Incubating and hatching chicks is an exciting process that allows you to grow your own flock of chickens. It involves creating the right environment for fertilized eggs to develop into healthy chicks.

What You Need for Incubation
To successfully incubate eggs, you will need the following essential supplies:

Item, Purpose
Incubator Maintains temperature and humidity for egg development
Chick Hatcher (optional) Used during the last days of incubation for hatching
Candling Light Checks embryo development inside the eggs
Water Maintains humidity levels in the incubator
Hydrometer Monitors humidity levels accurately
Brooder Provides a safe space for chicks after they hatch
Incubation Process
Prepare the Incubator: Clean and set up the incubator about a week before placing the eggs. Ensure it maintains a temperature of 99°F, and the humidity level around 30% has given me my best hatches.
Select Fertilized Eggs: Use eggs from a flock with a rooster, as grocery store eggs are typically not fertilized.
Incubation Duration: The incubation period lasts about 21 days. During this time, the eggs must be turned regularly to ensure proper development.
Monitoring Conditions: Regularly check the temperature and humidity levels. Adjust as necessary to maintain optimal conditions.
On day 18, if you're using a turner, take the eggs out of the turner and lay the eggs directly in the wire in the incubator and stop turning the eggs, increase the humidity to around 70%/75%.
Hatching Day
On the 21st day, the chicks will begin to hatch. This process can take several hours, and it’s important not to interfere. The chicks will naturally break through the shell when they are ready. If the temperature runs a bit high the chicks may hatch a day or two early. If the incubator runs a bit cool, the chicks may hatch a day or two late.

Post-Hatching Care
Once hatched, chicks should be placed in a brooder with access to chick starter feed. This feed is crucial for their growth and development in the first weeks of life.

By following these steps and maintaining the right conditions, you can successfully incubate and hatch your own chicks, contributing to a thriving backyard flock.

Here are some pictures of my natural incubators. Mom Taking a break from the chicks.

This is a homemade incubator I built from a Styrofoam cooler. For heat, I used two 15-watt incandescent bulbs. Originally, I started with a single 40-watt bulb in the bottom of the cooler, but—of course—midway through an incubation, it burned out. Luckily, I had experience hatching eggs under broody hens and knew that a hen typically leaves the nest for 15 to 20 minutes each day to eat, drink, and poop. So I figured I had a window of time to safely take the eggs out and swap in a new bulb.

After that hatch, I went back and modified the cooler: now it has two bulbs for backup, a wafer thermostat to regulate the temperature, and a small fan for air circulation. It did partially fail once after I modified it. One of the bulbs burnt out but I still continued with the hatch. A good test. It works great and has been a reliable backup incubator ever since! I put foil in the bottom to make cleaning easier.

This is my cabinet incubator in which I incubate the eggs. I use my Styrofoam incubators to hatch in.

I have some older styrofoam incubators that I use as hatchers, which are in a photo in the post above this one. The older ones are much more tricky but if you can hatch in one of them, you can hatch in most anything. This is a link that I contributed to. I did a lot of experimenting before I came up with ways to control everything that resulted in better hatch rates!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/thread ... ks.601352/

Occasionally you will get a chick with some issue. One of the most common one I have encountered is Spraddle or Splayed Legs. Here is a good link for correcting this condition in a chick. The first few days are the most crucial since that's when the bones of the chicks are easier to correct.
https://the-chicken-chick.com/spraddle- ... hat-is-it/