How to Incubate Eggs in an Electric Frying Pan

How to Incubate Eggs in an Electric Frying Pan

• 1

  What needs to be done first is the adjustment of the temperature in the frying pan. Place some hay in the bottom of the pan and set a small thermometer on top of the hay.

• 2

  Plug in the pan and turn it on to the absolute lowest setting. Keep an eye on the thermometer and when it reaches around 99.5 degrees, and maintains that temperature, you have the pan set correctly. It will take considerable trial and error to get to that point, so be patient.

• 3

  Bring in the eggs that you wish to hatch once the temperature is consistent. Make sure the eggs do not touch each other or the side of the pan itself. They must be left covered most of the time, and the lid of the pan should only be removed long enough to turn the eggs three times a day. The lid should be left a tiny bit ajar unless it has a built in hole that can be plugged and unplugged, to let air into the pan.

• 4

  Candle the eggs. About three days into incubation the eggs should be candled. This means that you take each egg and hold it up against a bright light, to see inside the shell. If, after three days the egg is still clear inside, the egg is not fertilized and should be removed from the pan and thrown away. If a large spot of blood is observed with veins radiating from it, you have a fertilized egg. The candling process should be repeated every so often throughout the incubation process to make sure the chicks are still developing. If an egg gets discolored or makes a sloshing noise when shaken lightly, the chick has died and the egg needs to be removed.

• 5

  Turn the eggs regularly. The eggs definitely have to be turned at least twice a day, though many hatcheries turn them three times daily. Keep the 'egg maintenance' to a minimum since the temperature goes down every time the lid is opened. Try to space it out thusly; once in the early morning, again at mid-day and again in the late evening hours. The eggs can stand to cool a little bit for just a few minutes but it is very important to make certain the heat rises again as soon as possible.

• 6

  Be patient. The amount of time it will take for the eggs to hatch depends a great deal on what type of bird you are dealing with. Some eggs will hatch after about 28 days, some more and some less. You will need to study this so you will know when to stop turning the eggs, which should happen about three days before the eggs are due to hatch. Some eggs require more humidity than others so be careful if you plan to mix them during incubation.