A month ago, I had the idea of hatching chickens after seeing a video of a Korean man hiking with dozens of chicks running after him. I saw the video and was immediately like *yes I want that*. After some quick research, I discovered hatching chicks are fast and didn't sound too difficult. An incubator was around $20, and each chicken egg is under $2. Within an hour, I placed orders for an incubator and 7 chicken eggs.
A week later, they both arrived and I immediately got to work. I did research while waiting for my supplies to arrive so I could have a handle on things as soon as the eggs arrived. I learned about temperature control, turning, and humidity controls.
Chicken eggs hatch surprisingly quickly. The process only takes 21 days from putting it in the incubator. I didn't have automatic egg turning in my incubator, so I turned my eggs 3 times per day like clockwork. I controlled the temperature and refilled the humidity tray consistently. After 10 days, I candled them to see which ones seemed to have viable embryos. I threw out one egg which clearly had died to protect the others from contamination. The rest seemed like possible successes, so I kept them.
However, some factors were out of my control. About a week in, my apartment complex had a power outage. For about six hours, my eggs had no temperature control and the humidity slowly faded away. I was terrified, but it was out of my control. Another event - I had to go out of state for a day, and the eggs were not turned as many times as they were meant to. Also, around day 20, the outlet came loose and it was about four hours before I realized. Again, the eggs didn't have temperature or humidity control. Since it was so close to hatch day, that may have been the last straw.
The eggs didn't hatch. I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed, but I admit I made mistakes. I was very confident that at least one of the eggs would end up hatching, but here I am: chick-less. I will definitely be trying again, as soon as possible, so stay tuned for imminent success!
