As part of a 4-H project, the kids and I built a styrofoam incubator from an ice chest, a cake pan and an incandescent light bulb. The project involved piecing together all the elements needed to incubate eggs—heat, moisture and an environment that could hold those things at a relatively stable level. The goal was not only to understand the incubation process but also to hatch Northern Bobwhite quail in a somewhat controversial repopulation effort. Some local farmers had volunteered their land for the group to release the young quail where they would have the habitat they’d need to thrive—brush cover and meadow grasses for food.

The project was fun, and it sparked an ongoing interest in raising poultry.

Building the Incubator

The incubator was relatively simple to build. We took an old ice chest, and I cut a hole in the top for a viewing window and drilled some holes in the sides for air circulation. At the bottom of the ice chest, there is a pan filled with water to help maintain the proper humidity necessary to incubate and hatch the eggs, which is different at each stage. We used an incandescent light bulb as our heat source, a rather tricky method when trying to regulate within the one to one and a half degree margins necessary for the embryos. On the top of the incubator, we covered the viewing window with plexiglass, allowing us to check the temperature and watch the hatching process.

As the picture shows, the quail eggs are quite tiny—that's a regular size light bulb in there. Next to the eggs is a rectangular thing, which is our remote thermometer and hygrometer. While it was cool to make our own incubator, the downside was the lack of fine temperature control and regulation, which meant that I was up multiple times each night for those 23-25 days checking the temp of the eggs. That got a bit old, but I must say that the remote thermometer I splurged on really saved me. I could bring the main unit into the bedroom at night and just check on them with the touch of a button—kind of like hitting the snooze button—not enough to totally wake me up.

Hatching Quail

Bobwhite quail take approximately 23 days to incubate, though ours took between 23 and 25 days to hatch. The incubator temperature needs to stay between 99.5 and 102 degrees, depending upon the kind of incubator, and the eggs must be turned at least twice a day. The last three days before hatching, we stopped turning the eggs, decreased the temperature slightly and increased the humidity to prevent the shell from sticking to the chick.

The really neat part about the whole process, however, was "candling" the eggs as they developed, which simply means putting the egg on top of a dime-sized light source that shines through the shell and allows one to see the developing embryo inside. The kids thought this was great, and even my husband was interested enough to check out at least one each time we did it.

By the end of the incubation period, the whole egg is filled and dark, and when we candled the couple eggs that weren't hatching with the others, we could actually hear the chicks inside peeping. Totally cool!

The chicks began hatching out on the 24th day at around 12:30 am. I know this because I woke up to go check on them just as the first one began coming out of the egg. It was pretty amazing to watch, and I was surprised at the struggle. Birth is not an easy thing even with eggs!

We learned some pretty interesting things during this part of the process. The first crack in the egg is called a "pip" and made with an "egg tooth" on the top of the chick's beak that disappears shortly after birth. The very first pip is the result of a neck spasm in the chick induced by a build up of carbon dioxide within the egg. As the embryo grows, it fills a greater and greater space within the egg, eventually puncturing the air sac in the top of the egg. As this happens, the chick's lungs begin to work for the first time, taking over from the embryonic system that has sustained it while in the egg.

There is enough oxygen in the egg sac for the lungs to begin to work, and as the chick uses it up, the carbon dioxide build-up causes a muscle spasm, which breaks the egg shell and allows fresh air to penetrate. After that point, the chick takes anywhere between a few hours to 24 hours or more to begin systematically pecking a circle around the top of the egg, perforating an escape hatch of sorts. Once it breaks a complete circle, it must then push its way out—no small feat for such a tired little thing!

Hatching Turkeys

Turkeys take approximately 28 days to incubate, though ours came a day early, possibly indicating that the temperature was a bit too high. Our turkeys incubated between 101 and 102 degrees, slightly higher than the quail.

This time around, we modified the heating apparatus to incorporate a thermostatic temperature control—much better than the bulb method! My husband was able to retrofit and wire up a thermostat and heater from an old incubator our neighbor had, but one could just as easily buy the parts from a poultry supply catalog. The thermostat enabled us to regulate the temperature within a degree or so automatically. No more waking up, thank goodness!

Watching the hatching process is exciting and excruciating at times, both because of the waiting involved and because of the anxiety involved in wondering whether the chick will be able to push its way out. This time around, we hatched out nine turkeys of the 18 eggs we set. Several of the eggs were clear when candled, indicating either that they were infertile to begin with or too damaged in shipping to begin germinating.

One of the neatest things we saw this time around was a blood ring, which indicates that the egg is no longer viable and that the embryo either never formed or that it died only a couple days into development. When we cracked ours open, we saw a tiny turkey embryo that failed probably around day three or four, as the picture in the sidebar kind of shows.

Later in the process, we cracked open another egg that had stopped developing probably around day 12 or so, as it had clear eye spot development and coloring beginning down the spine. Very cool!

Turkeys are nowhere near as smart as quail or chickens. Apparently, they need lots of sparkly things put in their water and food to entice them to come try it out, and the kids used their fingernails to tap in the food pan, encouraging the baby turkeys to begin pecking. Putting marbles in the water also helps prevent the poults from becoming chilled or drowning.

Brooding the babies will take the next couple weeks as they feather out and begin holding their own body temperature. Brooding is kind of like hardening off seedlings: the temperature starts near the incubation temp and gradually backs down about 5 degrees per week until it reaches outside temperatures.

Overall, this has been a really interesting and amazing experience, even if it has been incredibly time intensive in some ways. The kids and I have learned so much and had a lot of fun along the way.

If incubating and hatching sounds like something you might be interested in doing but you can't keep the birds yourself, check with local homeschooling lists. Lots of times, other homeschoolers have fertile eggs that they'd be willing to give away for incubation and take back the chicks once you're done, depending upon where you live. Also, the agricultural extension office, umbrella of 4-H clubs, may be able to put you in touch with a local poultry club and may even have incubators to lend. There are often lots of opportunities available with a little digging and lots of motivation.