I plan on ordering this incubator in the next few weeks. The clear top and automatic controls appeal to me because I plan to use it in my classroom. I do have the concern of using it with shipped eggs. I have never hatched before but I have read a lot that shipped eggs should be put in the incubator with the pointy end down to help air cells reattach. I see that this incubator has the eggs sit on their sides. What impact would this have on shipped eggs?
Not all shipped eggs will have detached air cells, so it may not be an issue.
Here is some great hatching information, including information on how to handle shipped eggs:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101
It is a very long article with lots of links, so if you don't find what you want, keep scrolling down. It has a huge amount of great information, but it has been added onto many times so is not organized perfectly. You may need to look for specific things in random places.
But as a very minimum quickie summary, when you get your eggs they will have been shaken and vibrated a lot in shipping. First, remove any eggs that have been cracked or are leaking or are otherwise visibly damaged or horribly dirty (some debris is ok). Do not wash them!! Then just set them in an egg carton, preferably cardboard instead of plastic or styrofoam IMO,
pointy end down, in an area that is 50-60 degrees (the temp is important -- too cold and the embryo dies, too warm and it starts to develop before you want it to) for 24 hours. Let them rest after shipping so everything can settle into place before you start incubation. After they've rested for a day then candle them (some people do this before the rest -- it probably doesn't matter). Don't subject them to a lot of rolling around and movement, just enough to see if the air cell is attached, and also whether it has a normal shape. There are some pictures of abnormal air cells on the Hatching 101 link above. A detached air cell will move around like a bubble in a carpenter's level, and an attached air cell will stay in place.
If you've determined that your eggs need special handling based on air cell attachment or air cell shape, there are several examples of options on the link. If I need to keep an egg upright during incubation I keep it in the egg carton (or a small portion of the carton, depending on how much room I have in the incubator). I remove the top of the carton, and any extra egg slots that I don't need, but keep enough that the portion that I use is stable enough to remain upright (minimum of 4 egg slots, but it may be different for the Incuview, depending on how you will need to elevate the carton above the egg turning slide). Then I poke lots of holes into the egg cup of the cardboard. I try to poke them from the outside toward the inside, such that a little bit of cardboard pushes inward. That will help elevate the egg just slightly off the surface of the cardboard and increase air circulation to the shell surface. (You could also glue little bits of anything inside the egg cup for the same purpose, but this works well for me, so I haven't changed it.)
Before you order eggs, first make sure that your incubator achieves and holds the temp and humidity that you want (because realistically, 1-5% of new machines don't work the way they should). Ideally, since this will be a new incubator for you, run the incubator for several days or more when it first arrives to make sure it works properly. If you don't buy the humidity pump that comes with it, practice achieving different humidities, and what you need to do to change the humidity. It's different for different incubators, and sometimes isn't as easy as you would think. I lost my entire first hatch because I hadn't figured out how to do this beforehand. Learning this when there are live embryos responding to your mistakes usually has a very sad ending. Yes, your humidity will be different with a full incubator than with an empty incubator, but if you learn what it takes to increase and decrease the humidity the same principles will apply regardless of whether or not the incubator is full -- you'll just have a different starting point, and it may respond just a little quicker or slower, depending on what you're trying to do. (I will say that buying the humidity pump does make it much easier, but it also changes this from a mid-priced incubator to a higher-priced incubator.)
Lastly, do not put cool eggs into a hot incubator. The eggs need to warm up slowly, over several hours. This is much easier with a digital thermostat controlled incubator like the Incuview. I tend to go a little slow, some people go much quicker. I set the incubator temp for 5 degrees higher than the temp the eggs were stored in. Then I raise it by 5 degrees every hour until I've reached 99.5 degrees. I set a timer so I don't forget. If I'm short on time I do 10 degrees every hour, or 15 degrees. Before I had a digital incubator I just moved the eggs into progressively warmer areas in my house to allow them to warm up slowly, so the warming process doesn't have to be exact. It just shouldn't be 60 degrees to 99.5 degrees all in one step.
Since you're the teacher and have never hatched before, it would be a good idea if you are able to go to someone's house during a hatch to see it in person. Yes, you can watch videos, but it's different in real life. The videos only show the highlights, which are great, but it would be ideal if you could see the entire process. The kids will have lots of questions, and seeing your first hatch beforehand will make it easier for you to answer them. It's not 100% necessary, but would just make it easier.
Good luck with your hatch. I hope the kids love it. Be sure to have a brooder area available and ready before the chicks hatch. Sometimes they hatch as early as 18 days, or as late as 25 days, so don't count on nature to read the book. I like to lay down a paper towel, covered by that rubbery woven shelf paper, under the eggs on day 18 when I stop the egg turner. That keeps the incubator cleaner during the hatch, and gives the chicks better traction when they first learn to stand. Sometimes you can leave chicks in the incubator for a short time after they hatch, and sometimes chicks have to be removed from the incubator and put into the brooder to keep them from breaking the unhatched eggs. So having little cages available that you can put in the incubator to keep the newly hatched chick from moving all over, or having a brooder ready, can really help keep things under control. Have you already made arrangements for the chicks once they hatch? They grow SO fast, and remember that some of them will be roosters. Unless you get a sex-linked breed, you may not be able to tell which are males or females until they're 1-2 months old, so any homes they're placed into has to be aware of that also. Having lots of potential homes available before they hatch can make things easier. Sometimes there aren't homes available at the last minute, and you end up with laying hens in your spare bedroom and roosters in your spare bathroom -- and that just isn't good for anyone!!
