Hatching upright in the Brinsea octagon

[BlacksheepCardigans]

I just finished a small but precious hatch in my Eco, and wanted to try the "egg carton" method in the incubator. I didn't want to use egg cartons, though, because I worried about changing the humidity or offgassing. So based on an offhand mention in one of the threads here, I just kept them in the metal rails.

On day 18 I filled the wells and put in two new sponges. I candled from the top (just put the flashlight on each egg as they were standing there) and swiveled eggs so the larger end of the air sack faced forward.

It worked BEAUTIFULLY. They all pipped right where they were supposed to (the bottom of the large end of the air sack), so I didn't have any freak-outs about whether an egg was pipping from the bottom. They all zipped really fast. They'd pop the top of the egg, and then jump out over the rail into an empty slot. They didn't knock the other eggs around and I could watch the progress of each one. Every six hours I'd grab whatever babies were ready and put them in the brooder and add more hot water to the sponges. I never lost humidity.

Nothing like getting an 8/8 hatch of fat vigorous babies on BLRWs to convince you that a method is worth it!

 

[BHep]

Congrats on the babies................
I have the same incubator. I am on round 2. Round 1 I just took the rails out and layed the eggs down and you know....the other chicks played football with them. I could not see a thing. What a pain in the butt. I am going with your idea this time. Hatch day is New Years.

 

[gryeyes]

Hmmm. Hmmmmm. Good idea! I may try that too! Thanks for the report on effectiveness.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Could you explain a little more? How were they sitting before you moved them? When you moved them you faced the large end forward, like toward you? If you have pics that'd be great!

 

[BlacksheepCardigans]

They were always sitting large-end up. What I mean by moving the large side toward me is that the air cell is never straight across the top. It's always slanted down toward one side of the egg. If you candle the egg from the top you can see which side the air cell slants toward. The side where the air cell is larger is almost always where they pip. Swivel the egg around (leaving it standing up on its small end) so that large side of the air cell is toward you, and you'll be able to see it pip really easily. If you got it wrong, you can just look at it from the other side, of course.

I don't have pics of what I did - just imagine a Brinsea with the rails still in and the eggs standing up

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