2 questions—first time incubating (shipped eggs)

[5 Points Wingfeather]

1. I ordered 12 eggs and the nursery sent me 14 eggs. The incubator only holds 12. How should I pick the two worst eggs to leave out? One or two are smaller than the rest. Does that play a factor? I tried candling to look at air sac and yolk but I don’t have a clue what I’m doing.

2. How long should they set before I put them in incubator? I’ve seen 6 hours, 12 hours, and even 24 hours. I don’t know that I’m going to be able to wait 24 hours. I’m impatient.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

1. I ordered 12 eggs and the nursery sent me 14 eggs. The incubator only holds 12. How should I pick the two worst eggs to leave out? One or two are smaller than the rest. Does that play a factor? I tried candling to look at air sac and yolk but I don’t have a clue what I’m doing.

2. How long should they set before I put them in incubator? I’ve seen 6 hours, 12 hours, and even 24 hours. I don’t know that I’m going to be able to wait 24 hours. I’m impatient.

The 2 smallest eggs I would take out.
(There is no way to fit 14 and take out any non fertile at 4 days?)

 

[5 Points Wingfeather]

The 2 smallest eggs I would take out.
(There is no way to fit 14 and take out any non fertile at 4 days?)

I could maybe do that if I took out the automatic turner. But that assumes I would be able to figure out the candling by that point. Which maybe I could, but I just wondered if it’d be better to leave it closed and let the automatic turner do its thing

 

[Ridgerunner]

1. I ordered 12 eggs and the nursery sent me 14 eggs. The incubator only holds 12. How should I pick the two worst eggs to leave out? One or two are smaller than the rest. Does that play a factor? I tried candling to look at air sac and yolk but I don’t have a clue what I’m doing.

If any are dirty, remove the dirtiest. When candling, see if any are cracked or have high porosity. If any are weird-shaped (long and skinny or totally round), don't set those. If any are unusually large or small compared to the others eliminate those. If none of those apply, just pick two.

2. How long should they set before I put them in incubator? I’ve seen 6 hours, 12 hours, and even 24 hours. I don’t know that I’m going to be able to wait 24 hours. I’m impatient.

You see all kinds of suggestions on here. Everybody is giving you what they think is "best" but different people have different "bests". Just pick one and go.

 

[5 Points Wingfeather]

If any are dirty, remove the dirtiest. When candling, see if any are cracked or have high porosity. If any are weird-shaped (long and skinny or totally round), don't set those. If any are unusually large or small compared to the others eliminate those. If none of those apply, just pick two.


You see all kinds of suggestions on here. Everybody is giving you what they think is "best" but different people have different "bests". Just pick one and go.

Thank you! I haven’t candles them all yet but I think the ones I was looking at were all porous. That’s what I was confused about—they didn’t look like the ones I was seeing in pictures and videos. It appears that the porous ones have a lower hatch rate, but that they aren’t impossible to hatch. Is that correct? Like I said, I candled about 5 and all were porous. Hopefully the rest won’t be

 

[Ridgerunner]

All eggs have porosity. The developing embryo needs to breathe through that porous shell. If two stand out as really porous remove those.

The more porous the shell the more liquid evaporates during incubation. All eggs need to lose some moisture during incubation. Not all eggs lose moisture at the same rate. A difference in porosity is one reason, there are others. The good news is that nature set it up so a fairly wide range of moisture loss will work, but you want to keep that loss as even as you can. There are limits so eliminate the worst. Since your incubator holds 12 eggs, set the best 12 that you can. But if there is not that much difference, just set 12.

 

[5 Points Wingfeather]

So just to update this, I wound up keeping the smallest, dirtiest egg because it had the best looking air cell. It wound up being the only one of the 12 that hatched. I am very thankful to get that one chick. But disappointed with the shipped eggs. The breeder did everything right—just didn’t work out. I don’t think I’ll ever buy shipped eggs again

 

[Ponypoor]

So just to update this, I wound up keeping the smallest, dirtiest egg because it had the best looking air cell. It wound up being the only one of the 12 that hatched. I am very thankful to get that one chick. But disappointed with the shipped eggs. The breeder did everything right—just didn’t work out. I don’t think I’ll ever buy shipped eggs again

Glad u got at least one. Hope it turned out to be a hen for you.

 

[5 Points Wingfeather]

Glad u got at least one. Hope it turned out to be a hen for you.

She’s a pullet! Will try to get a picture tomorrow

 

[Ponypoor]

She’s a pullet! Will try to get a picture tomorrow

Awesome !!