probably alot of stupid ?'s

[slaphappykitten]

ok, first off i am new at trying to hatch eggs i just got an incubator about a week ago, i set it up and put eggs in it from my chickens.
i have two hens that sit but they get up at about week 2 and just leave the eggs. first ? is why are they doing this.
second, i put the eggs when the sitting hen got up this last time in the incubator with the new eggs which is probably 2 weeks difference. i candled them and they should be hatching this week. (i think like i said im new) i have an automatic egg turner and it said to take it out before the chicks hatch, can i just take out a couple of rows from it so it will keep turning the one week old eggs or im i going to have to just turn all by hand from now on?
third ? is there a way to tell they are getting ready to hatch, do they make a noise or somthing like pecking the egg?
do eggs have a preffered time to hatch like day or night or it just dosent matter.
thanks everyone

 

[jimnjay]

You are going to run into a problem with the newer eggs during the hatch. Humidity has to be at least 70% during the last three days when you should NOT turn the eggs. The humidity for the newest eggs should not be over 50% during that time. You are going for a staggered hatch and that usually only works when you have a hatcher to take the eggs that are on Day 18 out of the incubator and place them in a unit with the humidity up to 70+ %. When chicks hatch there is lots of yucky stuff around the inside of the incubator and it can cause the newer eggs to become contaminated.

Read the section on this page about homemade incubators and see if you could maybe rig up something. Even the electric skillet will work in a pinch.

When you candle you can see if the chick has pipped the internal membrane. Usually you see a little bit of the beak poking into the air cell. The usually pip the shell around 24 hours later. The thing is you should not candle at that point. Humidity and temperature is of the utmost importance during the last three days. Mother chickens usually don't leave the nest at all during the last few days for that reason.