Mixed hatch dates

[LongRanch]

I have eggs on lockdown (day 18) tonight, and got new eggs today.. I removed all the older eggs from the auto turner after I did the last candling, and put the new ones in. Will the high humidity for the next few days compromise the new eggs? Or will it be okay since it's only going to be a few days? Right now humidity is 70%.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The high humidity probably won’t make any significant difference. Instantaneous humidity is not what’s important, it’s average humidity over the entire incubation period. Just run it a few percent low after your hatch for a few days to compensate.

Of more concern to me is that you are supposed to turn eggs when incubation starts. Turning is more important in early incubation than later, after two weeks turning is not important. How do you plan to turn them? If it’s with an automatic turner those pose a danger to the hatching chicks. They can get tangled up in them and injured.

Also, when chicks hatch they make a mess. They trail slimy goop after themselves as they crawl around plus they poop. They can make a mess on your eggs that can lead to them getting bacteria inside, which not only kills the embryo but can cause them to leak a foul fluid or even explode. You’ll need to clean your incubator well after the hatch anyway because of the poop and mess. Otherwise the entire incubator will really stink after a few days.

I don’t know what your incubator looks like but isolating the hatching chicks might be a really good idea. I can think of two possible ways to do that. Make a basket out of hardware cloth or something similar or use some kind of mesh basket, and set that over the early hatching eggs. Some people use plastic mesh baskets that fruit comes in. That isolates the filth. Or maybe you can build a fence across your incubator, again hardware cloth works well but use your imagination, to keep the early and late eggs separated.

Good luck with both hatches.

 

[LongRanch]

Thanks, yes they're in a turner -- it's not blocked off right now as it's big and slow and each hole has an egg in it so I didn't think any new chicks could really get tangled up in it. One hatched just a bit ago, so I won't open the lid quite yet.. once he's dried off, if I don't have any more pipping, maybe I'll just roll up a towel and place it beside the turner so they can't get close to it. I'll make sure to clean the bator out good once they're all done. Hopefully the bacteria won't affect these new eggs. I didn't think of that. I could have waited to put them in, but the fertility rate has been low on those ones so I didn't want to take any chances with waiting too long.