Incuview - Incubating Flat, Hatching Upright?

[Julia828]

Hi, I have an Incuview incubator. The "turner" rolls the eggs horizontally instead of angling them from side to side, from an upright position.

I'm inclined at Lockdown, to take the eggs out of the turner, and put them in cut-back egg cartons, so they can hatch upright. Historically, I've always hatched upright in my Brinsea Octagon and gotten great hatch rates (95%), once I started this process at Lockdown.

The question is really - is it ok to incubate flat, and then hatch upright? Or is it true that if you incubate flat, you must then hatch flat, for the best hatch rates?

Thanks! Changing to a new incubator has my anxiety level way high. I love the view on the Incuview, and it holds a steady temp well. But I was surprised by the horizontal egg turner (really, roller).

Best,
Julia

 

[Pyxis]

I agree with AmyLynn. I never hatch upright. I always lay them down to hatch. And I have heard that after a certain point of incubating them horizontally putting them vertically can kill the embryo. I'm not sure if that would still apply to a chick so close to hatching but I wouldn't take the chance.

I can't see a reason that I would ever hatch upright unless I had a floating air cell but by the time they reach hatch day the chorio-allantoic membrane would have grown and pinned it in place anyway, so I don't think I'd need to hatch upright even then.

 

[Julia828]

Thanks for the replies! Something to think about; the rollers are more natural, mimicking nature. I should've mentioned - I've been hatching a lot of shipped eggs. And in that instance, I do need to incubate upright (due to detached air cells). Even with a rest period, and then 48 hours without a turner, in the incubator, some of them don't re-attach.

I think I've decided - stick with Incuview for my own eggs (on side for incubation and hatch). And Brinsea Octagon (upright) for shipped eggs.

Thank you again!
Julia

 

[Storybook Farm]

Awwww! What a great project for your daughter. Kudos to you, Mom!

We live in the mountains of WV and I incubate February to May, so I avoid summer humidity--which, in the mountains, isn't high anyways. I use a pretty good analog humidistat (digital ones are unreliable in the extreme) meant for cigar humididores.

Yep; I fill it up with 27 each time. I number them so I can keep track of their weights and positions. Also, I order them by first hatched, etc. since I used to not have enough hens to fill the 'bator in one day. This will change next year. I'm right now shopping for a cabinet incubator because I'm going to get into selling chicks in 2018. I raised 60 SPR chicks this year and plan to cull down to 15 hens and three roos. So, I'll probably not be as detailed with hatching next year.

Incubator Warehouse is re-launching Incuview XL and I'm strongly considering it, as well as a Dickey brand. We'll see! The XL has "roller" turners like the smaller Incuview, and a clear top with a hatcher tray. (I was bold enough to suggest that they make this a hatchers DRAWER with the ability to control humidity separately. THAT would be awesome!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Hi, I have an Incuview incubator. The "turner" rolls the eggs horizontally instead of angling them from side to side, from an upright position.

I'm inclined at Lockdown, to take the eggs out of the turner, and put them in cut-back egg cartons, so they can hatch upright. Historically, I've always hatched upright in my Brinsea Octagon and gotten great hatch rates (95%), once I started this process at Lockdown.

The question is really - is it ok to incubate flat, and then hatch upright? Or is it true that if you incubate flat, you must then hatch flat, for the best hatch rates?

Thanks! Changing to a new incubator has my anxiety level way high. I love the view on the Incuview, and it holds a steady temp well. But I was surprised by the horizontal egg turner (really, roller).

Best,
Julia

I've always laid mine down to hatch, even when I used the upright turner. My highest hatch rate was 100% with 20 of my own eggs. After my second hatch I switched to hand turning so mine are laid down from day one. You can hatch upright after incubating laying down. But laying down, which is more natural doesn't decrease hatch rate. I usually get between 85-100% I think the new turners that roll instead of tilt are better, personally.

 

[SiriusChicken]

I like how the IncuView simulates natural rolling like the hen would do but this is my first time using it. I have shipped eggs so I cut out holders from cardboard egg cartons with vent holes for circulation for the three eggs with more damaged air cells. I taped the holders to the side of the tray by the turner to hand turn vertically. The rest roll naturally but I do a hand turning once a day like Pete55 suggested.

He has a great article here about how to deal with shipped eggs with damaged air cells and he explains the science and steps of the whole hatching process. He's very knowledgeable and it was super helpful and really interesting. Apparently the chorio-Allantoic membrane grows over the air cell by day 15 and holds it in place so you can do horizontally after that. Here's the link.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...aged-and-mal-positioned-egg-air-cells.501034/

 

[Storybook Farm]

How's your hatch going? I'll be interested to hear about your experience/impressions!

 

[SiriusChicken]

How's your hatch going? I'll be interested to hear about your experience/impressions!

Last night I started having high temperature spikes and fluctuations depending on where the tray moves. It's much hotter in the corners and on the right side. It went up to 102 at 6pm & at midnight it was 106 in one corner. I retested the Hygrometer by putting it beside the sensor and it still matched. So I could have a fan problem. I added water and checked the temp a couple places and then the temp lowered to 101. This morning it was 98.8. Room temperature was 70 all night and the highest it gets during the day in 73. Now it's 102 again in the corner but the center is 99.5. I'm going to contact Incubator warehouse today. I'm sure I lost a lot of eggs but hopefully the ones in the center and on the left side are all ok.

When I weigh & candle at day 7 I'll update it here. That'll be Day 14 in the countdown. I'm only on day 17 in the countdown today. I do really like the countdown and the control panel with all the readings. They are great and the clear top is amazing. It's so easy to see your thermometer/Hygrometer readings and all the eggs. I like to keep detailed records so this is definitely my kind of incubator. Its a lot of fun. I hope this temperature thing is fixable.

 

[SiriusChicken]

I started with that dual hygrometer, and ruined it in my first Incuview hatch because wet chicks sat on it. Here's a tip: when you get to lockdown, take out the hygrometer and fill all the bottom water trays. Also put a clean large sponge or two (or, what I use is a large square of craft felt) in the back to fill the crack between the turning tray (leave it in but turn off the turner). Then, close the lid and gauge humidity by the amount of condensation you see on the lid in the first few hours of lockdown (so start around 4 PM). You want just a hint of moisture showing on the lower regions of the lid, ideally all the way around. If you see a lot of condensation, you really should open the lid to let it out. If you don't see any, take a large syringe (we have them from inoculating larger animals, but you can use ones for giving kids medicine) attached to some air tubing (found in fish section at pet stores) and, feeding the air hose through the vent hole, squirt water on the sponge/felt until its saturated. Then observe again. Over the three days of lockdown, you can add water, but not take it away, and a lot depends on your ambient humidity. So try for the low end in the beginning. Remember that the vent stays fully open.

Yes, SPRs are a beautiful color variant of the Plymouth Rock. They are rare, sweet, great layers, not flighty, excellent foragers, not readily picked off by hawks, etc. They will go broody and are excellent Mom's, but they are easy to break of broodiness, too. Rooster colors are dramatic and beautiful. I will post pictures if you want, or you can Google them.

They sound wonderful! I'd love pictures of them if you have some.

I have my Hygrometer gorilla taped up against the back corner on the turner side so only two eggs are close to it. I plan to make more room around it after I remove infertile eggs. It's very humid here on the coast so I'll need to watch the humidity.

Good news about the eggs, the IncuView tech told me they should be ok since the tray kept moving them away from the hot zone. I raised the turner to 8x/day (from 6) so now it moves a little every 45 minutes instead of hourly. I also unplugged the machine for 30 seconds after that and haven't been having problems since. Just small fluctuations which the tech said is normal. So hopefully they'll be ok. He also said to keep the vent open like you said, so thanks and also to keep the sensor aimed down as close under where it is attached as I can. So far that's working.

I wish that information was in the manual for those of us who have never used an incubator.

 

[Storybook Farm]

Here's one of our adult Roos. Predators got our best one late last spring, thankfully at the end of hatching season when all his breeding duties were completed. This is our backup Roo until our 35 cockerels are old enough to choose among. He's starting to molt, so he looks kinda ragged.

I'll have to post from a different device for hens.

Glad you got your Incuview glitches sorted!