Incubation and gestation guide for livestock

Looking for a quick guide to help you incubate eggs or calculate gestation periods for your livestock? We built this for people who have multi-species livestock and need to quickly reference animals across the board. Better yet, with FarmKeep's breeding management features, you can use the built in automatic incubation and gestation calculators to set and forget your breeding tracking.

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🥚 Poultry Incubation Guide

Poultry Type	Incubation Days	Temperature °F / °C	Humidity Set (%)	Humidity Hatch (%)	Stop Turning (Day)
Chicken	21	99.5 / 37.5	45–55	55–65	18
Turkey	28	99.5	45–55	55–65	25
Muscovy Duck	28–35	99.5	45–55	55–65	25–31
Goose	28–34	99.5	45–55	55–65	25
Guinea Fowl	26–28	99.5	45–55	55–65	25
Pheasant	23–28	99.5	45–50	55–65	21
Bobwhite Quail	22–24	99.5	45–55	55–65	20
Coturnix Quail	16–18	99.5	45–55	55–65	14
Chukar Partridge	23–24	99.5	45–50	55–65	20
Ostrich	42	97–98 / 36.1–36.6	45	25	40
Emu	50–56	95.5–96.5 / 35.3–35.8	45	25	48

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You can use FarmKeep's egg incubation calculator to calculate lockdown dates and hatch dates.

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Notes:

General poultry temp is ~99.5 °F (37.5 °C); ostrich and emu differ.
Turn eggs 18–30 times daily; stop on lockdown day which is a few days before hatch time.
Maintain humidity per species, increase in final days for hatch .

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🐄 Mammal Livestock Gestation & Estrus Guide

Species	Gestation (Days)	Estrous Cycle	Estrus Duration
Cattle	283 (approx. 9 mo)	18–24 days (avg 21)	~18 hours
Goat	145–150 (approx. 5 mo)	~21 days (seasonal)	24–48 hours
Sheep	147–150 (approx. 5 mo)	~17 days (seasonal)	~30 hours
Pig	112–120 (approx. 3.8 mo)	~21 days	40–60 hours
Horse	320–340 (approx. 11 mo)	~21 days (seasonal)	5–7 days
Donkey	~365 (approx. 12 mo)	Return heat ~9–10 days post-foaling	-
Llama/Alpaca	330–345 (~11.5 mo)	Induced ovulators	-
Rabbit	~31 days	Induced ovulator	-

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You can use FarmKeep's livestock gestation calculator to calculate lockdown dates and hatch dates.

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Best Practices

Poultry: Use species-specific incubation settings as above.

Mammals: Monitor estrus and record breeding dates to ensure on-time births.

Track all data with an easy to use tool like FarmKeep for reminders and accuracy.

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Incubation and gestation guide for livestock

🥚 Poultry Incubation Guide

🐄 Mammal Livestock Gestation & Estrus Guide

Best Practices

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