Incubation Masterclass with Brinsea Distributor and Incubator Extraordinaire Loi Truong

If you’ve ever needed help with or had a question about a Brinsea-brand incubator, Loi Truong is the man who will have come to your rescue. One of the loveliest and most helpful people working in chickens in Australia today, he holds the Brinsea distributorship in this country and has been incubating for decades. So I couldn’t think of anyone more qualified to talk about the ins and outs of incubating eggs at home. In this conversation we discuss everything from storing eggs prior to incubation and why we incubate at 37.5 degrees when hen body temperature is much higher to dry incubation, incubating posted eggs, what humidity Loi recommends for incubating Marans eggs with their extra coat of dark pigment on the shell and what to do if there’s a power outage during incubation. I also ask Loi to weigh in on the question that always sparks heated debate between egg sellers and buyers: can you tell whether an egg that doesn’t develop was fertilised by examining the yolk after it’s been incubated for five or ten days? Other topics include: — How interest in incubation has changed over the years — The optimal age for putting an egg in the incubator — Loi's experience incubating refrigerated eggs — Horizontal vs vertical incubation — Why turning during incubation is important — The ideal turning interval — Malpositioned or “breeched” chicks — How long it takes after pipping for the chick to unzip — The worst time to attempt an assisted hatch — What hatch rate Loi gets from posted eggs vs eggs collected in person — The consequences of incorrect humidity during incubation — Candling to monitor air sac development — How much temperature can vary during incubation without killing the chick — The difference in setting temperature in still-air vs fan-forced incubators — Whether you should incubate at 38 degrees — How to correctly use an independent thermometer to check your incubator — Candling prior to incubation — “Sticky” chicks and “shrink wrapped” chicks — The danger of too-high humidity during hatching — The magic of broody hens — Whether incubation technique can in any way influence the sex of the chicks that hatch — Exploding eggs — Whether it’s okay to remove fluffed up chicks while others are still hatching — Using cheap incubators