First time hatching! Egg cartons in Brinsea Maxi II?

[Tooshay89]

First time hatcher here! I currently have two Brinsea Maxi II (one EX model and one Advance) incubators full of chicken eggs. They are currently in cardboard egg cartons because all eggs were shipped (MyPetChicken and Meyer.) Everything is going well so far but I got to thinking... can I really leave these eggs in the egg cartons during the hatch?

The eggs in the carton *almost* touch the top of the incubator. Since I've never done this before, I just wonder if there's enough room for them to get out when theres barely enough room for the eggs in the cartons to begin with. Should I just lay them down at lockdown?

Another question - I've seen several others put something under their incubators in different areas throughout the day to turn the eggs without having to open the incubator. Is that safe to do with these incubators? I've been opening the bator every 7ish hours to turn the eggs by hand, but I'm thinking that's really letting out a lot of heat and humidity each time I have to do that.

 

[Compost King]

to get the eggs lower if that is something you are aiming for, you can cut out the bottom of each egg compartment so the pointy part of the egg touches the floor of the incubator.
I am new to incubating with 2 not very successful hatches so don't do anything I suggest unless an experienced person chimes in and agrees with what I said.

 

[oregonkat]

Did you candle the eggs before putting them in the incubator to assess whether or not you had detached air cells? Not all shipped eggs come with "slippery" air cells.
If you do have detached air cells that would be the only reason to incubate them upright and many people on here do not incubate upright even with detached air cells. You are not going to be able to get these eggs through hatch with that set up. There is not enough room. A few questions:
What day are you on now? When you say everything is going well, does that mean you have candled already?

 

[Tooshay89]

Yes, they were all candled before I put them in. The eggs from my first shipment have saddled air cells and honestly beyond that, I can't really figure out how to tell if they are "detached." A lot of the eggs are hard to see into and I figured that I'd put them in the cartons just in case.

For the first 6 eggs that I received, I'm on day 9. I candled them this morning and it looks like blood rings in 5 out of the 6, with the 6th being questionable, but like I said, I'm not 100% sure what I'm looking for here. I don't see any "movement" or anything.

The second shipment of 18 eggs have only been in the incubator since Wednesday night, so 2 and a half days now. Some of the air cells are funky, but most looked okay upon initial candling when they got here.

 

[oregonkat]

It sounds like you are doing a staggered hatch? Yes? The conversation gets more complicated if you are.

 

[Tooshay89]

No, they're in two separate incubators. One is a Brinsea Maxi II EX and the other is the same, but the Advance model.

 

[oregonkat]

OK, good. I would lay them down and turn them with the turner. The Brinsea's are super gentle I understand so I think you would be OK and it would make more space for everyone.

 

[Tooshay89]

Thanks for the advice! I'm hoping since these eggs have better air cells, I'll have better luck than the first 6 that were shipped to me - 5/6 had blood rings.

 

[oregonkat]

Thanks for the advice! I'm hoping since these eggs have better air cells, I'll have better luck than the first 6 that were shipped to me - 5/6 had blood rings.

Yes, shipped eggs can be a challenge for sure. I usually make sure that the seller is no further than one state away, to reduce the shipping stress. That being said I had one of the worst shipments ever with very expensive broken eggs and then only 1 chick hatched that were shipped from my state. Go figure . Good luck with the hatch. Please post your results.

 

[Tooshay89]

Thanks for all of the advice.

My lone buff orpington egg hatched. Well, kind of. It was stressful! The egg pipped on day 21... and then made no progress whatsoever for over 36 hours. It pipped on the bottom of the egg - and not in the air cell. The chick was very quietly peeping from time to time, less and less toward the end. I felt SO bad, but I didn't want to help a chick hatch that may have issues or die anyway.

After 36 hours and a ton of research on BYC, I decided to put the egg in a warm towel and bring it into the garage where the humidity was 68% and the temp was close to 90 - almost like not leaving the incubator - yay Florida summer? Anyway, I gently peeled away small pieces of the egg shell surrounding the pip so I could get a better look at what was going on in the egg. The poor thing never even pipped into the air cell, and was shrink wrapped. I have NO idea why - unless the brinsea humidity reading was way off (and also the two other calibrated temp/humidity monitors that I had inside the incubator) I can't really figure out another reason. I was actually worried that my humidity was a bit too high (70-80% during lockdown.)

Both layers of membrane weren't attached to the eggshell whatsoever. So it was really easy to pick apart to get to the chick. The blood vessels had dried up so all I really had to do was gently peel off the membrane from the chick and he was free. I worried that because I basically had to hatch him, he wouldn't be strong enough or maybe he was sick or deformed. He couldn't walk or do much right after the hatch - which is normal, but I've never done this before so I was terrified that he was just not meant to hatch. After an hour, he was attempting to stand and walk and by the end of the first day, he was partially fluffy and acting more and more like the chicks (4 days old) that we had in the brooder waiting for him. (When we got down to just one viable egg, we ordered a few day old orpingtons to arrive the same week as the hatch so the lone egg wouldn't be a lone chick, lol.)

He (or she!) is currently almost 2 days old now and doing so well! Who knew? He's smaller than the other chicks because of the slight age difference, but he was well received. I was really worried about the possibility of pecking or bullying, but that hasn't happened. I assume because he was shrink wrapped, that's the reason why he's not quite as fluffy as the other chicks. He's definitely dry, but just a tad awkward looking, lol. The other chicks don't seem to mind, and he's eating, drinking and walking around the brooder like he owns the place, so I'd say he's in good shape! Thanks to everyone for the advice and help during my first hatch!