About to incubate. A few years since I last did!

[nbuuifx]

I've got one of the octagon incubators on an auto rotater.

I've incubated eggs a good few times in the past but not done them for a few years, so just wanted to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything!

I picked up some eggs yesterday from a farm that I used to use. I picked up 15 eggs directly from the coops so they had been laid yesterday morning. They are a mixture of breeds from Leghorns, to bantam silkies.

My plan was to set the incubator up on Monday and leave it for 24 hours to stabilise, then to add the eggs on Tuesday morning. Does that sound OK time wise? The eggs are currently stored in my garage with the pointy end down, and I'm moving the box so it leans one way, then the other a couple of times a day.

Humidity - what are the current thoughts on this? I remember when I first started everyone said you had to follow the instructions and fill a channel with water etc. However in the later years of incubation lots of people were saying they had better success with dry incubation. How are people going with this?

I'm in the UK, weather has been unusually hot and dry but we've now gone back to normal British weather and the last few days have had good April showers, and we are currently having a storm.

Any other comments or advice would be appreciated.

 

[nbuuifx]

I've had a good read through, and noted that it might be worth documenting weights and tracing the air sacs before starting.

I have some very sensitive digital scales, so will weigh and number all the eggs before I begin. I will also have a go at candling and tracing the air sacs.

Anything else that is worth doing?

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Hi! I have little post its to remind me when I put them in, when to put them in the hatcher, and when they are due. Sounds like you are well prepared!

 

[nbuuifx]

I still feel like I'm forgetting something!

Incubator will be going on tomorrow. Temperature will be set to 37.5*C. I'm aiming for 40% humidity.

Eggs will be going in on Tuesday which gives a handy date as it means day 1 will be the 1st of May, so keeping track of the day will be very easy this time.

I've weighed all 15 of the eggs today using digital grain scales and I've been geeky and added them to a spreadsheet.

I've calculated expected weights for each of the eggs based on a total of 13% weight loss over 21 days.

I plan to weigh the eggs on day 7, 10, 14 and 17. To give me chance to adjust the humidity if required.

I was also going to candle at day 7, 14 and 17 and trace the air sac to ensure it is growing correctly.

Day 18 I was going to increase humidity to 65% and try not to touch them again after that other than to add water if necessary to maintain the humidity. I'll also take it off the auto cradle at that point.

My worry is whether I'm going to be opening and closing the incubator too many times if I take the eggs out on 4 different days. I seem to remember that there were two schools of thought on this one, one was that in the wild the mother often leaves the eggs to feed. The other was just to leave them alone.

Part of my reason for doing these is educational (I work in a school, hence why I'm not starting the incubator until tomorrow) - so I want to give as much opportunity to candle and weigh as possible as I think it will add to the educational value, but at the same time I don't want to jeopardise the chances of hatching.

In the past when candling etc, I have taken three eggs out at a time using a regular 6 egg carton to carry them. I've done this to minimise the number of times I have to open the incubator. It will still need opening and closing 5 times in order to weigh and candle all 15 eggs.

I would be interested to hear peoples' thoughts on this. Also is it worth tracing the air sac. I worry about how long the three eggs will be out of the incubator as well.

 

[casportpony]

@Pyxis and @WVduckchick might be good ones to talk too.
Article by @Pyxis
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-beginners-guide-to-incubation.73350/quote
Article by @WVduckchick
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/incubation-humidity.73386/

 

[WVduckchick]

I’m on the side that thinks opening the incubator throughout the process does not hamper their development. As you mention, a broody leaves the eggs for periods of time throughout, plus not everyone uses automatic turners, so they have to hand turn multiple times each day. I actually prefer hand turning of my call duck eggs instead of the auto turners.

I have also experimented and candled eggs almost daily with no ill effects.

I don’t trace air cells anymore, but still see benefit to it. Occasionally I will trace it on day 18 to observe for drawdown. It’s also pretty evident if one doesn’t move much after day 18, it’s fairly easy to say it’s a quitter. Tracing along the way is a good gage of how well the air cells are growing.

Best of luck with your hatch. I hope you will keep us posted!

 

[nbuuifx]

Eggs were loaded into the incubator today. Humidity was spot on (according to the cheap Hygrometer!) and temperature was correct according to the Brinsea built in thermometer and an additional one. The cheap hygrometer also has a temperature display but that one shows 31*C. That was the main reason for putting one of the classroom thermometers into the incubator - they should be OK, I checked it against 5 more in the room before putting it in and all 5 read the same, it also matched the Brinsea one!

 

[aart]

Might be too late....or not....
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...incubator-thermometers-and-hygrometers.73634/

 

[nbuuifx]

Might be too late....or not....
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...incubator-thermometers-and-hygrometers.73634/

Thanks, the testing of the Hygrometer looks useful as I'm not sure how accurate it is.

I'm happy enough with the temperature. To be honest I've never changed it since I bought the incubator. It has always just heated to the right temperature so I've left the little hidden adjustment dial alone.

The fact that the Hygrometer showed a temperature of 31*C didn't worry me too much given the knowledge that the factory fitted thermometer has always shown the correct temperature and the settings haven't changed.

The use of an extra thermometer (calibrated by the fact that it matched the others!) was just an extra precaution.

As an extra precaution for the Hygrometer being out for RH, I have weighed the eggs and will be comparing weight loss over the three weeks.

 

[casportpony]

The fact that the Hygrometer showed a temperature of 31*C didn't worry me too much given the knowledge that the factory fitted thermometer has always shown the correct temperature and the settings haven't changed.

Do you have one of these?

If so, try this:


If it reads low you will know you need to re-calibrate everything.