Incubation period

As Incubation period (including incubation time or incubation ) refers to the time that one chick from the start of incubation to hatching needed.

The egg-laying phase precedes the start of incubation. Depending on the bird species, this can drag on for several days to weeks without the eggs being incubated. This ensures that the chicks all hatch at approximately the same time. During the incubation, the parent animal ensures a constant temperature of the eggs through its body heat. After the embryo has developed into a viable chick, it breaks through the shell with its beak and the egg tooth on it and hatches. A larger chick takes longer to develop in the egg than a smaller one. Accordingly, larger bird species have a longer breeding period than smaller ones. The breeding period of a smaller songbird like the great tit is ten to fourteen days. It takes about 35 days for a young swan to hatch.