First time with an incubator lent to us by a friend

[MeyerRay]

Hello everyone,

We have decided to try to incubate a batch of 14 chicken eggs in an incubator lent to us by a friend. It is a Romanian incubator with a capacity for 82 eggs, although we are only trying with 14.

Our friend (who has hatched literally thousands of chicks using this and other incubators) told us to incubate at 37.3 degrees celcius. Using our thermometers inserted in the incubator, they read a couple of degrees higher than the digital incubator's thermometer.

Looking online, the incubator instructs to incubate at 38 plus or minus 1 degree, but they say not to turn the eggs for the first 3 days of incubation. Reading here it seems we should turn until the 18th day? Also, our turner is manual and goes from inclined left to inclined right. We aren't home during the day, could we turn early morning, around 7PM and around 10PM?

Online the incubator's instructions promise 60% hatch rate, does that mean we will likely lose 40% of our eggs? Is this standard?

Thank you all for any advice and wish us luck,

Meyer

 

[nchls school]

Looking online, the incubator instructs to incubate at 38 plus or minus 1 degree, but they say not to turn the eggs for the first 3 days of incubation. Reading here it seems we should turn until the 18th day? Also, our turner is manual and goes from inclined left to inclined right. We aren't home during the day, could we turn early morning, around 7PM and around 10PM? If you have ever watched a broody hen you'd see them turn the eggs(every day) right up to hatching. As for turning that's up to you. 3 times a day; whether the eggs are turned at night or during the day does not matter.

Online the incubator's instructions promise 60% hatch rate, does that mean we will likely lose 40% of our eggs? Is this standard?Yes, but it is only an estimate. One time evrything
might hatch and the next time, maybe, nothing hatches.

Thank you all for any advice and wish us luck, Good luck.

Meyer[/QUOTE]

 

[aart]

Have you tested your thermometers?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...incubator-thermometers-and-hygrometers.73634/

 

[MeyerRay]

Have you tested your thermometers?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...incubator-thermometers-and-hygrometers.73634/

We used 3 different thermometers, including the one we use to measure our temperature in case of a fever.

 

[MeyerRay]

Thank you!

Looking online, the incubator instructs to incubate at 38 plus or minus 1 degree, but they say not to turn the eggs for the first 3 days of incubation. Reading here it seems we should turn until the 18th day? Also, our turner is manual and goes from inclined left to inclined right. We aren't home during the day, could we turn early morning, around 7PM and around 10PM? If you have ever watched a broody hen you'd see them turn the eggs(every day) right up to hatching. As for turning that's up to you. 3 times a day; whether the eggs are turned at night or during the day does not matter.

Online the incubator's instructions promise 60% hatch rate, does that mean we will likely lose 40% of our eggs? Is this standard?Yes, but it is only an estimate. One time evrything
might hatch and the next time, maybe, nothing hatches.

Thank you all for any advice and wish us luck, Good luck.

Meyer

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