Incubating eggs after female laying on them?

[R2elk]

Good luck.

 

[Finnie]

@PolloGal Just now seeing this. How did the eggs do for you?

 

[PolloGal]

@PolloGal Just now seeing this. How did the eggs do for you?

Hi. We are still a little ’lost’ here. We have been candling about every other day or so…and putting the ones that have a large air cell that’s slanted into the ‘lockdown’ incubator...knowing they are getting close to drawing down. We had one like that 2 days ago and actually saw the little one moving inside! It was SO exciting. We Put it in the lockdown incubator, but still nothing. So right now we have (out of the 20) 6 in the lockdown incubator at about 70% humidity (one has been in there for 5 days UGH). And 13 in the incubator with the turner at about 50% humidity. If you have suggestions for us, please let me know. I continue to read about hatching and what to do. We will candle again later today or tomorrow morning. We are praying we do no harm and that these, or at least most of these, little ones make it. Thanks for checking with me.

 

[Finnie]

I don’t know if any advice I give will be useful. I think you are right to candle them occasionally and only move them to the lockdown incubator when you think they are getting close. Since you don’t actually know when their due date is. Most likely, the person you got them from allowed other hens to keep adding to the nest, so these eggs probably all have different due dates.

I agree with @R2elk that incubating at 50% humidity is too high. Lately I’m beginning to form the opinion that too many days of high humidity during lock down causes problems too. But I would not advise anyone to try a dry lockdown. (I did a dry lockdown this past week and it went great. But the first poult to hatch bumped the RH up to 65% anyway, so not really much of a difference there. )

What I have started doing is holding off on lockdown until I see signs of draw down or internal pipping. I’m trying to time it so I only have 1-2 days of lockdown instead of the usual 3. So I think if you continue as you have been, that’s the best you can do. Hopefully some will hatch, but if not, at least you tried. I’m guessing the person who gave you the eggs wasn’t able to let her hen finish setting and without you none of them would have hatched.

 

[PolloGal]

I don’t know if any advice I give will be useful. I think you are right to candle them occasionally and only move them to the lockdown incubator when you think they are getting close. Since you don’t actually know when their due date is. Most likely, the person you got them from allowed other hens to keep adding to the nest, so these eggs probably all have different due dates.

I agree with @R2elk that incubating at 50% humidity is too high. Lately I’m beginning to form the opinion that too many days of high humidity during lock down causes problems too. But I would not advise anyone to try a dry lockdown. (I did a dry lockdown this past week and it went great. But the first poult to hatch bumped the RH up to 65% anyway, so not really much of a difference there. )

What I have started doing is holding off on lockdown until I see signs of draw down or internal pipping. I’m trying to time it so I only have 1-2 days of lockdown instead of the usual 3. So I think if you continue as you have been, that’s the best you can do. Hopefully some will hatch, but if not, at least you tried. I’m guessing the person who gave you the eggs wasn’t able to let her hen finish setting and without you none of them would have hatched.

Thank you for your reply….I really do appreciate your input. I will take your advice and lower the humidity some…maybe it will help. I guess I was initially thinking that the shells are harder/thicker than chicken eggs and that the humidity a bit higher (as I had read) made sense…but I am no expert at all…all a learning curve for me. I am not sure, though, that I would recognize internal pipping. I think I just started getting what the draw down probably looks like, but I don’t think I have seen what the internal pipping actually looks like…except online in pics. I will keep looking though. And I hope we are able to get some of these little ones to hatch. It will be SO disappointing to think that maybe we just didn’t get it right. Thanks again…so much.

 

[Finnie]

No one gets it right all the time. And especially on the first time trying something new.

Btw, when I candle and see shadowy activity inside the air cell- lots of moving around- I mark “IP?” on the shell. It might not actually be internally pipped, but it’s close. The way to know if it’s internally pipped for sure is if you hear it cheeping. Cuz they only do that after they start breathing air.

 

[PolloGal]

No one gets it right all the time. And especially on the first time trying something new.

Btw, when I candle and see shadowy activity inside the air cell- lots of moving around- I mark “IP?” on the shell. It might not actually be internally pipped, but it’s close. The way to know if it’s internally pipped for sure is if you hear it cheeping. Cuz they only do that after they start breathing air.

That’s a GREAT tip! Thank you. I will be doing a lot more ‘listening’ to the eggs I think may be internally pipping! Thanks again!