Incubator help

[littlepip]

I just got an incubator to hatch some of my Pekin eggs. it's one of those styrofoam, still air ones. I know that I must turn the eggs, and fill the water tray. just one problem. I don't know if any of my eggs are fertile! when will I see signs of life? also, any tips on hatching healthy eggs?

 

[Pinkerton5m]

Day 7 you should be able to candle the eggs to see which are fertile. Buy a couple cheap temp gauges and hydro gauges to put in different areas of bator. I have same bator and I had pretty good luck with it. Dont use temp gauge on top of it. It could be off some.

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

Candle on day 3. This is the easiest time to tell. The egg will still be yellow and mostly lit inside, but ou sould be ale to see blood veins, and a tiny embryo.

 

[littlepip]

thanks this helped a lot. did anyone hatch eggs in this kind of incubator? if so, how many eggs hatched out of the number of eggs you started with? (EX: 10/14 hatched)
the incubator has scared me a few times. the top thermometer said it was 90 degrees, but my thermometer said that it was really 99.5, like it was supposed to be!
UGH. the temp stayed pretty stable after that.

 

[mill-j]

I've hatched out many chicks with a still air styrofoam incubators. Unfortunately the averages were not that great. A good hatch was around 50-60% of fertile eggs. Of course my models had the wafer thermostats, inaccurate to say the least. Those temp spikes really lower the hatch rate. Hopefully yours is digital.

Let us know how the hatch goes...

 

[oregonkat]

The temp in the still air needs to be 102degs. A forced air incubator is at 99.5degs. Glad to see you are using an independent thermometer. Are you using an independent hygrometer for the humidity as well?

 

[007Sean]

oregonkat is correct, on still air bator the temp should be 102°F at the top of the eggs. Don't trust the temp or humidity read outs on a Styrofoam bator, get seperate independent thermometers and hygrometer that can be calibrated to a known lab standard thermometer. Salt test calibrate your hygrometer.
Duck eggs usually hatch in 28 days. I would candle at day 8, 14, then at lockdown to verify if the eggs are still viable, if not discard any (dis) eggs before lockdown.
Good luck with your hatch.

 

[oregonkat]