Egg Carton Hatching?

[toadbriar]

I have them in the carton, haven't made up my mind whether to lay them down or keep them upright for hatching. Day 16 duck eggs. My brilliant turning invention is a chunk of scrap 2x4 I stick under one end of the carton. I swap it from one end to the other to tip them. Very high tech

 

[arbucklemurphy]

Quote:
I leave them in the turner until the night of day 18 then I up the humidity and move them to the egg carton's

 

[longranger]

My experiences with chicken eggs parallel those of Rebelcowboy. Eggs incubated extra warm and/or dry do better standing up in a crate. They also tend to hatch a little early. The eggs that were incubated at higher humidity and/or slightly cool hatch a little late and do better on their sides.

Am planning to try the same thing with turkey eggs over the next couple of months. Anyone looking for heritage poults, local pickup in southern California, feel free to PM me. Will probably have quite a few to sell starting in 2 or 3 weeks.

 

[mitch324]

I have tried both ways and I have a little more luck with the carton but it may only be luck. It also makes it a little easier to clean up.

 

[Daidohead]

Based on my vast experiance hatching ( just 1 hatch, 7 eggs ) I had mine in cartons and noticed a few things.

Pipping and zipping went very well, all were 1/3 or so down from the top of the egg.

The chicks had a bit of a bad time getting the " lids" off of their heads, the lids just kept falling back down on them.

The chicks toes were at or near the zip line once the lids were out of the way. This meant that they had to completly lift themselfs up to clear the edge of the egg.( Imagine your butt in a barrel and trying to get out on your own ) All of my hatch had problems doing this and I think they spent way more energy than they would have had the eggs been on their sides. I lost one chick after hatch and I think it was plain ole exhaustion that did it.

They spend a lot more time with their butts sitting in the leftover goo ( 2/3rds of an egg makes a good cup ) their repeated attempts to clear the egg let air get to the goo and as it partialy dried gave a couple of them problems, even at 75% humidity.

All of my chicks made a bee line for the flat floor of the incubator, and stayed there until they started exploring.



I have 20 eggs setting in cartons now, 1 week to go. I will be letting them hatch on their sides on the incubator floor because I think the extra energy they use getting out of an upright egg could well be used elsewhere.

 

[1 Florida chick]

I recently hatched 7 eggs and I put them in the carton for the first time. I would recommend doing it. I didn't have any problems and the chicks didn't seem to have any trouble getting out of the egg.

 

[nemisis]

Day 15 incubating, will be doing lock down on day 18, going to try hatching in the cardboard egg cartons, was wondering if putting them on a tilt if they would get out of the egg easier? I would LOVE to see a picture of someone's egg carton prepared for hatching. Can anyone post a picture please?

 

[bigT88]

take out the turner on day 18 and put eggs in cartons with pointy end down. set humidity and do not open incubator

 

[chee65]

My first and only time hatching eggs experience was using the egg carton during lockdown. They were bantam eggs. (were all supposed to be silkies but 1 turned out not to be) The first one to hatch had a hard time getting out of the shell. It was stuck upside down with feet in air. After several hours, I went on this forum to see what to do. Taking the advice I went ahead and helped the little guy who seemed exhausted. We simply and quickly just took him out of the egg carton and the egg shell was almost stuck to him. We were afraid that it had done some damage drying. After a few seconds the shell fell off and the chick was fine.

The only other one that hatched had no problems at all. I have mixed feelings about the carton now. I'm wondering if the fact that these silkie eggs are small made it more difficult for the chick to come out. If the eggs were bigger than maybe it's not a problem. I hope all of this make sense. So I think what I'm going to do this time is cut the egg carton on the bottom a little more so the the carton cup won't be so deep. The chick that hatched out with no problem was bigger than the one that had problems. I sure hope this makes sense.

I am new to this

 

[Cassiejow]

I just built a homemade incubator and am going to attempt hatching using egg cartons. My eggs are being dropped off tomorrow. Really excited to try this out. I'll be using a 2x4 to lift bator. Thought I should lift sides going in a clockwise motion...or should I only go one side and then to opposite side? I'm not going to open my bator except to candle at one week and then again on last turn day. At that point I'm going to take them out of cartons and lay in bator. Thought about grouping eggs inside coffee filters to help with mess and to kind of lean eggs a little so round end was more up.