New at the hatching game :)

[TriplettFamily]

Very new at the hatching game. We got 36 Rhode Island Red Eggs today and an incubator was given to us. Its a styrofoam one and i have it plugged up and will be putting them in there tomorrow evening. I have the water in there and its plugged up to reach temperature. If anyone has any tips please pass them my way. Thanks

 

[gabrielle1976]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-incubate-hatch-eggs-just-21-days-from-egg-to-chicken

Is a basic starting point. Though alot of us prefer our humidity closer to 35-40 % instead of 50% for the first 18 days.
My best advice to start off with is have at least 2 (and 3 is better) devices to track tempature and at least 1 to track humidity. Is your bator still air or fan?
Run it and watch the temps carefully and dont put eggs in till the temp has been stable for at least 12 hours.
Remmber once you put the eggs in the temp often drops for a little while , You DO NOT need to adjust for that , give it a good few hours to make sure that the eggs have plenty of time to warm up to bator temp , there cooler then the bator .
Does it have a turner ? If so turn it on so any changes to the temp are cought befor the eggs are in there. The eggs will go in fat end up when its all ready . No turner mark one side with an X and one with an O and lay them in the bator ( when its ready) on there sides and turn them at least 3 times a day from x-o and back

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

Use a thermometer/hydrometer in the incubator to double check the temp. That would be my biggest piece of advise so far. I'm hatching for the first time too and my thermometer on the bator was off by 8 degrees and the hydrometer was worse!

 

[TriplettFamily]

Thanks for the advice!!! I really appreciate it!!! I let the still air bater sit for 24 hours and made sure it was at 99.5 for over 12 of those so i think the temp was fine. Its the hydrometer i am worried about....I couldnt find one yesterday. I just filled my water hulls up and will try my best to find one again this evening. Crazy question for someone....i plan on candling my eggs in between days 7 and 10. Will the temp difference matter when i take them out one by one to candle? Hopefully I will see some results in 21 days

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

Thanks for the advice!!! I really appreciate it!!! I let the still air bater sit for 24 hours and made sure it was at 99.5 for over 12 of those so i think the temp was fine. Its the hydrometer i am worried about....I couldnt find one yesterday. I just filled my water hulls up and will try my best to find one again this evening. Crazy question for someone....i plan on candling my eggs in between days 7 and 10. Will the temp difference matter when i take them out one by one to candle? Hopefully I will see some results in 21 days

Mamma hens have to get up every so often so as long as you don't take longer than 15 minutes or so candling you should be ok. Shorter is better though.

My plan is just to take the lid off, candle as fast as safely possible and refill the water troughs while I am at it. That way I don't have to open it again until the next refill.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Good Luck! your welcome to my notes! https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101

 

[TriplettFamily]

Awesome thanks for the input! So far so good....hopefully we will have beautiful Rhode Island Red Chicks around the 1st of February

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Awesome!!!

 

[LuvMyRoo]

Awesome thanks for the input! So far so good....hopefully we will have beautiful Rhode Island Red Chicks around the 1st of February

Welcome to BYC! And congrats on your eggs. We are new at hatching too, I'm hooked though! Our first group is due to hatch 1/27. They are FBCM. Good luck!