First time incubating

[Autumn Leaves]

I just put my shipped eggs in my incubator today after allowing them to rest for 24 hours.

I have some Orphingtons from Papa Brooder's Poultry and Australorps from Ebay. My husband took how much I spent on them very well.

If they hatch they should do it on my birthday, Oct 31!

I'm excited and have my fingers crossed.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Good luck with the hatch! Hope you wind up with a lot of chicks for your birthday!

 

[Autumn Leaves]

Lol here comes my first question. I have to hand turn my eggs. Instead of opening the incubator and turning them can I just put a book under one side of the incubator and then move it to the other side?

My eggs are in clean egg cartons inside the incubator with the pointy end down.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Are you going to incubate them in egg cartons the whole time? What kind of incubator do you have? You probably can't lift the ends of most styrofoam incubators enough (and still have them hold water in the wells, temp and be stable etc to give the eggs as much of a turn as you want)... you might consider tipping the egg cartons themselves inside the incubator, I have done that in Hovabators. Some of the plastic ones like Brinseas are made to turn the incubator.

 

[Autumn Leaves]

Thanks! Think Ill stick with the hand turning for now and mix it up next time.

 

[Autumn Leaves]

Yesterday was day 7, I threw out 4 with obvious blood rings. I opened them up and they were scrambled. One had an embryo. I saw 2 that looked like they were developing for sure, the rest I wasn't sure about so I left them in. On Monday I'll do a day 10 candle and see if I can tell who else is gone.

I looked at tons of candling pics trying to make sense of what I was seeing - hope I get a few at lest!

 

[Autumn Leaves]

Decided to candle today at day 9 instead of day 10 due to me being on call tomorrow at work. Threw out one more with a blood ring that I was watching. Put 4 aside in the incubator to watch, they look like duds but I want to give them a chance. I'll be keeping my sniffer ready. I have 20 left with black specks inside. I saw one move

I'm so nervous. I have been weighing them and my humidity has been way low every time. I keep boosting it. I started at 40%, then low 50% now I'm trying to run mid 50s to stop the weight loss.

 

[Autumn Leaves]

Candled today and saw some movement in 6 eggs. I have 17 left and all look good. I'm getting excited.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Congrats that the incubation is going well so far! Sounds like you are going to get a good percentage to lockdown, nice for shipped eggs! Good Luck

 

[PD-Riverman]

Decided to candle today at day 9 instead of day 10 due to me being on call tomorrow at work. Threw out one more with a blood ring that I was watching. Put 4 aside in the incubator to watch, they look like duds but I want to give them a chance. I'll be keeping my sniffer ready. I have 20 left with black specks inside. I saw one move

I'm so nervous. I have been weighing them and my humidity has been way low every time. I keep boosting it. I started at 40%, then low 50% now I'm trying to run mid 50s to stop the weight loss.

Curious Why Candle so much?? I hatch usually 50 to 100 per week and I candle for the first time on day 18---when they are going into lock down/hatcher. I use to candle on day 12 and day 18 when I was using the smaller incubator.