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Oh I see, I didn't think of that! That'd be a good idea for when I get another incubator.Some people do staggered hatches and use a second bator to hatch out in and some people prefer to use forced air for incubation and still air for hatching. I know I don't like pipped eggs sitting under the fan area in my forced air because it tends to dry out the exposed membranes quicker, but it's not a big enough reason to make me have two bators for one hatch. (I just move my pippers.
Your incubation methods seem sound. You have checked the therms and your humidity levels are decent and you check air cells, so you're ahead of a lot of people on technique. How do you store your eggs prior to setting and for how long? Have you ever thought about giving hand turning a try if you have the availability??? I started with the turner and switched to hand turning and my rates, which have always been good (minus my very first hatch), got even better after switching to hand turning. Just a thought. BTW, out of curiosity, what kind of bator are you using?
Thank you I've spent quite a few hours researching methods and techniques trying to get everything right, which is why it's so frustrating that I've failed to have a successful hatch. Honestly, I don't store my eggs. I use to store them indoors, have them in an egg carton, have one side of the carton higher than the other and rotate it twice a day, etc. I tried lots of tricks, except storing at a certain temperature since I don't have a fridge that I can use solely for egg storage. I found that my hatch rate with my broody hens using those methods was lower than if I simply left the eggs alone in the nest until they're needed, so I stopped doing all those special precautions. I do this and get almost a 100% hatch rate, every fertile egg under a hen hatches. Now, if the eggs are a week or older, I do store those, but I generally don't use those once they're that old anyways. I don't think I'll do hand turning though. I'm a full time college student, so really the only time I'm able to be home to turn the eggs three times a day is during the summer and winter break. I have a Forced Air Incubator Model 4200