How much of a science can it really be?

[Tony101775]

Hi all

I have 18 eggs in my incubator and as usual I most likely jumped the gun a little.
I really should research things better before i put my foot in it all the time.

On Friday the 23rd of Sept I received a dozen blue skyline eggs and carefully placed them in my manual incubator.
I have been turning them gently as often as i can.

On Friday the 30th of September I added 6 duck eggs.
I have been turning these also.

Now, is that ok?

They are not due to hatch at the same time obviously so is it ok that i have them in one incubator?

Also I now read that each egg should be turned 180deg an odd number of times a day so that they receive an even ammount of heat as the night turn is the longest and should be alternated. Plus the round end should be higher as that is where the air sac is. The humidity should be X the temp Y and a whole plethora of different suggestions.

Can it really be that hard?
How does a broody chicken know to turn odd numbers, keep the air sac up, watch the humidity and temp. How can it possibly know that after day 18 it needs to stop turning and increase humidity? ..........it just sits on them.
Surely just keep the eggs warm, be gentle with them and let nature take her course?

This is a serious question, and no malice or sarcasm intended. I really dont understand how it can be so difficult. But then again this is my first try and no doubt I will be eating my words when i get no hatchings.
As my title suggest how much of a science can it really be, and are we just complicating things?

PS

I tried candeling last night using a torch, but I couldnt see anything through the thick blue shell.
Does it need to be dark to see through the shell?
Can one do it with a normal torch?

Thank you very much all

Tony

 

[rarely bored]

Hi, Welcome to BYC! I'm sure you will enjoy your time here.

Isn't if funny how we try to do things right and those broody hens still get better hatches and look much cuter than us too! .

I think most of the 'science' is considered general wisdom which helps your hatches get consistantly good results. For every scientific 'fact' you will find at least one thread discussing how some people totally messed up or forgot or was unable to do it, and still had a good hatch. So, relax. One of my friends hatched two eggs in the oven using the oven light for heat and a pie tin for humidity.

On manual turnings, if your eggs are snug, you can tilt the whole incubator, so you don't have to touch each egg 3 times a day.

The brighter the torch the better your candling results, and a dark room does help - try it.

A staggered hatch does have its own issues, and since I'm rather lackisdaisically about my first attempt, which is going on right now, I'd rather let someone else help you with some pointer.

 

[cmom]

Depending on what you do and how you handle your eggs can affect the hatch rate. I now have a turner but used to turn by hand.
If you are going to hand turn the eggs I would turn them around 7am, 3pm and 11pm. Also I would put an X on one side of the egg and an O on the other side of the egg and always turn the eggs in the same direction so that at 7am all of the X's are up, at 3pm the O's are up and 11pm the X's are up. Then the opposite the next day. Just my suggestions. Here are a couple of pictures a friend of mine took to illustrate.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

An egg under a hen is natural. She is not heating the air. She is heating the egg threw contact(conduction) an the use of good insulation. Humidity is natural but goes up as the hen sits.

A incubator is a completely unnatural environment. You are heating air to heat the eggs.(convection) The heated air drops O2 levels an humidity levels an makes bacteria growth skyrocket. So now you have all these things to worry about that a hen don't. Now you have to regulate humidity an ventilation an worry about bacteria.

 

[CCourson05]

Quote:
Yep. And a hen turns her eggs all throughout the day by shifting her breastplate... This causes tiny rotations that equal about 50 turns per day...