incubating and hatching eggs

[susan threlkeld]

One of my hens became broody and had 10 eggs under her. I ordered special eggs to give her because I didn't want to risk the incubator, so I took her eggs put them in the incubator, (she had been on the nest about 12 days) and the new ones under her (which is more trustworthy) I know within a day or two when she started sitting, but she continued to lay eggs.My question is how can I know when to lock down because I don't know when her eggs actually started to incubate. I know that the last 3 days are critical with increasing the humidity. So what do I do about that? Because I will have to take out the turner, and lay out the eggs and increase humidity.

 

[Pyxis]

You'll have to candle and use your best judgement to determine what day they look to be on. Here you can see a picture of a chicken embryo each day of incubation, which should help:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/development-of-a-chicken-embryo-day-by-day.72537/

 

[susan threlkeld]

You'll have to candle and use your best judgement to determine what day they look to be on. Here you can see a picture of a chicken embryo each day of incubation, which should help:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/development-of-a-chicken-embryo-day-by-day.72537/

Thank you so much!!

 

[abraga]

One of my hens became broody and had 10 eggs under her. I ordered special eggs to give her because I didn't want to risk the incubator, so I took her eggs put them in the incubator, (she had been on the nest about 12 days) and the new ones under her (which is more trustworthy) I know within a day or two when she started sitting, but she continued to lay eggs.My question is how can I know when to lock down because I don't know when her eggs actually started to incubate. I know that the last 3 days are critical with increasing the humidity. So what do I do about that? Because I will have to take out the turner, and lay out the eggs and increase humidity.

I made the mistake of trying to incubate staggered batches of eggs n one bator. I had dates on them. When they were close..i kept check on air cells and run a second bator just for hatching. If I caught the internal pip they went straight n2 the hatcher, however I did put some from the incubator in the hatcher once they pipped and they hatched just fine..but I did raise humidity to 75/80%. If the eggs r within a few days of hatchung and the air cells look good, it won't hurt to put them in a hatcher a bit early, they will not need turning. Set them with the lowest part if the air cells up.

 

[susan threlkeld]

Just wanted to give all of you an update on the switch of eggs under our hen that had been sitting on eggs about 2 wks. Put her eggs in the bator, and of course, I didn't know when to do the lock-down, but about the estimated time I opened the bator to candle them one more time, and I could here a chirping sound in an egg, so I did the lock down right then. Next day one hatched and everyday after that one egg has hatched every day. Out of ten eggs seven has hatched and is doing fine, and the other ones that are unhatched you can see them moving and can hear one chirping. So, bottom line is this has been a great success with the moving of the eggs from then hen to bator. What has happened is that the hen probably laid one egg a day, and they have hatched accordingly, one hatch a day. The eggs under her (that I ordered) will be due at the end of the month. But, this exact question of moving and the lock down, I couldn't find anywhere concerning this particular scenario, but with all of your input I could piece together some answers. I hope this will help any of you if this happens to you someday. I want to 'thank' all of you that helped me thru this. I'm a happy girl!