Hatching chicks in egg cartons.

[Marynnaaa]

Hi I was wondering if I could keep my silkie chick eggs upside down in an egg carton throughout the whole incubation process not just the last 3 days. And would i have to flip them or just tilt them in the carton. In the carton will they still rotate up towards the air cell, or will them staying upside down cause problems.

 

[AlleysChicks]

?? Fat end up. Tilting is ok. Stick something under one end of the carton. They need tilted at least 3x a day. Also I read somewhere that you should create a hole in the bottom of each carton under the eggs for better air flow. Seemed to work for me.

I will always lay my eggs on their side for lockdown because I lost several chicks by attempting to hatch in a egg carton.

 

[red horse ranch]

I tried using egg cartons a few times for hatching and the chicks seemed to have a hard time getting out of the shell. One chick stuck to the carton as it was unzipping and died before I discovered the problem. I don't recommend using the egg cartons for hatching chicken eggs.

 

[chickencheeper]

I don’t have experience with hatching eggs but maybe keep them in a carton for the first 18-20 days until a couple days before hatching to prevent the problem that @red horse ranch was having

 

[Ausdotte]

Be careful about putting solid objects, like cartons, in your incubator which will disrupt the air flow. I put a container in mine to separate the different sort of chicks and it caused it to get too hot and killed most of them.