first time bator answers please

[in town chicken farmer]

my hovabator 1602 w / 1611 egg turner is on its way i have 40 + eggs on the way as well i plan to keep the bator in my dinning room temp stays around 68dgs i understand that it takes 21 days for incubation to be compleate on day 18 i remove the egg turner and i dont want to open till 24hrs after the first hatch but what i dont understand is how old should the eggs be how old is too old iknow i need to keep them @ room temp and they should be point down i know that the ones coming in the mail need to settle but for how long what humidity should i start w / and at what temp

 

[peaceful]

The eggs should be as fresh as possible and preferably not older than a week or maybe ten days.
Let them reach room temperature and then you can put them in the incubator if the incubator is ready.
It's good to have run the incubator first for at least a half a day or longer so that it is working properly. (I also found mine needed (needs?) to off-gas from the new materials. Trying it anyway)
Humidity ideas vary. Right now I have the same incubator with no water in it which is reading humidity levels in the 50s. I live near a lake. If you live in a dry area and you have the thermal air put water in trough T until the last days near hatching.
The instructions say start temp at 100, and that is where I am starting. Too high can damage the growing chicks especially the females.

 

[KattyKillFish]

when i get eggs in the mail i wait 8-10 hours and get a good hatch rate (with the ones that don't get scrambled during shipping) many people wait 12-24 hours, and i think i should start doing that. but yeah room temp, pointy end down. sounds like you know what to do but just nervous about the 1st hatch! good luck!

 

[in town chicken farmer]

i have 2 55gal tanks in the room where it will be so it should be somewhat humid in the room so i will need less water then?

 

[KattyKillFish]

not sure. i have my incubator in the laundry room and it's pretty dry in there. the humidity stays very stable at 40-42%. the room temp down there is about 55-60 degrees F and the temp inside the incubator hovers around 99.5-100.2

it might help to keep a little sponge in the dish inside the incubator too if you cant get the humidity up.

 

[peaceful]

I would say yes, less water, maybe no water for now. The instructions say that you may not need any water in the unit at all until the last 2 or 3 days before hatching, depending on the air where you are, and to err on the side of less humidity if in doubt.
Try to imagine the climate under a hen and compare you incubator to that.
I started with water in the incubator but found it too humid. Now I have no water in there. I bought a hydrometer from a pet store just to watch the humidity levels, and mine are reasonably high considering there is no added water in the incubator (in the 50s). I've read a lot about humidity and there doesn't seem to be agreement. Check out the Learning Center, in the How To Pages..."Dry incubation".

 

[in town chicken farmer]

thank's for the quick feed back i love the BYC!!!

 

[peaceful]

Just saw this in another post and thought it might be helpful about shipped eggs:
Jamie 821 wrote in the topic "Ventilation is the key not humidity!" p. 10:
"I have over 200 eggs in incubating at any given time and I run from 95 to 100% hatch rate. I run a average of 90% hatch rate on shipped eggs. I believe the biggest prob with shipped eggs is the post office and the pressure in flying. If you get shipped eggs let them settle for no less then 24 hours. There is a good chance you will have floating air sacs. YOU can hatch these maybe not everyone but the trick is let them settle for 24 hours and do not hatch them laying on there sides. Hatch all shipped eggs in egg cartons keeps the airsac where it belongs and you stand a better chance of the hatching without drowning. The big hatcheries that are located at higher elevation thus thinner air all have oxygen blown in the incubating and hatching room. This is needed as the embryos the further developed they are the more oxygen they need. "
Best of luck