Adding eggs after starting incubators?

[duckncover]

Okay so long story short I'm wondering how it works if I have eggs that will be hatching on different days in the same incubator. I have a dozen button quail eggs that are on day 10 that I had to combine with 5 additional button eggs and 3 coturnix quail eggs on day 6 because my serama hens decide to start laying way before I had expected. So I cleared the Brinsea Mini II Advance and swapped the tray to put in 3 Serama chicken eggs yesterday evening. The quail eggs went in the Nuture Right 360 with the quail turning tray. This morning I woke up to discover 3 more eggs in a spot I did not check. So I tossed them in too. With these two seperate situations in mind how badly have I screwed up? I feel likee maybe since the serama eggs are less than a full day apart that they might be okay. The quail eggs I honestly don't know. I never did this so I'm wondering how it will affect the hatches.

 

[Percheron chick]

Are these first time laying pullet Seramas? I wouldn't waste my time if these are first time eggs. Do you know they are fertile? (Have you cracked one open and checked?). I think you are trying to do too much. The first eggs are a week away from hatching. Finish those up. Let the Seramas eggs sit on the counter then fill the incubator up when the quail are done.

 

[duckncover]

These are year old birds that settled in faster than I expected. The guy I had picked them up from says he has only been getting a few eggs a day so they may have taken a break from laying. I've seen my rooster mounting them (not the younger pullets) pretty frequently. The coturnix are also new but not new to each other nor are they pullets. The button quail are only about 3 weeks into laying their first eggs so we will see if these eggs are going anyway. I have 3 setups that can be assembled for 3 different kinds of chicks so thats not my worry.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Did you mess up? Yeah, you are probably in for a lot of stress. Extra work too. These are called staggered hatches as they are spread out. You run into issues with turning and humidity. To me a big issue is that the chicks make a mess when they hatch. They poop, there is gunk from the eggs. That poop and gunk can become stinky two or three days after they hatch. It's a great environment for bacteria to grow and kill your later eggs. I try to avoid staggered hatches.

But you have two incubators. Depending on how many eggs you have and the capacity of your incubators there are things you can do. Some people do staggered hatches all the time, generally by using one incubator as a hatcher and one as an incubator. Where your problem comes in with that is that you only have four days between the first two hatches. You should leave about a week between hatches so you have time for a batch to hatch and then you clean and sterilize the hatcher to get ready for the next batch in time for lockdown.

The way I'd approach this would be to put all the first eggs in one incubator and hatch them in it. Use the humidity and turning as you would for a normal lockdown. You may get really lucky and the first hatch will be over before the second go into lockdown. That would give you a chance to clean that incubator and put the other quail eggs in it. I'd delay the second batch going into lockdown by at least a day and maybe even two days if that allows you to do this. It is going to make life so much easier for you. After the second batch of quail hatch, clean up the incubator and split the other eggs by hatch day. And stop starting eggs unless you get a third incubator.

Both of your incubators are the type that turn the eggs by spinning around, not the type that rock them back and forth. I'm not familiar with those so I'm not sure how hard this next step would be if what I said above doesn't work. I'd want the second batch to hatch in that second incubator but cage them so the chicks can't crawl over the other eggs and slime them. But you want to turn the other chicken eggs while these quail eggs are not turning. Can you make a floor, maybe out of a plastic or paper plate to set in there so the eggs don't roll and make a "box" out of hardware cloth to set over it so the chicks don't slime the other eggs when they hatch and crawl around and it contains the mess. Sounds too complicated to me but maybe you can come up with something since you are looking at it. After this hatch put the other eggs in the first incubator until you clean this one, then split the eggs by hatch date.

I'd run the humidity based in what the next batch to hatch in that incubator needs. Ideal? No. But probably the best you can do.

 

[duckncover]

I'm coming to think that the quail bator will be a much bigger headache. I was trying to ask what it will be like for each situation upon lockdown. I think what I'm doing is called a staggered hatch and what I'm reading since posting this is that the biggest issue is lockdown and the eggs not being turned anymore. Luckily they are all marked. I was thinking I can remove them all from the turning racks when the first quail eggs go into lockdown and my options are to stop turning and hope for the best or sneak my hand in to give them a few more turns manually before fully locking down the bator. The serama eggs were put in not even 18 hours apart so I assume I can lock them down normally.

 

[duckncover]

Did you mess up? Yeah, you are probably in for a lot of stress. Extra work too. These are called staggered hatches as they are spread out. You run into issues with turning and humidity. To me a big issue is that the chicks make a mess when they hatch. They poop, there is gunk from the eggs. That poop and gunk can become stinky two or three days after they hatch. It's a great environment for bacteria to grow and kill your later eggs. I try to avoid staggered hatches.

But you have two incubators. Depending on how many eggs you have and the capacity of your incubators there are things you can do. Some people do staggered hatches all the time, generally by using one incubator as a hatcher and one as an incubator. Where your problem comes in with that is that you only have four days between the first two hatches. You should leave about a week between hatches so you have time for a batch to hatch and then you clean and sterilize the hatcher to get ready for the next batch in time for lockdown.

The way I'd approach this would be to put all the first eggs in one incubator and hatch them in it. Use the humidity and turning as you would for a normal lockdown. You may get really lucky and the first hatch will be over before the second go into lockdown. That would give you a chance to clean that incubator and put the other quail eggs in it. I'd delay the second batch going into lockdown by at least a day and maybe even two days if that allows you to do this. It is going to make life so much easier for you. After the second batch of quail hatch, clean up the incubator and split the other eggs by hatch day. And stop starting eggs unless you get a third incubator.

Both of your incubators are the type that turn the eggs by spinning around, not the type that rock them back and forth. I'm not familiar with those so I'm not sure how hard this next step would be if what I said above doesn't work. I'd want the second batch to hatch in that second incubator but cage them so the chicks can't crawl over the other eggs and slime them. But you want to turn the other chicken eggs while these quail eggs are not turning. Can you make a floor, maybe out of a plastic or paper plate to set in there so the eggs don't roll and make a "box" out of hardware cloth to set over it so the chicks don't slime the other eggs when they hatch and crawl around and it contains the mess. Sounds too complicated to me but maybe you can come up with something since you are looking at it. After this hatch put the other eggs in the first incubator until you clean this one, then split the eggs by hatch date.

I'd run the humidity based in what the next batch to hatch in that incubator needs. Ideal? No. But probably the best you can do.

Can't I just build a hatcher or two then? When I was a kid there was a guide on here for making an incubator out of styrafoam cooler, a computer fan, a hot water thermostat and a lamp kit. I can make something much nicer with a digital terrarium thermostat and a heat source that isn't a lightbulb, and I have a usb computer fan that would work great.

 

[Ridgerunner]

A hatcher for the first batch of quail eggs would be a great solution.

 

[duckncover]

Okay I found this. I have a 10 gallon I can sterilize. 3 bricks for the bottom, 2 unopened sponges and jar lids between them, and some mesh to put on top covered finally with shelf liner. If I just play around with my terrarium thermostat I should find what heat source works best then have it stable well before the first quails lock down.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/homemade-incubator-2.48123/

 

[gimmie birdies]

I have 2 incubators, only one has turner. I start my eggs in the incubator with turner. If I start a-new, I put them in the extra incubator for 24 hrs keeping the new cold eggs away from eggs that have been started. then put every one in the incubator with the turner. 3 days before the first batch is ready to hatch, I move the the first batch to the incubator with out the turner.