches.
Resting the egg wide end up lets the air cell float back to where it belongs before incubation starts.
Shipped eggs are not turned for the first 1-5 days to allow air cells to settle. Locally collected eggs are turned immediately. If turning by hand, rotate 180 degrees at least three times per day.
We mostly leave eggs alone for the first week. Around days 7-10 we candle and check weekly after that. See the Candling Guide ↓ for what healthy development looks like at each stage.
We lock down shipped eggs one day early. Turning stops. Humidity increases to 65-70%. From this point on, do not open the incubator.
The “Oven Door” Logic (Lockdown)
Every time you open the incubator, heat and humidity escape instantly. The membrane inside the egg dries out and can trap the chick like shrink wrap.
Sit on your hands. Don’t open the door.
We intervene occasionally, but assisted hatching is only about 50% successful for us. If we open the incubator, we lightly mist the air inside to maintain humidity. We stop immediately at any sign of blood – that means the chick is not ready and the vessels have not fully absorbed.
Once chicks are fluffed and dry, they move to the Brooding Young Poultry setup.
Waterfowl incubation is not chicken incubation with tweaks. Ducks and geese require different humidity, cooling, and timing, and they tolerate far less interference. They hatch on their own schedule, not yours.
For when you need the numbers fast:
After unpacking shipped eggs or collecting local eggs, we candle every egg. We generally discard cracked eggs rather than trying to seal them. See the Candling Guide ↓ for what to look for.
Eggs rest for 12-24 hours before going in. Waterfowl eggs are best kept on their sides. If shipped eggs show detached air cells, we rest them upright or tilted to help stabilize them. We bring the incubator to 99.5°F and 50-55% humidity before loading.
Locally collected eggs are turned immediately. Shipped eggs rest 1-5 days before turning begins.
Starting after the first week, we run a daily cooling and misting routine. Eggs come out for 5-15 minutes and are lightly misted with water.
The “Wet Hen” Logic (Misting)
A mother goose doesn’t sit on eggs around the clock. She gets up once a day to eat and swim. When she returns, her belly is cool and damp. That brief cooling and moisture pulls fresh air through the shell.
We mist the eggs to mimic that. It is not optional for waterfowl – skip it and hatch rates drop.
Geese are unpredictable. Pilgrim geese typically hatch between Day 28 and Day 33 in an incubator – occasionally later. Toward the end, we candle daily to monitor air cell drawdown rather than relying strictly on the calendar. See the Candling Guide ↓ for what to watch for.
We lock down shipped eggs one day early. Turning stops. Humidity increases to 70-75%. Do not open the incubator – opening during hatch can chill wet babies or cause the membrane to dry and shrink-wrap the bird inside.
Assisted hatching runs about 50% successful for us. If we must open the incubator, we mist the air lightly before closing it again. Blood or active movement inside the egg means the bird is still absorbing the yolk sac – put it back and wait.
Once babies are fluffed and dry, they move to the Brooding Young Poultry setup.
Candling is just shining a bright light through the egg in a dark room to see what is happening inside. You do not need expensive equipment – a dedicated candling light works best, but a strong flashlight in a dark room will do.
Before checking development, look at the shell itself. Candling reveals hairline cracks, thin spots, and abnormalities that are invisible in normal light. A cracked egg will leak moisture, lose humidity control, and introduce bacteria into the incubator. We pull cracked eggs immediately.
At days 7-10, a developing egg shows a dark spot with visible veins radiating outward – often described as a spider shape. The air cell at the wide end should be clearly visible. An egg that looks clear with no veins is either infertile or a very early quitter.
At day 14, the egg should be noticeably darker inside with the embryo taking up more space. Veins are less visible as the chick grows. The air cell should be growing larger as the chick consumes the contents.
Near lockdown, a healthy egg is almost completely dark inside with a visible air cell that has drawn down significantly. You may see movement. An egg that is still mostly clear at this stage is not developing.
Dark eggs like those from Marans, Welsummers, and some Easter Eggers are significantly harder to candle than white or light brown eggs. The pigment in the shell blocks a lot of light and early development can be nearly impossible to see, even with a good candler.
A few things that help: use the brightest candler you can find, wait until at least day 10 before attempting your first candle, and press the light firmly against the shell to minimize light leakage around the edges. Candle in a very dark room – even ambient light makes a difference with dark shells.
At early candlings, you may only be able to confirm the air cell and a general darkening of the egg. That is often enough. If an egg shows no change at all by day 14 and the air cell is not developing, it is likely not viable. When in doubt with dark eggs, we give them extra time before pulling them rather than discarding too early.
A rotten egg looks cloudy, murky, or has a visible ring inside when candled. It may smell even before you open it. In more advanced cases, you may see small bubbles forming at the pores on the shell surface, or a wet, weeping appearance where bacterial gas is actually seeping through. If you see bubbling or oozing on the shell, get that egg out of the incubator immediately – do not wait to confirm it.
Remove suspected rotten eggs carefully and away from the incubator. Do not squeeze, jostle, or tip them sharply. A rotten egg that explodes inside will contaminate every other egg in the incubator and is extremely difficult to fully clean up – in a bad case, it can end the entire hatch. When in doubt, candle outside and over a trash can.
A clear egg at day 7-10 either never developed or died before veins were visible. For local eggs, no development is usually a flock management issue – rooster-to-hen ratio, rooster age, hen condition, or health. For shipped eggs, it is almost always a shipment problem. Temperature extremes in transit, x-ray exposure, rough handling, and humidity damage can all render a fertile egg non-viable before it ever reaches you. That is part of the gamble with shipped eggs and not something you can fix on your end.
If you are seeing mostly clear eggs from local stock, look at your flock. If shipped eggs are not developing, contact your seller – but understand that transit losses are very common and not always the seller’s fault either.
A chick that pips – breaks through the shell – but does not complete the hatch is one of the more frustrating failures. Most common causes are humidity too low during lockdown causing the membrane to dry and trap the bird, or the chick simply ran out of energy. Opening the incubator repeatedly during lockdown is the most common contributor. If you are seeing this pattern consistently, humidity management during lockdown is the first thing to review.
Finding a fully formed chick dead in the shell at or near hatch is a late death. This usually points to humidity problems at lockdown, malposition inside the egg, or a chick that was too weak to complete the hatch. Malposition – where the chick is oriented wrong inside the egg – is often linked to turning problems earlier in incubation. If eggs were not turning fully or frequently enough, malposition rates go up.
Both directions cause problems. Humidity too high during main incubation drowns the chick – the air cell does not grow large enough and the chick has no room to position for hatch. Humidity too low dries the membrane and shrink-wraps the chick at lockdown. The air cell is your best indicator – it should grow steadily throughout incubation. Candling the air cell progression tells you more than any humidity reading.
Shipped eggs are not the same as local eggs and should not be judged by the same standard. Air cell damage, temperature exposure during transit, and rough handling all affect viability before the egg ever reaches you. A 50% hatch rate from shipped eggs is respectable. A 70% or higher hatch is excellent. If you are hatching shipped eggs and getting zero development across the board, the issue is more likely in transit than in your incubator – contact your seller.
Turkey eggs follow the same dry incubation method as chickens but need 28 days instead of 21. Lockdown starts at day 25. Turkey eggs are larger and take longer to reach temperature after handling, so minimize how often you open the incubator during main incubation. Poults are noticeably more fragile than chicks in the first few days after hatch and need to be moved to the brooder promptly once dry.
Guinea eggs incubate for 26-28 days using the same dry incubation method as chickens. Lockdown starts at day 24-25. Guinea eggs are small and dense and can be harder to candle than chicken eggs – wait until at least day 10 for your first candle. Keets are notoriously fragile in the brooder and chilling is the most common cause of early loss. Get them into a warm brooder quickly and watch temperature management closely. See the Brooding Young Poultry ↓ guide for keet-specific notes.
Pilgrim geese are one of the more challenging species to hatch in an incubator. Hatch rates are lower than chickens even under ideal conditions – this is a known characteristic of the breed and not necessarily a reflection of your technique. Fertility can also be inconsistent, particularly in younger birds or small flocks with limited genetic diversity. Expect variability, give eggs extra time before pulling them, and don’t judge a hatch until the window has fully closed.
Muscovy eggs are the outlier in waterfowl incubation. They incubate for 35 days rather than the standard 28 days for mallard-type ducks, and they are more sensitive to humidity fluctuations than other ducks. Follow the same cooling and misting routine as other waterfowl. Lockdown starts at day 31. Muscovy ducklings are hardy once hatched but take longer to fully dry and fluff than mallard-type ducklings – give them extra time in the incubator before moving them.