Getting ready to incubate and want to make sure I have all my “chicks” in a row :)

[Irmasmom]

I have neeen scouring the forums for all the good info and found a lot. I am down to my last week and want to make sure I have everything ready to go. I have an incubator and two thermometers with hygrometers to make sure all that is right. I know to turn them 2-3x a day until day 18. I am going to have to figure how to increase humidity but I read you can add sponges? I was thinking cutting up tiny pieces and adding them as it’s only a 10 egg incubator very small. I have separated the hens I want with my rooster. I want to incubate starting next Saturday so I am collecting eggs this week. Marking them with dates as I go. My goal is to incubate the ones closest to Saturday but in case I don’t get enough I will start collection tomorrow. My biggest question is how and where to store them this week. I was thinking my basement which is 65 degrees. Is this too cold? Main house stays around 68. I am going to put in a carton and rotate twice a day. Anything else I need to know??

 

[Pigeony]

You might already know this, but store your eggs in the carton round side up. It keeps the yolk centered and the air cell hopefully intact. 65 or 68 will work for storage temps, won't make much difference. Does your incubator have a water pot to add humidity or are the sponges your only source of humidity? Humidity is decently easy to maintain at 40% without sponges with just the water pot, but that's a good idea for lockdown when you have to push that humidity up to ~60%.

 

[Pigeony]

You might already know this, but store your eggs in the carton round side up. It keeps the yolk centered and the air cell hopefully intact. 65 or 68 will work for storage temps, won't make much difference. Does your incubator have a water pot to add humidity or are the sponges your only source of humidity? Humidity is decently easy to maintain at 40% without sponges with just the water pot, but that's a good idea for lockdown when you have to push that humidity up to ~60%.

If you only have spots for 10 eggs and between now and then you collect more than that, I suggest pre-candling all the eggs to see who looks best. Eggs with significant shell abnormalities, small yolks, detached air cells, strange shape, etc. can be removed from the potentials to make room for the eggs more likely to produce a healthy hatchling.

 

[Irmasmom]

You might already know this, but store your eggs in the carton round side up. It keeps the yolk centered and the air cell hopefully intact. 65 or 68 will work for storage temps, won't make much difference. Does your incubator have a water pot to add humidity or are the sponges your only source of humidity? Humidity is decently easy to maintain at 40% without sponges with just the water pot, but that's a good idea for lockdown when you have to push that humidity up to ~60%.

Thank you! Yes I saw that too! Pointy side down! My incubator has a water spot in the center. Small. When I was testing and checking it does keep it right around 45% but what I read was increasing the amount of water doesn’t increase humidity but increasing surface of water does? So adding sponges would increase the amount of surface area? So that was what I was going for!

 

[Irmasmom]

If you only have spots for 10 eggs and between now and then you collect more than that, I suggest pre-candling all the eggs to see who looks best. Eggs with significant shell abnormalities, small yolks, detached air cells, strange shape, etc. can be removed from the potentials to make room for the eggs more likely to produce a healthy hatchling.

Ok great! Thank you!! I put 10 girls in there with him. Just coincidence on the amount. I just wanted to cross certain breeds. But like today I only got 1 egg!! My girls still aren’t laying the best in our crazy Ohio weather. So I figured I would start tomorrow. I will candle then and check for abnormalities as I go!

 

[hammyanne]

How exciting! I’m on day 10 of my first incubation myself ◡̈ I really don’t have much wisdom to share, mostly wanted to say good luck!

One unexpected thing that I wished I prepared for was a plan for black out! We had super high winds last week that knocked my power out—thankfully only for an hour or so at a time (the eggs are fine!) but I realized I hadn’t planned for that situation. Just something to think about!

 

[Irmasmom]

How exciting! I’m on day 10 of my first incubation myself ◡̈ I really don’t have much wisdom to share, mostly wanted to say good luck!

One unexpected thing that I wished I prepared for was a plan for black out! We had super high winds last week that knocked my power out—thankfully only for an hour or so at a time (the eggs are fine!) but I realized I hadn’t planned for that situation. Just something to think about!

Thank you! Yah, unless I were to be home and lose power I’m not sure I can do anything. I hope that doesn’t happen

 

[Slothinc]

Sounds great! You may want to turn them 3-5 times a day… if they are going to be on their sides, I draw a X on one side and and O on the other to make sure I rotate them a full 180 degrees, and I try to have a different side up each night (when they sit for the longest.) Turning an odd number of times will make it so that one night the X is up and the next night the O is up.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I am going to have to figure how to increase humidity but I read you can add sponges? I was thinking cutting up tiny pieces and adding them as it’s only a 10 egg incubator very small.

Yes, it is exposed surface area. The more wet surface area you have the more water will evaporate and the higher your humidity will be. This may be more important during lockdown than regular incubation.

If you cut the sponge into small pieces and they are submerged they have not increased your surface area. If you lay a sponge flat in there and it is not sticking up you have not increased your surface area. But if you position a sponge, paper towel, or face cloth so it can wick water out of your reservoir you can increase wet surface area. I don't know what yours looks like so I don't have specific suggestions on exactly how to do it. By increasing surface area the water will evaporate faster so keep on top of preventing the reservoir going dry.

I have separated the hens I want with my rooster.

I don't know your specific details. If you have more than one rooster you need to separate them from the one you do not want for about 4 weeks before collecting eggs. The sperm can sometimes last that long.

An egg takes about 25 hours or so to go through the hen's internal egg making factory. It can only be fertilized during the first few minutes of that journey. That means if a mating takes place on a Monday, Monday's egg is not fertile from that mating. It can't be. Tuesday's egg might or might not be, depending in when it is laid and when the mating takes place. I would not count on it. Wednesday's egg should be fertile.

My biggest question is how and where to store them this week. I was thinking my basement which is 65 degrees. Is this too cold? Main house stays around 68. I am going to put in a carton and rotate twice a day. Anything else I need to know??

That should work great. The ideal temperature to store them is around 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Too cold would be around freezing. I store my eggs warmer than that and they do fine.

The higher the humidity the better to reduce moisture loss while saving them for incubation. But you are storing them for less than a week. That will not present any problems for you. To me you are doing better than I do.

 

[Irmasmom]

Sounds great! You may want to turn them 3-5 times a day… if they are going to be on their sides, I draw a X on one side and and O on the other to make sure I rotate them a full 180 degrees, and I try to have a different side up each night (when they sit for the longest.) Turning an old number of times will make it so that one night the X is up and the next night the O is up.

I will try to do it more often but I do work during the day. I will add the X O to help! Good idea!