Humidity and Eggs Incubating

[Melissa77]

I have my first eggs ready to hatch (hopefully) any day. Im confused and curious though..... if Im suppose to have the humidity at 45 for eggs incubating but increase it to 65 for eggs a few days from hatch how do I manage that with different age eggs in the same incub?
I only have two laying right now so each for 6 days I put their two eggs in there, so they are all a day off with the latest being from Sept 21 and the closer to hatch from Sept 12.
Hope I explained clear enough
Thanks!

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Doing a staggered hatch as you are is very difficult as you need high humidity for your chicks to be able to hatch too low and they could become stuck in the shell. But then on the other hand if you put your humidity up your eggs that are still incubating will not lose enough moisture for the air cell to grow large enough for them to pip into. With not losing enough moisture the chick could drown on internal pipping. Also with adding eggs each day they are all going to be at different stages some that require turning and some that don't therefore opening the incubator for turning will jeopardise the hatching eggs. I don't do staggered hatches for this reason. Once eggs go into lockdown I have a rule I don't open the incubator no matter what is going off in there. You can save your eggs up for a week and then set all together at the same time. I would try to maybe get your humidity some where in between to try and give all eggs a chance. Wishing you the very best of luck.

 

[Melissa77]

im such an idiot. guess I should have researched more. a friend said she does this and always,has avg hatch rates . im freaking out.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Try not to worry we all live and learn. Maybe you could ask your friend what she does in this situation for tips. I would still try to do the Inbetween humidity or if your in quite a humid climate stay at 45%.

 

[Melissa77]

I wonder if I should make an incubator and move all the eggs that are on day 17 and older to it and regulate correctly. I see movement in the eggs when candled.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Yes that would be a great idea if you have another incubator you could use for the older eggs. At day 17 they should be ok to lockdown. When is your first egg due to hatch?

 

[spotsplus]

I have my first eggs ready to hatch (hopefully) any day. Im confused and curious though..... if Im suppose to have the humidity at 45 for eggs incubating but increase it to 65 for eggs a few days from hatch how do I manage that with different age eggs in the same incub?
I only have two laying right now so each for 6 days I put their two eggs in there, so they are all a day off with the latest being from Sept 21 and the closer to hatch from Sept 12.
Hope I explained clear enough

Thanks!

That's the problem with having eggs that are hatching different days. Best you could do is do lockdown for a day before the eggs are to hatch and not rotate the other eggs on that day. One day not turning won't hurt them. Good luck!

 

[spotsplus]

I wonder if I should make an incubator and move all the eggs that are on day 17 and older to it and regulate correctly. I see movement in the eggs when candled.

I've done that before and it worked fine with no problems