Hello from California, first time Chicken raising

I have 13 Chickens and 20 Silkie Chicken Eggs in the incubator right now. I keep the temp. at 99.5 degrees F. And the humidity at 45-55%. I will stop the turner 3 days prior to them hatching (21 days). Any suggestions?? I only know this by research. I have never raised eggs. I want to get a great line of Silkies to supply the 4-H and FFA with show quality Silkies. I have purchased grit and oyster shell for them, along with Oil of Oregano for their water. If anyone knows about Silkies please let me know as I am clueless. Thank you in advance.
Hi, and welcome to BYC! :frow

That is PERFECT!

At lockdown, yup, stop the turner and raise the humidity to 65-70%.

I usually do 4 or 5-day lockdowns, as on a couple of occasions, I've had pips at 18 days. That's just my personal preference. Rotating them their last week is really unnecessary anyway, as they're large in their shell by that point and moving around, so they can't get stuck.

I would pick up some Poultry Cell liquid vitamins. Silkies are prone to vitamin deficiencies so you'll need to have that or something similar on hand for periodically putting in their water. After mine hatch, I let them drink fresh water for a few hours, then I mix up a gallon of Poultry Cell water and they and all the silkies get some that day. After that, I'll repeat in a week or two. It ensures they've got a good start in case they were short in anything.

I don't feed them anything but their chick crumbles for at least a month. (Some recommend six weeks, but I cheat and give them scrambled eggs at around a month old.) They need the nutrition from their food. They think it's a treat if you wet their crumbles. I use a plastic peanut butter lid when they're little. I fill that with crumbles, then run it under the faucet until they're soaked. They go nuts over that.

You won't be able to positively sex them for about three months, more like four here much of the time.

You're going to love raising them!

Wishing you a great hatch!
 

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