just a few questions any help will do

[gavbarker]

Hi i have 13 eggs in the incubator i just disposed of the non fertile ones i have 6 light susex eggs due to hatch on sunday /monday when i stop turning them i have a small tub of water in there but i dont have an humidity reader is it a good idea to stray them with mist water and how offten?

Also i have 3 marran eggs and 4 guenifowl eggs do they both take 28 days? And if so how does this work as the guinifowl eggs are smaller than the lightsusex eggs that are only 21.

One more thing how long sould i take candeling as i have an offical one but it does get quite hot so i dont like to leave it on the egg for too long . any of the questions answerd will be great thanx.

 

[Blisschick]

In answer to your questions:

1. Never mist chicken eggs. The only eggs you would have to do this to are duck or goose eggs.

2. The tub of water should be fine by itself, but you really need to get a hygrometer to keep track of the humidity. You can usually find them at hardware stores or some higher-end feedstores, and there's a few offered on eBay. There are cheap and expensive models, but try to find one that has a fairly accurate reading. (Most note this on the package.) You can also do a Google seach on how to make a wet bulb thermometer, which will help you get a reading as well.

Proper humidity is an absolute must, since with too much you can drown the chick in the egg, or it could stick to the inside of the egg before hatch and die.

3. Marans are chickens. Chicken eggs take 21 days to incubate. Guinea eggs take 26-28 days.

4. Candling should only take a few seconds or so with each egg. You only need to check for cracks to start with, then you're checking for fertility, then movement, along with air cell placement and size at the various stages. You don't want to keep the egg out of incubator for very long so the egg doesn't cool too much. You are correct about being concerned about the candler being too warm on the egg. You could damage the membranes and the developing chick with the high heat.

Having Maran eggs, candling them may be hard to do since they're so dark. It may take longer to tell what you're seeing in the egg, but I wouldn't take too long trying to figure it out. I've had some dark eggs myself, and I never really knew for sure if they were going to hatch until the day came and went.

Hope all of this helps!

Stacey

 

[gavbarker]

I might try and invest in a humidity reader then the lady who i rend land off always does hers dry and always gets good results but i thought it would be a good idea to keep it a bit moist. Are you certain that the maran eggs will be ready in 21 days then i tought she said 28 days but i might have got mixed up lol i better get space ready for them.

 

[pipermark]

Chickens are 21, I agree with all the above. If you want good hatches you need to measure the humidity.

In future I would not try and hatch chickens and any other egg laying animal together , unless the other egg laying animal also hatched in 21 days. IMHO.