First Time Hatching Eggs...Need Advice

Hey!

I'm incubating 8 mixed breed eggs in a Brinsea Mini Eco...and today is hatch day...well, 5 of the 8 have a spot where i can see they've cracked open the eggs (noticed them about 6pm...is now 1am where i am). Well, 2 are still moving and peeping, right next to eachother...problem is, the ones who cracked their eggs the earliest are cracked just the same, whereas the 2 still moving and peeping are now zipping.

I'm just freaking out that the other eggs had something go wrong during hatch...they're no longer moving (at least not in the 5-10 min stints i sit next to the thing staring :)

I know nobody can tell me exactly what's going on but it'd be really nice to get someone else's experience with hatching...

Side note: The temp has been steady at 91 and the humidity, although i don't have a gauge, was raised a day ago (I've read they need higher humidity during hatching). I havent opened the incubator since i dont want the humidity to fall but my husband (the nosy thing that he is) moved the incubator into our kitchen so he could 'see them better'...now i'm afraid he disoriented them and they're dying in their shells...

Any advice would be appreciated!

Courtney

Quote:

Originally Posted by crenees 

Hey!

 

I'm incubating 8 mixed breed eggs in a Brinsea Mini Eco...and today is hatch day...well, 5 of the 8 have a spot where i can see they've cracked open the eggs (noticed them about 6pm...is now 1am where i am). Well, 2 are still moving and peeping, right next to eachother...problem is, the ones who cracked their eggs the earliest are cracked just the same, whereas the 2 still moving and peeping are now zipping.

 

I'm just freaking out that the other eggs had something go wrong during hatch...they're no longer moving (at least not in the 5-10 min stints i sit next to the thing staring :)

 

I know nobody can tell me exactly what's going on but it'd be really nice to get someone else's experience with hatching...

 

Side note: The temp has been steady at 91 and the humidity, although i don't have a gauge, was raised a day ago (I've read they need higher humidity during hatching). I havent opened the incubator since i dont want the humidity to fall but my husband (the nosy thing that he is) moved the incubator into our kitchen so he could 'see them better'...now i'm afraid he disoriented them and they're dying in their shells...

 

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

Courtney

Yeah, so i'm sleep deprived...the temp is set at 99.1...not 91 :)

Thanks Sumi!

Looked at the info...very helpful...although i'm still a little torn since i cant really open the incubator without risking the humidity dropping (the mini eco is small...10 eggs max...so i'm just afraid with an incubator that small the temp/humidity would fall drastically as soon as i open it?). So, i think i'm just going to have to let nature take it's course...

Anyway, still waiting, two are still moving, peeping, etc. another has a hairline crack that i just noticed...fingers crossed i can at least get a few to hatch healthy for me :) These are just a few eggs i picked up from my meat/laying hens and figured i'd give it a try before actually ordering any...ah, well, it's all a learning experience, huh?

Thanks so much!

Courtney

Well, if anyone is curious, I woke to three chickies this morning...last night, after freaking out, i went online and found a soundtrack of chicks peeping (I read that when the chicks start to hatch the other eggs seem to get motivated :) and set my laptop up on replay right next to the incubator...seemed to work perfectly. Now ALL of the eggs (or the other five who havent hatched yet) are starting to hatch :) SOOO excited and relieved I didnt try to help them out of their shells last night!

Hey, i'll take 8 for 8 hatch rate :)

Thanks again Sumi for the advice...the first article you gave me about just letting nature take it's course stayed my hand!

Thank you ma'am :) Actually working on number 8 now...seems like he/she's getting impatient with all it's brothers and sisters knocking it around so i actually think i'm going to have a 100% hatch rate...fingers crossed...yea :)