before i mess up

[kiskateara]

hi!! in my introduction from last night, i mentioned that today i would be incubating for the first time! well, this morning, 10am, i put 8 eggs into the little round, kinda shady looking incubator we got. set the temperature at 38 degrees (celsius!) and filled up the the little water dish in the middle with warm water. ive turned them once today so far, and plan on turning them every 2-3 hours, since i've heard that turning them more than 2 times a day is perfectly fine, probably better for them too. everything looks fine so far, i'm hoping that the humidity is fine since this (again, shady looking) incubator didn't come with something to say how humid it is in there.

that's where the 'before i mess up' part comes in! water, or i guess in this case condensation, has formed on a few of the eggs and also the bottom of the glass windows. i'm not sure if that is good, or bad. i'm gonna ask my dad about getting something to check the humidity, but he's at a job right now, so, i cant and figured maybe someone here could help out. i know that before lockdown or hatching day it should be around 30%-50%, does any of that sound in that range, or is it too high? is there any way i could possibly guess?

also thought that i should mention that these are easter egger eggs, and half aren't as fresh as i'd like them to be. i picked up one yesterday, and it had been sitting in an room temp. cartoon all night, and today i picked up 3 freshly laid eggs. that's half of them, i'm not worried about them yet. however, i'm not at all sure how old the other 4 are. i didn't want to bring them in, because again, they could be pretty old, but my dad's logic was that one of his hens 'laid 28 eggs, and hatched 28 chicks, so some of them had to have been much older. so it doesn't matter, put them in too' which although might have happened, i doubt they all hatched. so, should i try and determine which of them are the oldest, and take them out? i haven't candled any of them yet, either. they were all cold from being outside, so my main concern was just getting them in the incubator and warming them all up, and besides, i doubt i'd see much on the first day.

any answers/replies are appreciated! thank you if you read this all! sorry for rambling

 

[JaeG]

You won't see anything until at least day 3, if not day 7 so don't worry about candling at this early stage. Leave them all in and see what happens. You can weed out those that don't develop or those that quit on day 10 if not day 14. Blue/green eggs and darker eggs are harder to see into so you may have to wait until day 7 to get an idea of which are showing signs of life (but don't discard any at that early stage). You'll need a bright light to candle with.

How cold is the room where the incubator is sitting? Cold temperatures outside of the incubator will cause condensation to form if the plastic gets cold enough and if the eggs were cold when you put them in that will cause condensation to form on them also. It will take awhile for the temperature and humidity to stabilise though so don't panic yet. Let everything settle.

You really do need an independent, calibrated thermometer and hygrometer to place in the incubator to be able to monitor temperature and humidity. There's an excellent article on here about how to calibrate your thermometer and hygrometer so search in the articles section. If you can't find it let me know and I'll find you the link for it.

The temperature on the incubator is often incorrect. An incubator is affected by room temperature (especially fluctuations). Make sure it's somewhere with a stable/consistent temperature not near doorways.

However many times you turn your eggs make sure it's an odd number so that the eggs aren't always sitting on the same side overnight.

Keep us updated on how it's going.

 

[kiskateara]

tha

You won't see anything until at least day 3, if not day 7 so don't worry about candling at this early stage. Leave them all in and see what happens. You can weed out those that don't develop or those that quit on day 10 if not day 14. Blue/green eggs and darker eggs are harder to see into so you may have to wait until day 7 to get an idea of which are showing signs of life (but don't discard any at that early stage). You'll need a bright light to candle with.

How cold is the room where the incubator is sitting? Cold temperatures outside of the incubator will cause condensation to form if the plastic gets cold enough and if the eggs were cold when you put them in that will cause condensation to form on them also. It will take awhile for the temperature and humidity to stabilise though so don't panic yet. Let everything settle.

You really do need an independent, calibrated thermometer and hygrometer to place in the incubator to be able to monitor temperature and humidity. There's an excellent article on here about how to calibrate your thermometer and hygrometer so search in the articles section. If you can't find it let me know and I'll find you the link for it.

The temperature on the incubator is often incorrect. An incubator is affected by room temperature (especially fluctuations). Make sure it's somewhere with a stable/consistent temperature not near doorways.

However many times you turn your eggs make sure it's an odd number so that the eggs aren't always sitting on the same side overnight.

Keep us updated on how it's going.

thank you so much for all of this! i just wrote down how many time's ive turned them, so tonight i'll make sure that it ends with an odd number.

the eggs, except one, were definitely cold the first time i put them in, because i got them from outside and where i live it doesn't feel like spring at all yet- so that explains the condensation forming on them. as for the plastic the incubator is sitting on a desk in my room, couldn't tell you the exact temperature but i can say it was pretty cool in here an hour or two ago. i just checked, and it looks fine now!

i also asked my dad about an independent thermometer and hydrometer (or rather he caught me looking at our leopard gecko's,) and he said he'll get one for the incubator, so if the incubator is wrong i'll be able to fix it pretty soon.

thank you again for this, i'll definitely post some updates and hopefully by the end of this i'll be posting pictures of a few easter egger chicks!

 

[JaeG]

I popped some chicken eggs in my incubator yesterday about midday (I'm in the southern hemisphere so date-wise the same day as you) so we'll be able to trade photos. There are also Muscovy duck eggs in there due to hatch in about a week and a half. I've only incubated quail eggs before, though we used broody bantams to hatch a few chicken chicks about 4 years ago. I can't wait to have some bigger babies but the Muscovy eggs are killing me with how long they take. 32-35 days!

 

[kiskateara]

I popped some chicken eggs in my incubator yesterday about midday (I'm in the southern hemisphere so date-wise the same day as you) so we'll be able to trade photos. There are also Muscovy duck eggs in there due to hatch in about a week and a half. I've only incubated quail eggs before, though we used broody bantams to hatch a few chicken chicks about 4 years ago. I can't wait to have some bigger babies but the Muscovy eggs are killing me with how long they take. 32-35 days!

oh, nice!! we've never raised ducks or quails here before, only chickens, and we've never incubated-- clearly! our past babies were always from the one hen we have that has ever actually gone broody. and over 30 days?? i can hardly wait the 21 days for these 8, and it hasn't even been 2 days. i couldn't imagine waiting another 10!

i actually turned them a few minutes ago and out of curiousity i took my phone out and candled them, since they're really light colors, and as expected i saw nothing yet. except one, which was just a solid color all the way through, but then i turned the light off behind me and realized it was just because it was a bit darker than the rest, i think all i saw was the yolk. i almost thought one of the hens had actually gone broody behind our backs and i'd just chick-napped one of her babies a few days before hatching!

 

[JaeG]

This is a really good site to follow along with as she goes through exactly what's happening on each day along with a photo of an egg being candled on the particular day. This is day 1 and then down the bottom there's a link to 'Incubation Day 2'.
https://www.raising-happy-chickens.com/incubation-day-1.html

It gives you something to do every day while you wait.

 

[kiskateara]

This is a really good site to follow along with as she goes through exactly what's happening on each day along with a photo of an egg being candled on the particular day. This is day 1 and then down the bottom there's a link to 'Incubation Day 2'.
https://www.raising-happy-chickens.com/incubation-day-1.html

It gives you something to do every day while you wait.

thank you!! i read through all of day 1, the incubation process is so interesting, even on the first day! i would've never thought twice about it if it were my hens doing it all. though the one thing i noticed that i was doing wrong is the turning process. all 3 times i've turned them completely onto the other side, although i was very careful when i did so im hoping its fine. i'll have to mark their sides next time and then just turn it halfway every hour or something, i'd feel terrible if something happened to them and it ended up being because i did something wrong!

 

[JaeG]

I flip mine over their small end simply because that's what I've seen my hens do (even when their chicks had pipped!). That's the way I've always done it and it's never been a problem. Some people just roll the egg (and that's how automatic egg turners do it). There seems to be a reasonable margin for error. A stable temperature is the most important thing. Anything else there's wiggle room.

 

[kiskateara]

I flip mine over their small end simply because that's what I've seen my hens do (even when their chicks had pipped!). That's the way I've always done it and it's never been a problem. Some people just roll the egg (and that's how automatic egg turners do it). There seems to be a reasonable margin for error. A stable temperature is the most important thing. Anything else there's wiggle room.

that's a little more reassuring! i added two more marks to their sides and i'll just rotate them one side per hour until i go to sleep tonight, so i guess that is the route i'm taking for now. thankfully the temperature seems to be pretty constant, it only drops when i have to take the top off to turn them and it's pretty quick to warm back up when i put it back. only concern is that since it is the incubator's thermometer im not sure if it's correct, but, again my dad will hopefully go and get the thermometer/hydrometer tomorrow so we can check. they seem fine, for now, the shell's are very warm!

 

[Uff Da]

In the future, make sure you let your eggs come up to room temperature before you put them in the incubator. "Sweating" breaks the microbial barrier of the egg's cuticle, so they will be vulnerable to contamination. You will probably still get a decent hatch if you make sure to wash your hands well every time before you handle the eggs. https://thepoultrysite.com/articles/the-importance-of-preventing-sweating-eggs