Eggs put into the incubator on different days

[MeyerRay]

This is our first time trying with an incubator. We collected eggs for about 5 days and had 17,but only 5 or 6 were of the breed my husband wanted. I convinced him to be ok with that for a first experience, but about 4 or so days later he decided to put in the new eggs from those hens after seeing a video on youtube by some guy who had eggs of varying stages in the same incubator (this guy had a super advanced setup with drawers and several incubators etc)
Regardless of what would have been best, we now have eggs on their day 8 and day 4,any advice on how to proceed?
Also I candled 2 of the 8 day eggs today, they both have veining, a developed air sac and we saw a moving embryo in one. I was worried about opening the incubator too many times or for too long, do we have to candle all of them or is a 2 egg sample ok?

As always thanks in advance for all of your help and advice!
Meyer

 

[ChickenCanoe]

This is doable.
Just incubate (proper temp, humidity, ventilarion and turning) for all the eggs as recommended.
When you lock down the incubator and raise humidity for the first eggs, the later eggs will just not get turned which isn't a real problem late in incubation.
Humidity isn't a set number and can vary dramatically during incubation, even in nature. What you are trying to achieve is a proper weight loss.

 

[MeyerRay]

Thanks! This is reassuring.

Do we needto candle all of the eggs that are past their 7th day? How long is it safe to keep the incubator open, or how many times can we consecutively open to take an egg to candle?

 

[Mosey2003]

While it's not optimum to stagger a hatch (that's what this is called, a staggered hatch) in just one incubator, 4 days should be enough. You'll take the turner out when the older ones are on day 18, if you're using a mechanical turner. Eggs technically can stop being turned after day 12.
Personally, I would try to make a divider so that the younger eggs don't get knocked around when the older ones hatch. You can fashion a sort of basket out of hardware cloth and put it over the younger ones, or get some plastic canvas from the hobby store and make an H configuration, holding it together with zip ties, to split the incubator in half (I plan to do this someday).
At least mark the younger ones so you'll know you aren't waiting on them to hatch with the older ones.
Myself, I only candle on day 18 and remove the clears/quitters then.
Try to be quick about removing the hatched chicks so that you don't lose all your humidity for the younger ones.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Thanks! This is reassuring.

Do we needto candle all of the eggs that are past their 7th day? How long is it safe to keep the incubator open, or how many times can we consecutively open to take an egg to candle?

Keep in mind that a hen comes off the nest once every day or so. Depending on ambient temperature that may be 20 minutes or 2 hours.
So I equate opening the incubator for candling to the hen coming off the nest. It takes a bit for the internal egg temperature to drop.
I rarely candle though. I know many people do that to track air cell size. I do weigh my eggs because I don't have a hygrometer I trust. Rather than checking air cell, I determine proper weight loss. I think that is more accurate.
I will candle after about 10 days to remove clears and then again when I transfer to the hatcher.
When I candle, I put all the eggs in an egg tray, carry them into a closet and candle in the absolute dark. All the while the incubator is closed to retain heat. After I finish a tray, they go back in for the next batch.

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

I have a bunch of eggs in varying stages and they turned out fine.

 

[MeyerRay]

We did mark the younger ones, and i candled the day 9 eggs, only one was clear so we are pretty excited.
Thanks for the advice on protecting the younger eggs during hatching, we will figure out how to divide the incubator this weekend
!