A sharp learning curve

[foxvalleyfarm]

So I've now set almost 100 eggs and have learned a lot in a very little amount of time since I set my first egg less then 2 months ago. I decided I would share my adventure and everything that I've learned.

Key things I've learned:
Set shipped eggs after 24 hours.
Do not add water until 5 days until due date.
Start turning shipped eggs after 12 hours in the incubator.
Turn at least 3x's a day. Always an odd number.
With shipped eggs if you leave them upright tilt at least 45*.
It can take 24 hours from internal pip to external pip and then 24+ for zipping.
Zipping should only take an hour or two.
If you feel like helping sit on your hands for a few hours then check again.
BUT if the baby is in distress help.
No matter if you have a still air or a fan circulated incubator your internal temps should be 99.5 as best measured by a water wiggle (water weasel).

((To be added on to))

 

[foxvalleyfarm]

Eggs B1-B13:

These eggs were the first I ever tried to incubate. And I tried to mimic @Beekissed's method using a heating pad. Of the 13 eggs 5 started to develop but slowly quit until I had 1 live baby on day 20. I didn't want to do anything before going to work that day. And when I came home the internal temps were 106* I was devastated but left the egg until day 25 when u finally pulled it and found that the baby had absorbed it's yolk and was almost in position to pip. It killed me. But by then I had more eggs cooking in a real incubator.