A question on position for last few days...

[DaveW6DPS]

We just hatched our first eggs ever. The good news is, we have 15 healthy chicks, but the bad news is we started with 24 eggs.

Some may not have been fertile or failed early (I have very limited confidence in my candling skills).

There were four who developed to the point of pipping and trying to hatch. They were each in a weird position in the egg, and seemed to have great difficulty actually pecking out a circumferential track to uncapped the egg.

After some significant hesitation, we decided they would not be successful and helped the process. Two of the four are among the 15 success stories. Two did not make it. We had another who had a hard time, but eventually hatched herself, but with some membrane dried and stuck on her.

We kept the humidity and temperature stable and on target through out, and increased humidity as advised for the last 3 days.

My question is, when you remove the egg mover mechanism from the incubator, how exactly do you put the eggs back in? Should they stay large end up, or lay on their side? If end up, how do you keep them there?

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to provide relevant details.

Thanks for any help!

Dave and Eilene

 

[AmyLynn2374]

We just hatched our first eggs ever. The good news is, we have 15 healthy chicks, but the bad news is we started with 24 eggs.

Some may not have been fertile or failed early (I have very limited confidence in my candling skills).

There were four who developed to the point of pipping and trying to hatch. They were each in a weird position in the egg, and seemed to have great difficulty actually pecking out a circumferential track to uncapped the egg.

After some significant hesitation, we decided they would not be successful and helped the process. Two of the four are among the 15 success stories. Two did not make it. We had another who had a hard time, but eventually hatched herself, but with some membrane dried and stuck on her.

We kept the humidity and temperature stable and on target through out, and increased humidity as advised for the last 3 days.

My question is, when you remove the egg mover mechanism from the incubator, how exactly do you put the eggs back in? Should they stay large end up, or lay on their side? If end up, how do you keep them there?

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to provide relevant details.

Thanks for any help!

Dave and Eilene

Congrats on the hatchers!! That's a decent rate. When you remove the turner you can either lay them on their side or some hatchers use cut down cartons and hatch them out vertically. I myself lay mine on their side. It's a personal preference. Either method is as successful. I prefer to be able to see the bottoms of the eggs in case I have a malepopsitioned wrong end pipper. It's harder to see that when they are in the egg cartons.

 

[sonjab314]

I lay them on their sides. Ive never seen a broody hen sit hers up to hatch

 

[DaveW6DPS]

Thanks for the replies!

So next time we will lay them down.
I hadn't thought about how a hen keeps them in the nest.

Thanks!