First time incubating HELP

Thanks that's makes sense

I use the 1588 and it has worked pretty well for me. I only hatch a couple of times a year with it as long as I get enough broodies to fill in the gaps. I consider it a pretty easy one to use but don’t accept the factory settings and don’t trust the thermometer that comes with it. Mine was about 1 degree too high with the factory settings. It had to be adjusted down. There was a different thread on here the last couple of days where someone needed to raise their temperature setting a bit. That can happen with the top of the line incubators too. Never trust an instrument that comes with any of them or a factory setting. That’s one reason they recommend you not use expensive eggs for your first incubation. You need to get to know the incubator and how to use it.

Chicks can go three days or maybe a bit more without food or water since they absorb the yolk. That’s why they can be mailed, they don’t have to eat or drink. Some people take the chicks out as they hatch (Amy has a good spiel on that) but I generally leave mine in until the hatch is over. Just because something can happen does not mean it will. It’s possible you can cause a chick to be shrink-wrapped if you open the incubator during the hatch. That’s where the membrane dries out and shrinks around the chick, trapping it so it cannot hatch by itself. It really does not happen that often and there are a few things that have to come together wrong for it to happen, but I did it once. I still open the incubator during hatch if I have something I need to deal with, but I don’t open it unless I have to deal with something.

Some of my hatches are totally over within 24 hours of the first chick hatching. Some can drag on for over two days, sometimes going well into three. Each hatch is unique in its own way, whether under a broody hen or in an incubator. After they hatch the chicks start pooping. There is also some stuff left over after the hatch. Especially with water in the bottom of that incubator, that stuff can start to smell pretty badly after a couple of days. Most of the time my hatches are over before that becomes a problem but with those hatches that stretch out, oh yes, that can get ripe. One of the good things with the 1588 is that the plastic tray that holds the water makes clean-up fairly easy. Still, that’s the biggest problem I have with a Styrofoam incubator. You need to sanitize the incubator after each use and the Styrofoam can be harder to clean that a hard plastic one. If I were hatching more often I’d probably get a new incubator to make clean-up easier.

The 1588 uses a plastic tray in the bottom for water reservoirs. My older model has five separate reservoirs, different sizes. It’s a real good idea to run it a few days before you set your first eggs with water in different reservoirs to get a feel for how each reservoir affects the humidity inside. It sounds like it may be too late for you to try this. You’ll just have to muddle through the best you can.

Humidity is a pretty important issue. You want the egg to lose a certain amount of moisture during incubation so the air cell grows to the right size. Too little moisture loss and the air cell is not big enough to support the chick when it is learning to breathe air instead of living in a liquid world. The chicks also tend to be big and soft, not as healthy as they should be. Too much moisture loss and the chick can actually shrink-wrap before it starts to hatch. The good news is that there is a pretty wide window where the humidity works. You don’t have to be real precise about this, just within the window.

Different humidities work for different ones of us, we each have our own window. There are a lot of different reasons for that. Height above sea level (air density) may affect how fast an egg loses moisture through the porous shell. A still air incubator versus forced air has an effect. The temperature and moisture level of the air going into the incubator has an effect on how much moisture the egg loses. The background temperature and moisture level of the air going in will have an effect on the humidity level inside the incubator as well. There are certain times of the year my humidity inside my 1588 will be 17% if no trays are filled. There are times it will be 41%. Those are the extremes I’ve noticed. If it is 41% I don’t want water in any of my trays. If it is 17% I need water in two trays. The instantaneous humidity is not that important before lockdown, it’s the average humidity over the entire incubation that counts.

And there is no one perfect humidity for all the eggs in the world. Each egg is unique and has its own perfect humidity. It might be due to how and how long the egg was stored before incubation started, porosity of the shell, the thickness of the egg white inside the egg, or who knows what else. It’s a real good thing that there is such a wide window of humidity that works.

I’m not going to tell you that you have to have any specific humidity because it does vary for each of us. My suggestion is to pick a certain humidity and try to make that your average. Don’t overly obsess over this but do the best you can. Then after the hatch open the unhatched eggs and use that information to make adjustments (I any) to later hatches. There can be some trial and error involved.

I know I’m making it sound pretty complicated. It’s not really that bad because the window of success is reasonable large. Most people are fairly successful their first incubation. The main thing to me is to not trust the thermometer that comes with it or the factory settings. Use calibrated instruments so you know what you are really dealing with. Once you get the temperature within a reliable half a degree of 99.5 you are good to go.

I wish you luck!

Egghead_Jr said:

X2 on resting the eggs for a day to settle after being tossed around in shipping.

The 1588 is preset so in theory you've nothing to worry about temperature wise. Get yourself a cheap hygrometer and calibrate it with a salt test. I'm an advocate of a drier hatch, run 30% first 18 days and take out of egg turner to lay flat then up the humidity to 70%. I use paper towels on bottom of incubator when taking out the turner. Makes for easy end of hatch cleanup.

Salt test:

Milk cap or what have you container filled with salt then add drops of water until saturated. Pour off any standing water.

Put the cap and hygrometer in a zip seal bag (sandwich or quart size) with small pillow of air.

Wait 4 hours and note the humidity reading. Subtract that from 75 and write the number on piece of tape.

Attach tape to incubator as a reminder to add or subtract that calibration # for your readings.

Ex: Your reading is 82% RH. 75-82= -7. You'd always subtract 7 from all your reading to be true RH.

Click to expand...

so if my reading is less than 75 say 70 I would add 5 to get a true reading

I got my eggs today and candled them the air say moves some but does not roll end to end is that OK and then on a few of the eggs I can't see the air sack just the yolk none of them really roll end to end like the video showed I'm hoping this is a good thing I have my thermometers calibrated and I'm calibrating me hygrometer now using salt test hoping I do it right please read my post above this one and thanks for all the help

Your understanding of calibration is correct.

I believe someone suggested allowing the eggs to rest upright for s day. Great suggestion. Loose air cells in shipped eggs are always an issue. Hope for the best. Sometimes they reattach after a day or two of rest.

This is a great article on hatching shipped eggs. It sounds like your air cells are in the right end but they are "wobbly". You want them to get firm. So when you move the egg, they don't jiggle. Put them upright in cartons in the incubator and my honest advice is DO NOT touch them for 5 days! No turning, no candling, nothing! Then after 5 days candle and see how firm the air cell is. Also, on the eggs where you can't see the air cell, you will be able to after the 5 days. If the air cells are still wobbly give them an extra day or 2. Then start tilting them at a 45 degree angle in the cartons. Read this and post with anymore questions.
https://mbasic.facebook.com/notes/f...beth-white-via-cheryl-shires/548615281826504/

Also, I forgot to mention, that you need to cut holes in the bottom of the egg cartons, for proper oxygen flow. Like this:

Or you can use individual cut cartons. Like this:

Well I just candled my shipped jubilee eggs and looks like 1 of 8 is making it so far kinda disappointed but hopefully that one will make it all the way through

Forgot to tell ya this is day 10