Thank you so much for all this advice! These incubators are first-hatch for the eggs in them. I did wash them thoroughly before setting eggs for the first time, (little bit of white vinegar and just plain ol' water). I'm not sure if that was thorough enough out of box, or if they needed something stronger? I then made sure they were running just fine for 24 hours straight with steady temp/humidity. I set every set of eggs pointy side down at room temp for 24 hours before beginning to incubate, where I keep them in an egg carton for 72 hours (sometimes a little earlier but never fully at the 48 hour mark) before setting them in turners to turn. Since they're shipped, most arrive with detached air cells, but I've had a number that went from unsteady/loose to at the very least steady/not moving noticeably.
Our house's natural humidity is 25%-30%, but I felt like air cells were getting too huge too fast with dry hatching (but, I am also super inexperienced, so it could just be a 'me problem' and they were not at all actually an issue), so I've been carefully monitoring it to keep it more like 40% just to see if that'd help too now that we've had those early to late stage losses. I'm also careful to not throw out any eggs I find questionable. We've not had any so far that smelled. Some that were VERY dirty, I simply didn't incubate (those have been few and far between) as I was worried about bacteria. There is one I'm about to set I'm eyeing suspiciously in terms of 'dirty' (a smear of white on it - it's a copper marans egg - so certainly poop but I'm wondering if the white of it 'stained' the egg as it was not really easy to scratch off and I didn't want to compromise the bloom)
When I pull out to candle, other than washing my hands thoroughly, I also quickly pull out one 'row' at a time, quickly candle the 6 in that row, put it back, grab another, etc. So I do try to keep them from being out in the cool room for too long (1-2 minutes for all 6 tops usually). But I also do know broody hens will leave their eggs for longer than that to go dust bathe, eat/drink, poop, etc. so I'm feeling like that couldn't be an issue.
I feel like the whiteboard meme guy trying to figure out what I could be doing better. I'm trying to not OVER-think but I'd love to know if it's a "me" thing or "shipped eggs" thing so I'm not doing anything that's outwardly a "bless your heart, no, never do that."
I definitely ordered 3 more hygrometer/thermometer combos though as we've got a total of 4 incubators!
Phewh. That was a word wall.
Our dessert eggs are doing much, much better count-wise than this one, so not sure if it's luck on the shipped eggs or I'm doing something different for those and simply don't realize. It's definitely a journey so far!
I always use antibacterial soap and warm water, scrub for a good 30-45 seconds, then make sure my hands are totally dry before handling the eggs. Though I will say just one of the cross eggs was a little dirty? But I didn’t think nearly dirty enough to cause any bacterial issues, especially considering eggs’ bloom, so I was puzzled!
Let's keep growing dessert chicks, no more quitters!
The post office itself is FANTASTIC but one of the carriers I think doesn't like having to drive up our long driveway. Or maybe doesn't care for us. 
It'll be quite a while before we're getting fertile eggs, so we can't really compare just yet.
You don't need to sand off every atom of poop on an egg, 
but if you give it a light sanding and it gets most of it off, it doesn't hurt the egg and it will be fine to put in the machine. 
We've got some buff laced polish eggs baking too in hopes of a frizzle buff laced for our son. Here's hoping to a future of many happy, healthy little chicks.
It's just an amazing process!
I’m so darn excited! Sad we will be leaving the day before, but kiddo has a fully written out page on instructions on how to initiate lockdown on one batch (he will help me start lockdown with these sweeties) and how to be prepared for hatching on the others.
