Hatching your own eggs is well within a beginner's reach, as long as you understand a few basics before you start. This guide walks through the whole journey, from choosing an incubator to the chicks hatching, so your first chicken hatch at home succeeds in 21 days.

Do you need a rooster to hatch eggs?

Yes. A hen lays eggs without a rooster, but those eggs are not fertile and will never hatch, no matter how well they are incubated. To get chicks you need eggs from a flock where a rooster runs with the hens. Supermarket eggs are therefore not fertile. Source hatching eggs from a breeder, with one rooster for five to ten hens for good fertility.

Choosing an incubator: still-air or forced-air

A forced-air incubator, fitted with a fan, spreads heat evenly and is more forgiving of mistakes: it is the best choice for beginners. A still-air incubator, with no fan, costs less but has hotter and cooler spots and needs more experience. An automatic turner is a real convenience that saves opening the machine several times a day.

Setting up and calibrating the incubator before you set eggs

Place the incubator in a room with a stable temperature, away from direct sun and radiators, then run it empty for 24 to 48 hours. Check that it holds 37.5 °C (99.5 °F) with a reliable thermometer, separate from the machine's own display, which is often inaccurate. This dry run stops you wasting a batch because of a bad setting.

Choosing and storing hatching eggs

Pick clean, regularly shaped eggs, neither too large nor too small, with no cracks. Do not use eggs older than 7 to 10 days: fertility drops with age. While you wait to set them, store them pointed end down at 12 to 15 °C (54 to 59 °F), tilting them once a day, and let them come back to room temperature a few hours before placing them in the incubator.

The 21 days of incubation in short

A chicken egg hatches in 21 days at 37.5 °C. Turn the eggs at least twice a day, ideally three times, until day 18. Keep humidity around 45 to 55% for the first 18 days. Candle around day 7 to spot the blood vessels, then remove any clear eggs. Every species has its own timing: see the detailed incubation calendar for chicken, quail, duck or goose.

Hatch day

On day 18 you enter lockdown: stop turning, lay the eggs on their side and raise humidity to 65 to 75%. After that, do not open the incubator. Around day 21 the chick breaks the shell and may take several hours to get out: let it do the work alone. Only remove it once it is dry and fluffy.

Beginner mistakes to avoid

Most failures come down to a handful of classic, easily fixed mistakes:

  • Opening the incubator constantly and dropping temperature and humidity.
  • Trusting the built-in thermometer without calibrating it.
  • Letting the water reservoirs run dry during lockdown.
  • Setting eggs that are too old or cracked.
  • Helping a chick out too early, before it has absorbed its yolk sac.

What happens after hatching?

Let the chicks dry for 12 to 24 hours in the incubator, then move them to a brooder kept around 32 to 35 °C for the first week, with lukewarm water and chick starter feed. Thanks to the yolk sac absorbed just before hatching, a chick can go 24 to 48 hours without eating while the rest of the clutch hatches.