Permaculture Chicken · Incubation Handbook

The Permaculture Chicken Incubation Handbook walks beginners through perfecting the incubating and hatching process so they can enjoy the exhilaration of the hatch without the angst of dead chicks. 92 full color photos bring incubation to life, while charts, diagrams, and tables provide the hard data you need to accomplish a hatch rate of 85% or more.

Topics include:

How chickens fit into a permaculture system

Reasons to incubate your own eggs

The mother hen option

Choosing the best eggs, with information on seasons, parentage, egg shape, and shell quality

Storing and marking eggs

What to expect when buying mail order eggs

Choosing the best incubator

The basics of incubation: time, temperature, humidity, turning, etc.

Pros and cons of dry incubation, including ways to calculate egg weight loss

Candling eggs

What to do during temperature spikes and power outages

Preparing for the hatch, hatching, and dry off period

When and how to help chicks out of the shell

How to tell whether unhatched eggs are alive

Calculating percent viable eggs, hatch rate, and survivability

Troubleshooting incubation problems, including tips on autopsying eggs and a dichotomous key to pinpoint causes

Diagnosing, preventing, and dealing with hatch-related ailments like wry neck, spraddle leg, and more

Caring for sick chicks and knowing when and how to euthanize

Basic needs of chicks after hatching: temperature, food, and water

Housing chicks, with information on outdoor brooders

Pasturing very young birds