Question about timing

[Fullcrazy]

I found my hen sitting on some eggs a week ago. I was going to let her do her thing, but she abandoned the nest, so I took the eggs and put them in the incubator. I candled last night and they are further along than I thought, but there are some a few days behind the others (other hens were clearly making deposits). Is it better to go to lockdown earlier, to accommodate the older eggs?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Yes, depending on how far apart the times are.

 

[Fullcrazy]

I'd guess 2 days

 

[JacinLarkwell]

That should be fine. I wouldn't up humidity too much until you see pips, but not turning that late won't hurt

 

[Fullcrazy]

OK great, thanks. I'll give the humidity a little bit of a bump, but won't go full tropical until pips

 

[Sammbalina]

I had that happen with some turkey eggs. Well, she didn't abandon them, but we ended up with a rat problem so we had to confiscate them to save them, and have since made the coop more secure. We had 1 sitting, one sudo sitting, and a third depositing eggs regularly, for almost a month! When we confiscated them, we regularly candled them, and whenever there were some that looked like they were close enough, we moved them from the incubating incubator to the lockdown incubator. We had 2 poults hatching every other day for almost 2 weeks...

We changed up our nest box situation for next year, so hopefully we won't have that problem again..

 

[Fullcrazy]

I had that happen with some turkey eggs. Well, she didn't abandon them, but we ended up with a rat problem so we had to confiscate them to save them, and have since made the coop more secure. We had 1 sitting, one sudo sitting, and a third depositing eggs regularly, for almost a month! When we confiscated them, we regularly candled them, and whenever there were some that looked like they were close enough, we moved them from the incubating incubator to the lockdown incubator. We had 2 poults hatching every other day for almost 2 weeks...

We changed up our nest box situation for next year, so hopefully we won't have that problem again..

Oh my ! If I had 2 incubators I'd have a lockdown one, but I only have one. That sounds like a wild month!

 

[Fullcrazy]

So far so good! Had 1 quitter in the early group, one assisted hatch (air sac was on the side, she's out and good) and the later eggs are hatching now. All worked out!