One of the problems in doing this is that you can get so many different suggestions that you don't know what to do. Part of the reason for that is that different things work for different people, whether they are shipped eggs or eggs you gather from your flock. We are all in our own unique situation. This is just talking about what humidity to use.
Each individual egg can have differences, even if laid by the same hen, let alone the same flock. One may be more porous than another or the white may be thicker, for example. Eggs are stored for different lengths of time at different temperatures, humidities, and even air pressure which affects how much moisture the egg loses before it goes in the incubator. What this means is that there is no one humidity that is perfect for every egg in your incubator. The good news is that there is a fairy wide range of humidity or moisture loss that works, you don't have to hit it perfectly for each egg. What you are looking for is that sweet spot that works for most.
We use different incubators. I'm not just talking about still air versus forced air, the professionals that use incubators that may hold over 100,000 eggs have to recalibrate what humidity is best of they move that incubator to a different spot in the same incubating room. The temperature and humidity of the air going into the incubator from its surroundings makes a difference. Height above sea level (air pressure) can have an effect. The list of things that make each of us unique goes on and on. Add to this with shipped eggs you don't have a handle on how they were managed before you got them.
It sounds really complicated and it can be if we let it. The commercial operators have to let it, just a small difference in hatch rate can mean a lot of chicks over a year. Every hatch they evaluate what happened and tweak it if necessary. We should do the same thing until we find our sweet spot for humidity and other things. Most of us are not constantly hatching so we don't have the history and data they do for their incubators.
My suggestion for us is to pick a humidity and try to be consistent. See what the results are and adjust if you feel the need. It took me a few incubations to determine that my sweet spot was around 39% to 40% during incubation. I have no idea what yours will be but it is likely to be different from mine.
What does all this mean for you? Those eggs came from the hatchery in a good time, I'd assume they are pretty fresh. They are in good condition from your candling. If you are happy with your hatch rate last time treat them the same as last time from this point forward. I don't see any reason to do anything differently. Just because they are "shipped" doesn't tell you anything specific about them that would change any of that, at least not to me.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Each individual egg can have differences, even if laid by the same hen, let alone the same flock. One may be more porous than another or the white may be thicker, for example. Eggs are stored for different lengths of time at different temperatures, humidities, and even air pressure which affects how much moisture the egg loses before it goes in the incubator. What this means is that there is no one humidity that is perfect for every egg in your incubator. The good news is that there is a fairy wide range of humidity or moisture loss that works, you don't have to hit it perfectly for each egg. What you are looking for is that sweet spot that works for most.
We use different incubators. I'm not just talking about still air versus forced air, the professionals that use incubators that may hold over 100,000 eggs have to recalibrate what humidity is best of they move that incubator to a different spot in the same incubating room. The temperature and humidity of the air going into the incubator from its surroundings makes a difference. Height above sea level (air pressure) can have an effect. The list of things that make each of us unique goes on and on. Add to this with shipped eggs you don't have a handle on how they were managed before you got them.
It sounds really complicated and it can be if we let it. The commercial operators have to let it, just a small difference in hatch rate can mean a lot of chicks over a year. Every hatch they evaluate what happened and tweak it if necessary. We should do the same thing until we find our sweet spot for humidity and other things. Most of us are not constantly hatching so we don't have the history and data they do for their incubators.
My suggestion for us is to pick a humidity and try to be consistent. See what the results are and adjust if you feel the need. It took me a few incubations to determine that my sweet spot was around 39% to 40% during incubation. I have no idea what yours will be but it is likely to be different from mine.
What does all this mean for you? Those eggs came from the hatchery in a good time, I'd assume they are pretty fresh. They are in good condition from your candling. If you are happy with your hatch rate last time treat them the same as last time from this point forward. I don't see any reason to do anything differently. Just because they are "shipped" doesn't tell you anything specific about them that would change any of that, at least not to me.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
