here's a tricky incubation question for ya!

[fallenweeble]

well, here's the good news first - i have signs of life in BOTH bators!
yea me.
i candled tonight and i have many viable eggs in both bators. i thought for sure my LG was just cooking a bunch of eggs but . . . nope, i've got live eggs in there.

i got several eggs from SnM poultry on one of my visits there a few weeks ago. J. had some eggs that he gave me for free, just to see what would happen. well, i put them into the LG along with some of my own and, dang! those eggs are pretty well developed at this point. it looks like they had started incubation BEFORE i got them. i didn't realize this. and the really trippy thing is that i kept them OUT of the incubator for a few days, assuming i had a little time to get the bator adjusted before i started them. YIKES.
The other eggs look normal for 7 - 10 day development with little pulsing blobs and veins and such but J.s eggs have a pretty big embryo growing and air pockets at the ends.

um. what do i do? i have the automatic turner in there and everything. i have a feeling these eggs will pip ALOT sooner than the rest. do i take the turner out and turn by hand? how do i know when to stop turning J.'s eggs?

eeeeek! it's a good problem . . . but still a problem

 

[TheMartianChick]

I don't know the answer to this question since I have never used an incubator... But I will bump this up in the hopes that you get an answer!

 

[ZuniBee]

if you set all the eggs at the same time I would leave the turner in until day eighteen. They shouldn't hatch before that and if they do you can remove the turner then.

 

[BamaChicken]

Use one bator for a hatcher and one for a bator. You will need to up the humidity after 18 days for the early birds. What has your humidity been running.

 

[Wildsky]

Perhaps you can make a guess as to how far along those eggs are by looking at pic's of candled eggs on the internet - I know someone here posted a link a long time ago with pictures almost day by day.

And then yes, try to separate the eggs - put the further developed ones in one bator and the rest that are one the same day in the other.

GOod luck - sounds exciting but a little scary!

 

[ksacres]

Quote:
I agree, if all the eggs were put into the incubator on the SAME DAY, they should continue to be incubated together. Some eggs invariably look further developed than others, when in fact, they aren't.

 

[peepsnbunnies]

I have 2 bators, LG's, one I use for incubating and it has a turner. The other I use for hatching, it does not have a turner. On day 18 I move the eggs there to rest and hatch. I always mark my eggs with the day they should hatch so I do not get mixed up on which ones to put to rest and hatch. This way I can keep eggs in the incubator of different ages and it does not matter. I also keep a log book as to what kind of egg they are, what day I start incubating, when I should put them to rest and what day they should hatch. After they hatch, I log how many hatched, how many were clear, and if any partially developed or fully developed and did not pip. I found that this helps me a lot because I have difficulty remembering and I have a pretty busy schedule so this helps me keep things on track and I don't forget things. Hope this helps.

Lisa

 

[Henrietta23]

Don't know the answer but I'm happy to bump since I'm very eggcited that your own eggs are developing!!!!