Hatching eggs out side an incubator?

[Sylviaanne]

I have 28 guinea and 9 chicken eggs in a fan incubator on an egg turner. I didn't realize there were different lengths of hatching time when I put them on together. Today is day 18, lockdown day for the chicken eggs. I have read about eggs hatching on the egg turner but would rather not do that. I have 2 options:

1. I have more eggs in my still air incubator that I am not using an egg turner in. They have been in the incubator 3 days. If I put the chicken eggs in with these, will the hatching chicks do them any damage?

2. I have no more incubators but I have read where someone tried putting the eggs on a towel in a box under a heat lamp. I could try this. I could put a jar with a sponge in it for the humidity and I have one of those temp/humidity meters that I could monitor with.

If anyone has any other suggestions I'm willing to listen. Thanks, Sylvia

 

[angeleyes18265]

Hi.. I stagger hatch all the time I have had no issue with the hatched chicks causing damage to the unhatch. I get better hatches out of staggered hatched then I do when I put them all in there at the same time. I also have had different eggs with different temps geese/chickens and I have had a 1 for 1 hatch on the geese and I have had a 90% hatch in the chickens. Most of them were 3 to 5 day quitters.

I would however not suggest the outside the bator hatch. I have never heard anything good about this. The humidity cant stay stable. Hoping it all works out for you.

 

[missnu01]

Does the really high humidity created when the eggs hatch not do damage to the unhatched chicks?

 

[angeleyes18265]

Does the really high humidity created when the eggs hatch not do damage to the unhatched chicks?

Not that I have experienced. Others will tell you differently. But again I havent had any issues with having higher humidity for the unhatched chicks. They have hatched with no issues. I didnt get the sticky chick issue that some people get with staggered hatches. Buuuut I have a homemade bator that I have dialed in perfectly.

 

[missnu01]

Hmm. Haven't ever done it.

 

[Rocky Rhodes]

Does the really high humidity created when the eggs hatch not do damage to the unhatched chicks?

If you keep the humidity in the hatcher around 60% you shouldn't have a problem, when an egg hatches it usually jumps to about 75%. If you keep the humidity too, high it can spike enough to drown a chick in the egg. In my experience 60% is the magic number.

 

[Sylviaanne]

If you keep the humidity in the hatcher around 60% you shouldn't have a problem, when an egg hatches it usually jumps to about 75%. If you keep the humidity too, high it can spike enough to drown a chick in the egg. In my experience 60% is the magic number.

Ok, I will leave them in there but what about the egg turner? Would it be safe to turn it off until the 9 eggs hatch? Safe for the guinea eggs, I mean? Lock down is soon, in the next couple of hours.

What happens when the chicks start to hatch and the humidity goes up because they are hatching? I have a Little Giant and this one has a fan as well as I added the egg turner. Sylvia

 

[Egghead_Jr]

You should be able to disconnect the rails from the auto turner. You could then have space to place the chicken eggs on there side and still have the guinea eggs turning in the rails you keep in.

The only thing that happens to incubating eggs with high humidity is they stop evaporating water. The air sac at top of egg stops growing. It will be fine for that to happen for the three days you'll be running 60% for hatching the chicken eggs. You can always run the incubator dry for a few days after the hatch to compensate if you feel the need after candling after the chicken hatch.

 

[Rocky Rhodes]

Ok, I will leave them in there but what about the egg turner? Would it be safe to turn it off until the 9 eggs hatch? Safe for the guinea eggs, I mean? Lock down is soon, in the next couple of hours.

What happens when the chicks start to hatch and the humidity goes up because they are hatching? I have a Little Giant and this one has a fan as well as I added the egg turner. Sylvia

I have two little giant incubators, and I use one for a hatching box. I have never had a staggered hatch in just one incubator. When the humidity gets too high I remove one of the plugs until it is back to around 60%. It sounds like Egghead_Jr has some good advice for your situation. Keep us posted.

 

[Sylviaanne]

You should be able to disconnect the rails from the auto turner. You could then have space to place the chicken eggs on there side and still have the guinea eggs turning in the rails you keep in.

The only thing that happens to incubating eggs with high humidity is they stop evaporating water. The air sac at top of egg stops growing. It will be fine for that to happen for the three days you'll be running 60% for hatching the chicken eggs. You can always run the incubator dry for a few days after the hatch to compensate if you feel the need after candling after the chicken hatch.

Ok, what happened is this: There were 2 eggs stuck to the rails and I couldn't get the rails apart without being afraid I'd break a bunch of eggs. Then, night before last, I was candling the guinea eggs and dropped one of the chicken eggs, it couldn't have been more than a quarter inch fall and the thing simply exploded. It made such a mess that we had to take the turner out and wash everything. My husband cleaned the bator while I cleaned the turner and eggs. It was hot in the rooms we were working in but still cooler than the bator, we worked as fast as we could to limit the effects of cooling on the eggs but the upshot is I couldn't get the rails apart with the eggs on it and when I took the eggs off to wash them, I still couldn't get it apart without breaking it. The instructions say it should come apart. I am running the incubators dry, the humidity is so high that some days it reaches 53% but it has been running steady at 43% for about a week now. The rain has stopped. Knock on wood!