'Egg Cooling' - what is it and do I need it?

Bird breeders have known for many decades that eggs can be cooled for limited periods of time during incubation without causing problems, but recent research has shown that hatch rates can increase because of 'cooling'.

Cooling is an entirely natural process as most birds will get off their nests at least once a day, leaving the eggs unheated for a significant amount of time. The best hatch rates are always achieved when the incubator can best mimic the natural nest conditions, and therefore a lot of incubators now have an 'egg cooling' feature.

You do not have to have an incubator with 'egg cooling' and if you do have one with cooling, you do not have to use that feature. It is completely optional.

Smaller poultry, waterfowl and game bird eggs are cooled for 2 hours each day and larger eggs (e.g. duck and goose) are cooled for 3 hours each day from day 7 through to 2 days before they are due to hatch (the same point that automatic turning would normally be turned off). Cooling is not recommended for parrots and birds of prey because the results of cooling for these species have not yet been established. The 'cooling' feature is an option which can be enabled to improve your hatch rates.