Hatching upright in egg cartons

Well, I had read many post on the subject of upright hatching and decided on my 3rd hatch to try it. My first 2 batches were incubated at 99.5/101* the entire time, this 3rd batch was in an old incubator at 101/103* with an automatic turner and placed upright in the paper cartons on lockdown thursday evening the 18th day and 1 egg had a pip already. Yesterday was day 19 and WOW half the eggs had pips and 1 had hatched perfectly. From last night until about an hour ago ALL CHICKS HAD HATCHED UPRIGHT AND IN PERFECT CONDITION!!!! 16 new babies from 10 chicken and 6 bantam eggs. I will for sure do this again. Oh and the mess...what mess? All the yuck remained in the upright shells, seems the babies just tumbled out!!! Thank you BYC Members for all the excellent post. I am glad yall are here!!!

That's awesome! Congrats on the hatch!

That is awesome to know. I was afraid I would cool mine for I went over 102. That is great. I have my first batch in upright but am scared to death to let them hatch this way. I have mine set in baby bottle nipple rings to allow for better airflow. I am scared to death to allow them to hatch this way. They are in lock down now. So I am watching for the pip to lay them down. Ugh so nerve racking. But thanks for your info. Do you remember any of the sites for me to go do some reading. I would greatly appreciate it.

Love your silkies.

Hey jandsferguson!!! I DID NOT KNOW ONE THING about hatching upright until I came across a post here on BYC about it, SO...I typed in upright hatch (ing) in the search box and I read as many post as I could for weeks and weeks. My first 2 batches I hatched traditional on their sides...my 3rd I figured Id gibe upright a try and I LOVED IT. I was really scared at first because you will find in the post some folks who love it and had great success others did not have such good luck. I decided to take the chance and it was a more than perfect hatch BUT I was willing to take the chance with a batch of eggs that I was afraid I had run too hot anyway. Luck was on my side this time and it was AWESOME. I am going to do it again and see what happens. Baby nipple holders sound perfect...I was short a few egg carton cells so I cut rings off a tiolet paper tube for 4 of my eggs...all was fine, the tube rings worked just as well. Im sure those nipple holders will be perfect. When that first chick starts to zip the shell...just walk away my friend & go have a coffee or tea and let the lil birdie do its thing, thats what I had to do lol. I had a 100% hatch this 3rd time. As far as the temperature, well I cant wait to see what has happened with my birds. The first two were several degrees cooler than my 3rd...if my first two have mostly hens and the 3rd mostly roosters then I just gonna be inclined to believe the temperature does play a factor in the debelopment of the sex of the chicks...kinda like in reptiles. I have rread both ways on that subject too lol! Good luck buddy and keep me posted on your hatch!!!

Were the eggs shipped? Also what humidity do you run for days 1-18? The only down side I've read to hatching upright in cartons is that you can't see a pip if it at the wrong end.

They were my birds eggs but I have 1 shipped egg in lockdown now lol...yes just 1...it is the only one that made it out of 4 shipped. I do have it upright for hatch. My humidity was very low on my uptight hatch...way less than 30%...at lockdown it was around 75%. I did have one egg pip at wrong end but Im a piddler and had to mess with them and when I found it I set the pip side up and it hatched just fine.

leliadax said:

They were my birds eggs but I have 1 shipped egg in lockdown now lol...yes just 1...it is the only one that made it out of 4 shipped. I do have it upright for hatch. My humidity was very low on my uptight hatch...way less than 30%...at lockdown it was around 75%. I did have one egg pip at wrong end but Im a piddler and had to mess with them and when I found it I set the pip side up and it hatched just fine.

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That's awesome! 1 out of 4 is not bad. I had a batch of eggs shipped from really far away and only 3 out of 18 made it lockdown and hatched out!

I will be happy if this one hatches, its an Isbar and either roo or hen will be just fine lol. Any hatch is a good one!!! Im saving eggs now for one more batch and my poor ole dad is bringing me a naked neck (turken???) Egg every other day to hatch for him lol. I want to buy more eggs (ebay so far) but I think Im gonna wait till spring, Idk.

I just now figuring out how to see the replies on here and still only seen a few that was replying to my posts. I can't even find my old posts. But anyway I was so afraid this wasn't going to work. I know I lost one and they are seeming to be hatching real late. I have 2 thermometers but I guess neither is correct or they would have hatched earlier. I know one has died before hatch but I think it tried to pip the wrong end. But I know it doesn't have any veins left. But didn't have a blood ring either. I may open it when I get home. Ugh. I am so sad about them