Day #19 Egg Carton Container or Free To Roll Around???

[Hen House 60]

I am on day #19. I have had all the eggs in the carton with the bottoms cut out. Should I just leave them the way they are or should I take them out of the carton? I am not sure if its OK to take them out and let them lay in the incubator on their sides at this point.
Thanks for the help. I am so excited and I don't want to mess up now. This is my 1st experience.

 

[Katy]

I hatch mine in the carton. I've had better luck doing it that way.

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Me too - good luck!!

 

[Hen House 60]

OK Thanks, It just does not look like they will have enough room or the energy to climb over the other eggs. I have the cartons full, should I seperate them a little. Like 6 or 8 to the carton instead of all 12?

 

[twigg]

Search this Forum for *egg carton*.

The hatch people just watched was 100%, all entirely free to roll around.

 

[BawGock]

I used a paper egg carton and it made cleaning up easier, too.
I only had one carton and the chicks would climb over and couple times I found chicks sleeping in the carton with their bottoms in the cups!

Good luck on your hatch!
Carolyn

 

[EweSheep]

Quote:
Yep same here and I have not yet lost a chick hung up in the egg carton. If egg carton bothers you, use the lid part.

 

[sara]

I've been using a carton too. I want to set a big hatch, and go 50% in the carton, and 50% on their sides and see what happens.

 

[twigg]

Quote:
This will not tell you whether or not the cartons make a difference.

You will have no way of knowing if the temp and humidity experienced by the eggs is the same on both sides, and the samplle will likely be too small to be worthwhile.

Reading these threads, and incubating myself tells me that it is quite easy to achieve very close to 100% hatch rates without cartons, and with modest equipment.

If you are consistently managing this, over a period of time you might then see if using cartons reduces your hatch rate. On the other hand, if you are getting high success rates, then you might decide not to change a winning fomula.