I know I'm not supposed to add eggs to the incubator...

[babsh]

but I'm wondering what will happen if I do?

I just received 18 eggs in the mail for my broody. The seller sent extra eggs, so I've got 6-8 more than I can put under my girl. I've got some calls out to people who might want them, but if they don't I was thinking of putting them in the incubator that is half-way through a cycle (3 eggs on day 15).

Will the extra humidity drown them? I figure the eggs might go to waste anyway. Would it hurt the 3 eggs I have in there right now?

Barb

 

[Guitartists]

I added some eggs to a failed hatch last month.... 2 eggs hatched out a little over a week after the 3 that survived my ruined hatch. But I keep my humidity pretty low up until hatch..... 30% ... so the extra humidity for a couple of days didn't seem to have any effect. They hatched out just about as clean as the first 3.

 

[yotetrapper]

Oh come on you know you want a 2nd incubator. Now you have a legitimate excuse to get one LOL.

 

[walkswithdog]

Quote:
Yote you're terrible. Perfect answer

from a fellow enabler.

If you dry hatch, you can stagger hatch, your numbers are often lower in success rate than the more routine incubation. I think weaker chicks don't respond as well to the changes.

But if it's all you have, then you go with it and hope. Just don't count those as anything but a mild potential until they actually do hatch. Those are not chicks to count on.

Best of luck.

 

[babsh]

Good news. I found an incubator a friend is going to lend me. So that is solved.

However, I'm still curious as to what happens if the new eggs had been left in with the old eggs. obviously, the only time it is problematic is when the humidity is increased and no turning happens during the hatch. what does that do to the younger eggs?

 

[jvls1942]

I have my own theory about drowning embryos.. nothing scientific about it..

I do not think you can drown an embryo during the first half of incubation.. all you can do is prevent the air sac from increasing, which can be remedied later in incubation, a bit..

 

[walkswithdog]

Quote:
If that were all that happens when you add eggs things would be more simple than they in fact are.

First you are adding early stage eggs not up to temperature. Temperatures in the bator do not stabilize easily when you add new eggs. Some incubators re-establish easily, some go overboard and ramp temperatures too high to compensate.

You still have to turn the eggs needing turning or risk adhesion to the shell and death. Altering the humidity at least twice a day since you have to be hand turning with two different groups. Altering the humidity the hatching eggs need increases the chance of a stuck or dry chick.

If the humidity does get too high and stays too high as it sometimes does if hatching chicks bring the humidity screamingly too high for too long, you can indeed drown the other eggs.

The ideal incubation is steady temp, steady humidity and an uninterrupted hatch.

When you start tinkering outside that, you have varying rates of success depending on a multitude of variables, including not the least, luck.

I have done it the right way and had good success. But I also tinker completely outside the box a LOT. With pullet eggs, with dirty eggs, with abandoned eggs, with staggered eggs, with cold or refridgerated eggs.

Outside the box, success rates vary. But any cracked, pullet, abandoned, cold or emergency staggered hatch I pull off is one that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't tried.

If I've got valuable eggs in already I try my best not to have something happen where I have to vary things.

But ...... happens. I generally chose to try.