Hatching eggs in a carton questions

[Fredster]

We've got 35 eggs due to start hatching next Friday, and I want to try hatching them upright in an egg carton this time to see if I get a better hatch rate (not that I need 35 more chickens, but, well, you know how the addiction is).

Any suggestions or tips? I figured I would just cut the tops off the cartons and stand the eggs up in them. Three cartons will mostly fill up my Genesis, will that cause any problems for the chicks as they flail around while they're drying?

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Yup, just cut the tops off and set the eggs in, fat end up. I also do cut a hole in the bottom, to allow for better air circulation. I find that when hatching in a carton, the chicks have an easier time hatching, since they arent being rolled around the incubator floor by the already hatched chicks. It also seems like the chicks hatch faster. It also makes clean up so much easier.

I have some eggs hatching next saturday too.
Good Luck

 

[mrandmrschicken]

I might try this also. Never have in the past. Do you mean cut some of the top part of the bottom 1/2 of carton away? And, should this be done on day 18?

 

[emsevers]

I just took my eggs out of the turner last night. I am trying an experiment. I put half in cartons and half flat on the wire. Then I'm going to observe them and see which seems to have an easier time of it. I've been wondering about this for a while and I could not make up my mind of which way I wanted to go.

 

[Fredster]

I've done several hatches on wire and I've noticed that the hatched chicks beat the fool out of the unhatched eggs while they're flailing around. I've read lots of success stories here so I wanted to give it a try.

Plus, it'll make it easier for the webcam --- the chicks like to knock the other eggs out of the picture.

 

[Pumpkinpup]

Fred, I saw a post with a much better take on this method. Instead of upright which puts the babies at risk of bein burned by the elements while hatching as well as making it more difficult to exit the shell, they were placed on their sides in a special styrofoam strip that was made to specifically cradle the eggs on their side so they could not shift around when the new hatchlings were ripping around in there

It made tons more sense to me after having tried hatching in cartons with less than stellar results.

 

[Katy]

I'm a fan of hatching in the cartons too. Been doing it that way for the last year+. I just cut the top of the carton off and leave the bottom as is.

 

[Fredster]

One more kind of dumb question (but I'm allowed, I'm from Alabama) -- do the chicks not have trouble getting completely out of the shell at hatch time when they're in the carton? After watching several hatches, it seems like the kick-stretch thing they do to get out of the shell wouldn't work as well when they were fighting gravity?

Or am I overthinking this, like I do everything else?

 

[mike22572]

i bought a little giant, when am i ti stop turning the eggs? the book says to remove from turner and stop 3 days before hatching.

 

[scbatz33]

I read about the carton hatching thing so I thought I'd try it. The thing I didn't like was the carton soaked up the water from the well and was so wet and gross. I pulled it out and put the eggs back on their sides.

I get the rolling around part of the idea, but it seems to me, my chick was more "oriented to get out on it's side then on end. Of course it could have just been coincidence.

Anyway, I was not impressed with the carton thing.