hatching chicken eggs

[igwe]

“hallo farmers please help me, i have a home made incubator which i use for both setting and hatching.....my problem now is that it has a low hatching space, so i load my eggs at different time intervals to an extent that some eggs will reach the hatching stage when some will still be at the setting phase and some i would have setted them the day some would be hatching...now i undrstand that eggs need about 80% humidity when hatching whilst some on setter phase needs about 50-60 % humidity,so my problem is how do i balance the two so that when i switch the hatcher button on my incubator to cater for those in the hatching phase not to kill or drown other embryos still in the developing stage please help am stuck”

 

[AmyLynn2374]

“hallo farmers please help me, i have a home made incubator which i use for both setting and hatching.....my problem now is that it has a low hatching space, so i load my eggs at different time intervals to an extent that some eggs will reach the hatching stage when some will still be at the setting phase and some i would have setted them the day some would be hatching...now i undrstand that eggs need about 80% humidity when hatching whilst some on setter phase needs about 50-60 % humidity,so my problem is how do i balance the two so that when i switch the hatcher button on my incubator to cater for those in the hatching phase not to kill or drown other embryos still in the developing stage please help am stuck”

Make a second bator for a hatcher?

First I strongly feel 50-60 for the first 17 days (unless you are high altitude) is way too high. And you don't quite need 80% for hatch.
I run 70-75% for hatch because I am hands on, but if you are hands off you could actually hatch at 65% w/o a problem.
This is the problem with staggered hatches. You can't provide the optimal conditions for all your eggs.

You can wait until you get the first pip before raising the humidity, that allows the others to stay where they need to until it is neccessary to raise it. Then after the chicks hatch from that batch lower it and check air cells in the others to make sure they loose enough moisture before their "lockdown".

Or you use a second bator as a hatcher and pull them for lockdown and put them in there to hatch.

 

[beetandsteet]

Make a second bator for a hatcher?

First I strongly feel 50-60 for the first 17 days (unless you are high altitude) is way too high. And you don't quite need 80% for hatch.
I run 70-75% for hatch because I am hands on, but if you are hands off you could actually hatch at 65% w/o a problem.
This is the problem with staggered hatches. You can't provide the optimal conditions for all your eggs.

You can wait until you get the first pip before raising the humidity, that allows the others to stay where they need to until it is neccessary to raise it. Then after the chicks hatch from that batch lower it and check air cells in the others to make sure they loose enough moisture before their "lockdown".

Or you use a second bator as a hatcher and pull them for lockdown and put them in there to hatch.

x2
I would say hatch at the lowest humidity possible, say 65% like Amy said. Also, make sure the newly hatched chicks don't mess with your other eggs or get them dirty. In the future, you will want to have a second incubator as a hatcher if you're planning on doing staggered hatches. Hope this hatch turns out well!