Variables affecting your hatch

Many people decide to hatch chicks themselves, from either fertile eggs they gather themselves, or purchase from others. Aside from the incubation process itself, there are other factors that can affect your hatch. Here is a list of some things to consider.
1. The age of the breeder or chicken that produced the egg you are incubating.
2. Fertility of the eggs you are setting.
3. The length of holding time on the eggs before you start incubating.
4. The environment of the area you are holding the eggs (temperature/humidity, etc.) prior to incubating.
5. The physical quality of the eggs you are setting (cracks, soiling, shape of the egg).

All of the above are things you should be aware of prior to setting eggs in your incubator. Here at Welp Hatchery, we take into account all of these things, plus the actual incubation process when we project our hatches (how many chicks we think will hatch in our incubators for each set). When you keep detailed information about these things, it allows you to make hatch projections a lot closer to what your actual hatch numbers are. However, even with great documentation, we never project our hatches perfectly. Like they say, you really can’t count your chickens before they hatch!