Harris Farms Nurture Right 360 Incubator is AMAZING!

[Pullety]

Wow, super helpful! Thank you so much for your generosity in helping a newby.

P.S. Manna Pro should hire you as their spokesperson or their point person for customer service. I bought this incubator because of you!

 

[Parront]

P.S. Manna Pro should hire you as their spokesperson or their point person for customer service. I bought this incubator because of you!

X's 2! This thread made me go & get one! Now look!

 

[jlwquilter]

I wipe down all the eggs with super diluted beach water - 1 or 2 drops in a 1/2 cup of water or so. I dampen a paper towel with the solution and gently wipe the ALL the eggs. I was given this instruction by a person I know that hatches 100s of eggs continuously, doing so for many years. That said I do not know her hatch rate success. She also uses several incubators - mostly Brinseas. She loads those incubators up too! WAY more eggs than the amount your ‘supposed’ to. I haven’t seen her hatch out so no idea how she handles that.
I hand turned the extra eggs maybe 4 times a day. Randomly as I walked by the table the incubator was on. Maybe you can do a turn when your child is napping or before bed or watching a cartoon elsewhere...? Just a few times a day worked for me so far. I did mark the extra eggs using a pencil in the middle of the egg. I used this mark to gauge if the egg had turned with the turner and also to gauge hand turning amounts. I did random turn directions and amounts.

 

[jlwquilter]

For staggered hatching using ‘extra’ eggs Pullety would still have to commit to hand turning the extra eggs for at least the 15 days - until taking the turner out, right?

 

[CluckNDoodle]

P.S. Manna Pro should hire you as their spokesperson or their point person for customer service. I bought this incubator because of you!

lol!!! Hear that Manna Pro person! We need to talk.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

For staggered hatching using ‘extra’ eggs Pullety would still have to commit to hand turning the extra eggs for at least the 15 days - until taking the turner out, right?

Ok, the staggered hatch I was suggesting so they wouldn't need to stack a bunch of eggs on top of the automatic turner and just use it as suggested.
The scenario would go something like this:
- You have 30 eggs, only 22 fit in the turner, so you put 8 eggs to the side, not in the incubator.
- Let's say on day 5 you candle and remove the clears (non-developing eggs) and replace them with the eggs you set to the side. (we're going to pretend it was exactly 8 eggs for the sake of this example, lol)
- Mark the 8 eggs so you know which ones were set later, with the date or a smiley face or something.
- When day 18 rolls around for the eggs that were initially set, the other 8 eggs will be on day 13.
- You would remove the turner so the initial chicks can stop turning and get into postion for hatch and hand turn the other 8 eggs about 3 times a day for 2 more days.
- At this point, you can stop turning, your first batch of eggs would be on day 20 and your second batch is on day 15, safe to stop turning all and you're sure to start seeing pips from the first batch soon!

I hope that helps to better explain.

 

[Pullety]

I wipe down all the eggs with super diluted beach water - 1 or 2 drops in a 1/2 cup of water or so. I dampen a paper towel with the solution and gently wipe the ALL the eggs. I was given this instruction by a person I know that hatches 100s of eggs continuously, doing so for many years. That said I do not know her hatch rate success. She also uses several incubators - mostly Brinseas. She loads those incubators up too! WAY more eggs than the amount your ‘supposed’ to. I haven’t seen her hatch out so no idea how she handles that.
I hand turned the extra eggs maybe 4 times a day. Randomly as I walked by the table the incubator was on. Maybe you can do a turn when your child is napping or before bed or watching a cartoon elsewhere...? Just a few times a day worked for me so far. I did mark the extra eggs using a pencil in the middle of the egg. I used this mark to gauge if the egg had turned with the turner and also to gauge hand turning amounts. I did random turn directions and amounts.

Okay, yes, I think what I’m going to do is enlist my boy to help and then “lock” the incubator. I’ve stuck two hooks on each side of top and bottom opposing each other and will wrap twist ties around them.

I wish my kid napped or went to sleep early!! I’m an old lady because of lack of sleep! He likes eggs and chickens more than cartoons, which I like about him, but in this case it makes it a bit tricky.

 

[Pullety]

Ok, the staggered hatch I was suggesting so they wouldn't need to stack a bunch of eggs on top of the automatic turner and just use it as suggested.
The scenario would go something like this:
- You have 30 eggs, only 22 fit in the turner, so you put 8 eggs to the side, not in the incubator.
- Let's say on day 5 you candle and remove the clears (non-developing eggs) and replace them with the eggs you set to the side. (we're going to pretend it was exactly 8 eggs for the sake of this example, lol)
- Mark the 8 eggs so you know which ones were set later, with the date or a smiley face or something.
- When day 18 rolls around for the eggs that were initially set, the other 8 eggs will be on day 13.
- You would remove the turner so the initial chicks can stop turning and get into postion for hatch and hand turn the other 8 eggs about 3 times a day for 2 more days.
- At this point, you can stop turning, your first batch of eggs would be on day 20 and your second batch is on day 15, safe to stop turning all and you're sure to start seeing pips from the first batch soon!

I hope that helps to better explain.

Yes that helps a lot; thank you. I’m assuming after I got all the first round chicks out then I would assess air cells and adjust humidity accordingly?

 

[Pullety]

More questions about which eggs to (not) choose:

I candled all the eggs. One has a big blood spot. Does that matter?

One has hairline crack only visible with candling. It’s from a breed I really want! But I do have three others.

A few are smaller than the rest. Does that predict the size of egg I would get from the chick that hatches? Weirdly, the jersey giants are smaller than the 5 other breeds. Thought they were extra large.

Bonus question:
I saw no air cells. I assume that’s cause they’re fresh (1-4 days old), not cause I’m not candling properly? My flashlight is high lumen. I could see the yolks move in some of the maran eggs.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Yes that helps a lot; thank you. I’m assuming after I got all the first round chicks out then I would assess air cells and adjust humidity accordingly?

Yes, correct. You can wait to increase humidity until day 19 or 20 for the first round too. The only reason they say to do everything on day 18 is to help those that are new to hatching. It's easier to explain if you say lockdown in general requires that you stop turning the eggs and increase humidity at the same time but the increase in humidity is only actually important for once the chicks make external pips and keeping the exposed membrane moist for an easy hatch.