NEED HELP!!!!! What to do with different dated batches of eggs in incubator

[jen1]

I have roughly 30 eggs @ 22 days tonight. I have a GQF cabinet (I believe 500 egg capacity) so I put in different batches of eggs to incubate...not thinking about the humidity factor. I can move the eggs that are due to hatch into the hatch tray in the bottom (so they are no longer turning) but I forgot about the increase in humidity for the other eggs which are not due to hatch yet. What should I do?

 

[R2elk]

I have roughly 30 eggs @ 22 days tonight. I have a GQF cabinet (I believe 500 egg capacity) so I put in different batches of eggs to incubate...not thinking about the humidity factor. I can move the eggs that are due to hatch into the hatch tray in the bottom (so they are no longer turning) but I forgot about the increase in humidity for the other eggs which are not due to hatch yet. What should I do?

What I have done is to move the eggs that are on day 25 to the hatching tray and continued to turn the others. I also raised the humidity to a compromise level between what I would incubate at and what I would hatch at. Since it is only for a few days, the higher humidity should not harm the other eggs.

This is why it is best to have both an incubator and a hatcher or at least a second incubator that can be used as a hatcher.

You did not mention what the humidity level is at for your incubator or what level you intend to use for hatching.

Good luck.

 

[jen1]

Is the hatcher an incubator used for just hatching or is it a separate bator? I had my humidity around 55% then bumped it to 75-80%. I read different numbers but the literature says guinea eggs need high humidity to hatch. I assume b/c the shells are so thick. Good idea to have a hatcher though. I did hatch 16 keets from 31 eggs. Not great #s but not horrible either. I was hoping for 75-80 % at least on the hatching %.

 

[R2elk]

Is the hatcher an incubator used for just hatching or is it a separate bator? I had my humidity around 55% then bumped it to 75-80%. I read different numbers but the literature says guinea eggs need high humidity to hatch. I assume b/c the shells are so thick. Good idea to have a hatcher though. I did hatch 16 keets from 31 eggs. Not great #s but not horrible either. I was hoping for 75-80 % at least on the hatching %.

An actual hatcher does not have the egg turning capability of a proper incubator since the eggs do not need to be turned during lock down. Mine is a cabinet incubator that serves as both incubator and hatcher. My hatching tray sits on the floor of the incubator.

I run my humidity in the 20% - 30% range during incubation. For lock down, I raise the humidity to 60%. These conditions work for me in an arid environment as the house humidity is less than 10%. I am also at a mile high elevation which also affects the incubation process.

I did last year have a 100% hatch on my own properly stored guinea eggs but my disclaimer is that what works for me may or may not work for someone else under different conditions.

I learned the hard way that it is very important to not close vents during lock down. It is more important to have good oxygen levels than it is to raise the humidity as high as possible. With my set up I cannot get the humidity above 60% without closing vents so I settle for 60% humidity during lock down. I have done lock down with the humidity as low as 45% and still had good success hatching.

The other important thing about the humidity levels is that there are almost no digital hygrometers that are accurate through the whole humidity range. While it is easy to calibrate them at the 75% mark, that does not guarantee any sort of accuracy in the humidity ranges that I use.

Enjoy your 16 little cuties.