Classroom Incubation--two different sets of eggs with different hatching times??

seberger22

Chirping
May 25, 2017
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The administrative assistant from the school provides the fertilized eggs from his neighbor. He picked some up this morning to set today, and he took some from under a broody hen.
I candled one from under the broody hen and it looked like it could be as far along as day 18 based on the size of the air cell, although i don't have a ton of experience. The other ones are more recently laid and they are definitely on day 1.
I have an automatic egg turner because I can't come to the classroom on nights and weekends.
I just don't see how this will work without crushing the hatching chicks in the egg turner.
Should I send the further progressed ones back? Will the hen even take them back? There are other broody hens in the coop too.

Let me know! I don't want crushed babies in my classroom!! And I want the day 1 eggs to be successful!
Also, it's Wednesday and I'm not even going to be at school this Friday and obviously won't be here this weekend, so if those eggs hatch within the next few days there's not really anything I can do. Stressing!
 
I'd send back the ones that were not day 1. You want a successful hatch and to show the kids the process. That's not going to work out well for you.
Can I leave them in the incubator for the rest of the day so they can go back warm to the hen and just take them out really fast at the end of the day so the temp doesn't go down?
 
Yes, leave them in to keep then warm. But do not get in such a rush that you get careless and break an egg. A broody hen will normally leave the nest every day to eat, drink, and poop. In cold weather that might just be 15 minutes at a time. In hot weather that can be over an hour. In what I think your room temperatures are you have all the time in the world to take care of your business.
 
At that age the chicks inside the eggs are generating a lot of heat on their own. You don't want to expose them to blowing air but as long as you take reasonable precautions it probably won't hurt them unless they are away from the heat for a pretty long tome.

The other issue may be shaking the eggs, especially if the route is on a rough dirt road like mine. As old as you think those are the chick is probably in there too tightly to be harmed by a little shaking, but I'd cushion the eggs so they did not get shaken too badly.
 

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