I am going to try incubating one more time Questions.....

[dmdhart]

The last time I tried this, only 8 of 24 eggs hatched and 6 of them died. Please keep your fingers crossed for me. I thoroughly sterilized the incubator with bleach water, as well as let it sit out in the sun for several days. I am trying to keep the incubators humidiy up with a wet clean sponge vs dishes of water. Question - what is the proper humidiy while incubating? I have heard many different things. I don't have an egg turner. This time I am keeping the eggs in a carton (with the top off) Have any of you done that? Do you take them out of the carton when it's time to go into lockdown? I really want these babies to hatch. Thanks for any words of wisdom.

 

[abooth]

Hi there. I think there is a huge variety of opinions about what humidity to incubate at. Anything from 35% to 50% is suitable in my opinion. Then of course you need to increase it for lockdown on day 18. As far as the carton method goes I have not tried it but I have read up on it. It seems most folks use the cardboard egg cartons and they cut the bottoms out a bit to let the air and humidity reach that bottom half of the egg. Leave the eggs in the carton during hatch time. This keeps the first hatched chicks from playing soccer with the unhatched eggs. I hope this helps and good luck!

 

[paddock36]

I agree with the humidity. I hand turn and my eggs just lay on their sides. I have pretty good hatch rates as long as I don't get lazy and quit turning them enough. Overall it's a learning process. Don't give up.