I am incubating eggs for the first time. I haven't attempted this before because all the conflicting info on this site and others just makes my head spin! I have a need to do things correctly and when information is not black & white, it stresses me out. I bought a used Genesis last year and never had the nerve to try it.
I bought an RCom, for 2 reasons. 1. - because my hatching room is in a barn and does not have climate control. 2. - because it looked to be the most automatic incubator. So I wouldn't have to adjust things on it.
The machine just sat in the box for over a week, then my husband (who knows absolutely nothing about hatching) took it out, set it on automatic, put a bunch of (unwashed) hatching eggs inside and turned it on. He said broody hens don't agonize over details to hatch their eggs. That was late afternoon, April 22.
Temp has been 99.5, humidity has been 45-46%. IDK how often it's been turning. I've seen it turn a few times. I candled on day 6. No development in half the eggs, from 2 hens. Normal looking development in the other half, from 2 other hens.
I'm not sure when to adjust humidity and turn off the turner. Today is day 18. Most hatching info says to adjust humidity for the last 3 days. The RCom instructions say to change humidity and turn off the turner on the end of day 19 - which would be the last 2 days. ???
The RCom users manual actually says both day 19 and the last 3 days, even though it also says 21 days to hatch.
Here's their video. Hatching section is on minute 7.It also recommends hatching humidity to be 65% which is different from what Ron said.@ronott1 @lawatt @Hangtown Farms
For those eggs, day 18 or 19 would be fine. The Dels and Dorks start pipping on day 20 and all of them hatch by day 21 usually. 65 to 75% is good.
