Incubating different clutches in the same bator?

[Ridgerunner]

You obviously realize you don't have the ideal situation but you deal with what life gives you.

I don't know which incubator you have or what automatic turners so it is hard to give specific advice. I think you have three issues to deal with.

First is humidity. Humidity is not an exact science. During incubation, the egg needs to lose a certain amount of liquid without drying out too much. You have a range where you are OK. It's not the humidity at any one point, but the average humidity over the incubation period. During hatch you need higher humidity. I'd think the higher humidity during hatch is more important than the humidity for the other eggs. I'd raise it during hatch for the first group.

You raise humidity by increasing the water surace area. How you can do that depends on your incubator. You maybe could add more water reservoirs, fill some empty ones, or add a sponge or paper towel to act as a wick to draw moisture out of the reservoir and create more surface area the water can evaporate from.

The second issue is turning the second group while stop turning the first. With my automatic turner, I can take some racks out and leave some racks in. I really don't know your options. The most critical time with turnng is the first week or so, when the body parts are forming. If you don't have proper turning then, it is possible that the body parts can form in the wrong places, which is usually fatal. It is still important later in incubation, but less so. If you can, I'd keep turning the second group, but if you are forced into a decision of one or the other, stop turning after the first pip.

The last issue for me is that the hatched ducklings are going to be moving all over. They can get the second group of eggs dirty. This could possibly lead to a bacterial infection in the second group. I'd suggest putting up a barrier between the two groups so the second batch of eggs stay cleaner. You can maybe make a barrier out of chicken wire or hardware cloth. How to do that will depend on your incubator. And clean the incubator after the first hatch is over.

Good luck! These staggered hatches can be challenging.

 

[cochins1088]

I once had 3 broody hens all quit at the same time, and their eggs were all in different stages. I knew it probably wouldn't work out, but I figured I'd throw them in the incubator and give them the chance and if they hatched they hatched. I marked which were which with approximite dates and raised the humidity when each batch got close. I didn't use an egg turner though, I turned the eggs that needed to be turned by hand. And obviously lock down didn't happen because I needed to keep turning. I was worried because of the high humidity mulitple times and opening the incubator so much during lockdown, but surprisingly I had incredible hatch rates so I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[khs2424]

Thanks everyone. I think I have a grasp of what I need to do now. I think I can remove some of the turner trays and be OK. From what I read, humidity shouldn't be that much of an issue for the three days of hatch for the first clutch. I really appreciate everyone's input!