Incubating 101

[Tbrad]

We have 4 homemade incubators for a science fair project and one old electric on but the rotating mechanism is broken so we will be rotating by hand. I wanted to ask actual people experienced in this since everytime I research it, it changes ...

1. Do you store them on their sides or little side down?

2. When can you start candling?

3. Which day do you stop rotating? I have read 15, 17 and 18

4. How often are most of you hand turning them?

5. I know you have to increase the humidity to 65% after you stop rotating but do you decrease the temperature?

Any other feedback from personal experiences will help tremendously. Thanks in advance!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

1) either or. Whatever way they fit in the incubator.
2) depends on egg color. Some are too dark period and can't be candles easily. White eggs, I can candle (very, very, very.carefully) starting at day 3
3) depends on the species.
4) no. Temperature stays the same

 

[FC16]

We have 4 homemade incubators for a science fair project and one old electric on but the rotating mechanism is broken so we will be rotating by hand. I wanted to ask actual people experienced in this since everytime I research it, it changes ...

1. Do you store them on their sides or little side down?

2. When can you start candling?

3. Which day do you stop rotating? I have read 15, 17 and 18

4. How often are most of you hand turning them?

5. I know you have to increase the humidity to 65% after you stop rotating but do you decrease the temperature?

Any other feedback from personal experiences will help tremendously. Thanks in advance!

It’s best to store them pointy side down before going in so that the air cells can settle, especially if they’ve been shipped. You can candle whenever you like but unless you’ve got a good torch or a very light egg you probably won’t see much until about day 5. I stopped turning around day 14/15 I don’t think it’s necessary any later than that but won’t harm them. I hand turned them just 3 times a day once and they were fine but I think the more times the better, apparently it should be an odd number of turns as well. In lockdown a lot of people decrease the temperature slightly but I don’t think you have to.
This is just based on my experiences and I’ve only incubated about 6 times, so I’m sure much more experienced people will have advice but hope this helps

 

[Tbrad]

1) either or. Whatever way they fit in the incubator.
2) depends on egg color. Some are too dark period and can't be candles easily. White eggs, I can candle (very, very, very.carefully) starting at day 3
3) depends on the species.
4) no. Temperature stays the same

They are chicken eggs and most are cream colored or brown. I don't have white egg laying chickens.

I have a plastic egg holder that is somewhat like what you put deviled eggs in. I would have to cut in half but currently I have regular egg cartons in them. I want to make whatever necessary adjustments prior to placing the eggs before we begin since the science fair rules are very specific.

Thank you for your response!

 

[Tbrad]

It’s best to store them pointy side down before going in so that the air cells can settle, especially if they’ve been shipped. You can candle whenever you like but unless you’ve got a good torch or a very light egg you probably won’t see much until about day 5. I stopped turning around day 14/15 I don’t think it’s necessary any later than that but won’t harm them. I hand turned them just 3 times a day once and they were fine but I think the more times the better, apparently it should be an odd number of turns as well. In lockdown a lot of people decrease the temperature slightly but I don’t think you have to.
This is just based on my experiences and I’ve only incubated about 6 times, so I’m sure much more experienced people will have advice but hope this helps

It all helps! We are new at this and want the best success rate we can get. We originally planned on just 3 times a day but decided to go for AT LEAST 4 but regardless when we are home there is no reason we can't turn every hour. In another thread someone posted a really good/informative link where it said chickens in nature turn their eggs on average 96 times a day. I think we are lucky 3 times is sufficient lol however, like most articles the information is based on using auto turning/electric incubators and so it skews what information I actually need for these DIY incubators

Thank you for your help!

 

[FC16]

It all helps! We are new at this and want the best success rate we can get. We originally planned on just 3 times a day but decided to go for AT LEAST 4 but regardless when we are home there is no reason we can't turn every hour. In another thread someone posted a really good/informative link where it said chickens in nature turn their eggs on average 96 times a day. I think we are lucky 3 times is sufficient lol however, like most articles the information is based on using auto turning/electric incubators and so it skews what information I actually need for these DIY incubators

Thank you for your help!

Yeah that’s very true we will never be able to be as good as a broody hen, they’re the masters like you said just whenever you can turn them then do it and I’m sure they will be fine, what breeds are you hatching?

 

[Tbrad]

Yeah that’s very true we will never be able to be as good as a broody hen, they’re the masters like you said just whenever you can turn them then do it and I’m sure they will be fine, what breeds are you hatching?

A variety. I have mixed breeds (marans, reds, black australorp, Wyandotte and brahmas) but my roosters are bantams. The person I was going to get my eggs from is actually out but it was going to be a barnyard mix regardless.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Also just remember, even broody mama's rarely hatch all of their eggs, so don't feel bad if you don't

 

[Tbrad]

Also just remember, even broody mama's rarely hatch all of their eggs, so don't feel bad if you don't

I know, I'm expecting that but because the science fair rules are so strict, if the reason they don't hatch is because of the incubators, she will be disqualified so I am trying to cover everything I can. Luckily bc hatch rates are never 100% that gives us room for error.

 

[Ridgerunner]

1. Do you store them on their sides or little side down?

Either way works fine. If you are hand turning them, it's generally a good idea to put marks on the egg so you can see that it has been turned the right amount. Put an X on one side and an O on the other. Or use red and black ink.

2. When can you start candling?

Enough development occurs that some people can see it by candling by the third day. But how much you can actually see will depend on how dark the room is you are in, the color and shade of the eggshells, and the quality of your candling equipment. The experience of the person candling also plays a part.

In lighter eggs I can often see quite a bit of detail later in incubation. In some of my darker green eggs I'm just looking for blobs and air cell, no real detail.

3. Which day do you stop rotating? I have read 15, 17 and 18

Turning the eggs accomplishes different things. It helps keep the yolk and embryo centered so it does not touch the inside of the shell where it could get stuck. It helps body parts form in the right place. It helps with the development of certain fluids in the egg as it develops. After two weeks a membrane has formed around the embryo that protects it from contact with the inside of the shell. Body parts are formed. There is no longer a need for turning for those fluids. With chicken eggs you can stop turning them after 14 days without a problem. Continued turning does not hurt them but it is not necessary.

We typically go into lockdown after 18 days of incubation. This is where we increase the humidity, position them for hatch, and stop turning. You could stop turning earlier but it is convenient to do this at the same time, especially if you have an automatic turner. That's why most people say 18 days.

4. How often are most of you hand turning them?

There have been a lot of studies on the effects of turning the eggs, during storage as well as after incubation starts. These are typically using automatic turners and involve a large number of eggs so they have more data points. These studies are typically paid for by the commercial operations that may be hatching 1,000,000 chicks a week in one of their hatcheries and they have several different hatcheries scattered around. A small percentage difference will be noticeable to them but not necessarily to us. What might be better for them might be irrelevant to us. That happens on a lot of these studies for different things. It's "better" so we think it has to be done or it's a guaranteed disaster. That's often not the case for us.

Turning three times a day works well for me. It doesn't hurt to turn more often, it's "better" but the incremental gain is not worth it to me.

If you hand turn it is recommended to turn an odd number of times. The goal is that they spend a roughly equal amount of time in each position. If you have an odd number of turnings it works out that they spend every other night on the same side. If it is an even number of times they don't.

5. I know you have to increase the humidity to 65% after you stop rotating but do you decrease the temperature?

No, we don't have to. A slight decrease doesn't hurt.

This comes from two different places. In the commercial industry their problem in those huge hatchers is that the embryos are producing a lot of heat and with 60,000 eggs in a hatcher the eggs in the middle can cook from that self-generated heat. Their problem is to keep the eggs in the middle cool enough while keeping the eggs on the outside warm enough. They do this with fans and by manipulating the heat. We don't have this problem with our small incubators. It doesn't hurt to drop the temperature a slight amount, with the heat the individual embryos are generating they are not going to run into any problems as long as you don't get ridiculous.

The other place where this comes in is that warm air rises. A lot of us use still air incubators. You can have a difference in temperature depending on where the egg is in the incubator vertically. If you have a forced air (has a fan) the temperature should be the same everywhere in it. But with a still air the elevation matters. When you go into lockdown, especially with an automatic turner, you often put the eggs back in at a lower elevation than they were incubated. How much lower temperature depends on how much the elevation changes. You do not want to drop the temperature in a still air. In a forced air it won't matter that much unless you get ridiculous.

Any other feedback from personal experiences will help tremendously.

Be careful when transporting the eggs. You don't want to shake them up or subject them to really hot or cold temperatures. That's why people warn you about shipped eggs. One time I transported 30 eggs on the floorboard of my car over a rough country road. Only 10 hatched. I should have had them cushioned and on a seat.

Start all the eggs in an incubator at the same time. You don't want a staggered hatch. Way too stressful and often not successful.

The reason lockdown is set for 18 days is that the 21 day thing is just a target. It is not unusual for eggs to hatch a full two days early or late for various reasons. One big reason is the average incubating temperature. If the temperature is a bit warm they can hatch early, cool and they can be late. But there are other factors too like heredity, humidity, and how and how long they are stored before incubation begins. Once an egg pips it is possible you can shrink-wrap a chick. That's where that membrane that develops around the chick dries out and shrink, trapping it so it cannot hatch. That's why we increase humidity when we go into lockdown. If you open the incubator after a chick has pipped you release the humidity and you can cause shrink-wrap. This doesn't happen that often. Some people open the incubator during lockdown without issues. If I have an emergency I will too. But I have caused shrink-wrap so I know it can happen. Since some eggs can hatch early, if we lock down after 18 days or development they are already in lockdown when these early ones pip.

Count the days right. An egg does not have a day's worth of development the moment you put it in the incubator. It takes 24 hours for it to have a day's worth. So you say "one" the day after you set it. You may be surprised at how often this mistake is made. It usually doesn't matter with the hatch if you lock down a day early, the uncertainty in when they actually hatch is so great and you have that much flexibility in many of these things, but it can cause a lot of stress if you think they should be hatching and they are not. A good way to check your counting is that the day of the week they are put into the incubator is the day of the week the 21 days is up. If you set them on a Friday the 21 days is up on a Friday.