6th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2015 Hatch-A-Long

[Amberjem]

ok I am totally confuwed now I thoughgt the big end was supose to be up??????????????????????? can someone please clarify this?

 

[bantambury]

Wait, they're supposed to be stored big end down???  I thought the big end was supposed to be up!!!  Well, there goes my hatch rate. 

I guess big side down in storage, big side up in hatching.....BUT ive always stored big side up and ive had excellent rates.....

 

[domesticzoo]

Wow! All my ducks hatched! Now I have 4 ducks,8 bantams, 3 quail and 1 chick. Now to wait for the HAL.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

I found this very interesting webpage:
http://www.avianaquamiser.com/archives/2011/09/

AnnaUneven temperatures in incubators

Does egg location in the incubator affect a chick's time of hatch and hatchability? In still air incubators, you'll find relatively wide temperature variations throughout the incubator, but even our top of the line Brinsea Octagon 20 Advance Incubator shows differences in hatch rate related to egg location in the tray. The picture to the right is the summary of my results from two hatches, suggesting that eggs in the center are less likely to hatch than those around the edges, and my notes show that central eggs also tend to hatch later.

The fan in our incubator keeps air moving, so you would think that all of the eggs would be equally warm. However, a reader on our homesteading blog suggested that radiant heat from the central heating element preferentially warms the eggs directly underneath. His hypothesis makes a lot of sense, as does his solution of using some kind of barrier like aluminum foil below the heating unit to block the radiant heat while allowing the fans to continue to circulate warmed air. It looks like I'm going to have to do some experiments with moving thermometers around inside the incubator to find out whether there really are high temperature pockets and how to fix them.

Ourchicken waterer takes the guesswork out of POOP-free water.​

Posted early Friday morning, September 2nd, 2011Tags:chicken incubation

Edited to add:
I'm not knocking the Brinsea, but I did find the article interesting since I have experienced something similar with my RCOM.

THANK YOU!!! My husband and I had this same experience just last week with at least two of our three Octagon 20 Advance Ex incubators and wondered if we were missing something. I had planned to research it when I'm off over the holidays to see if others were having the same issue. Oddly, our 40 model of the same incubator didn't seem to have the same issues.

 

[ronott1]

Wait, they're supposed to be stored big end down??? I thought the big end was supposed to be up!!! Well, there goes my hatch rate.

Only for refrigerating eggs.

It really is not the best thing to do though. For the first 14 days they should be big end up, tilted and turned several times a day. After 14 days they can be refrigerated small end up to improve hatch rate with older eggs. The hatch rate will still be lower because they are old.

Eggs should be set before then though. The eggs will lose energy and have a harder time hatching when they are older.

Shipped eggs should be as close to 5 days or less old.

 

[blackgoat]

Wow! All my ducks hatched! Now I have 4 ducks,8 bantams, 3 quail and 1 chick. Now to wait for the HAL.

Yay! All the beeps! Are you going to keep them together? That will be the funniest flock!

 

[ronott1]

ok I am totally confuwed now I thoughgt the big end was supose to be up??????????????????????? can someone please clarify this?

Sorry for the confusion!

Big end up for the first 14 days and the small end up in the refrigerator.

Of course you should set all the eggs before day 14!

 

[Roan]

Only for refrigerating eggs.

It really is not the best thing to do though. For the first 14 days they should be big end up, tilted and turned several times a day. After 14 days they can be refrigerated small end up to improve hatch rate with older eggs. The hatch rate will still be lower because they are old.

Eggs should be set before then though. The eggs will lose energy and have a harder time hatching when they are older.

Shipped eggs should be as close to 5 days or less old.

Okay, well I did refrigerate my eggs since I was getting 0 - 3 per day and wanted to have a good clutch to set. I also thought that being in the fridge would put them in a sort of suspended animation so that they stayed viable for longer and that the big end should be up at all times. I guess this is lesson learned.

Thanks for the clarification, Ron!

 

[Amberjem]

oh so this is about storing the eggs not incubating? sorry I just woke up and a bit groggy still... pardon for the repeat just want to be sure I got this.......so if I am collecting eggs say for twenty days I should keep the big egg end up for 14 days then reverse small end up in the fridge to like revitalize the 14 day old waiting to be incubated eggs?

 

[ronott1]

oh so this is about storing the eggs not incubating? sorry I just woke up and a bit groggy still... pardon for the repeat just want to be sure I got this.......so if I am collecting eggs say for twenty days I should keep the big egg end up for 14 days then reverse small end up in the fridge to like revitalize the 14 day old waiting to be incubated eggs?

Yes, that is it!

It is very bad to incubate eggs small end up.