Hatching in egg cartons?

[Fourgirlsoneboy]

Monday I go on lockdown. I am thinking about hatching them in a carton (yk, lid off). Can you give me the pros/cons?

 

[Paganbird]

Read the thread:
Day 22, Peeping, no Pips
There's some pros/cons listed

 

[Katy]

Since I started hatching that way (about 2 years ago) my hatch rate has improved a lot.

 

[Wynette]

My hatches improved when I began hatching in cartons, too.

 

[Fourgirlsoneboy]

Alright! Thanks all- I will

 

[FenDruadin]

I've only hatched twice now, once without a carton, once with. And I must say, I will never go without again--it was great. Advantages included:

Easy to position the eggs so that you can see them well, and they stay there because the hatchlings don't push them around.

Hatchlings don't push them around, potentially compromising their ability to hatch.

It took mine longer to get the "lid" off the top, and then to actually get out of the bottom portion of the egg. At first, I was worried because it was taking so long and looked like so much work. But it ended up being a really good thing, because by the time each hatchling worked its way against gravity up & out of the egg, it was much stronger and didn't spend its first 15 minutes thrashing wildly around the incubator, knocking things over and potentially hurting itself.

It was neater.

Also, here is something I did that I've not heard other people doing (though perhaps they do), and that I highly recommend. I kept track of the air cell by penciling it in at each candling. You really only need it penciled at the last candling for this to work though. In all 9 of the eggs that pipped in this last hatch, every single one of them pipped in the same position relative to the air cell. As a result, if you can "see" where the air cell is (because you penciled it), you can position the eggs so that you will be able to see every single pip (instead of some of them happening behind the egg relative to your viewing windows). All nine of mine pipped at the left edge of the air cell, about halfway between top and bottom. When they zipped, they all zipped approximately around the edge of the air cell moving right until the hit the right edge, at which point they began pushing.

Knowing this, I will now work hard to place every single egg where the left side of the air cell is clearly visible through the viewing windows.

Of course, it only works if you're hatching in cartons, because as soon as the first baby comes out, he/she is going to push the other eggs to kingdom come if they're just loose in there.

Good luck!