How long should I wait to incubate?

[jeremy]

I received a dozen hatching eggs yesterday from Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain, Delawares. I'm waiting on another dozen to be shipped to me from Oklahoma but they are still in transit.

I really don't want to have to do a staggered hatch, doing a normal one is enough stress! My question is how long should/can I wait before I must put the first shipment of eggs into the incubator? Does fertility decrease every day? Or on the flip side, is it really that hard to do a staggered hatch?

Thanks to those with some experience with these matters.

 

[Mahonri]

If you only have one bator. WAIT.

I'd wait 2 days at the most.

Then if the others arrive late, you could put them in with the others while you buy a new bator.

 

[jeremy]

I'm worried that the eggs aren't going to be here until next Monday, maybe even Tuesday. If they haven't shipped out today then I don't know if the postal service is going to process everything over the weekend...

Mahonri, have you seen this ?

 

[kid-n-chickens]

Find out from the lady you bought the eggs from that you have when they was laid fertility starts decreasing after 7-10days. If you only have one incubator I would stretch it out as long as possible. It is almost impossible to do a staggard hatch b/c one set or the other would have to go into lock down early or late.

 

[dak]

Buy a second incubator for hatching! This situation WILL happen again

 

[arabianequine]

I heard 3-7 days at the most.

Good luck!

 

[Kiwibird]

With holding eggs a bit long before you start to incubate, the things that go wrong do so early - the eggs don't start developing or don't get far along. With a staggered hatch, things go wrong late - shrink wrapped chicks and the like in the second hatch. I find losing chicks late (especially after they pip) seems to upset people more, so factor that in.

I have done a three part staggered hatch. I had to help chicks in the second and third hatch, and I lost chicks in the third hatch. Two were dead in shell in the second hatch but they were the wrong way around (breech) so I am not putting that down to the staggered hatch. The second hatch happened when the weather was evenly warm and evenly humid, so nature was helping out with the things that can go wrong in a staggered hatch. The third hatch happened in drier weather with warm days and much colder nights (we even had a frost two months before we would normally expect one!).

So if you decide to do a staggered hatch (and I have decided not to go there again) do everything you can to keep room temperature stable and warm, and room humidity stable and high. Steam up the room if you have to open the incubator during either the first or second lockdown.