newbie at incubating, I have ?'s

[silkieflock]

I am planning on hatching silkies and thought I would try incubating some eggs I had available first as a test.
I decided to build my own incubator and have a lot of questions.

1.dirty eggs I have 1 1/2 dozen eggs that collected quite a bit of poop. Am I wasting my time in trying to hatch them?

2. Temp changes How much temperature change can eggs handle? The light bulb i have doesn't heat the ice chest up very fast, so when I need to turn eggs, things will cool quite a bit. Does the egg hold enough heat that a few minutes will be fine?

I have more questions but I will get these out of the way first.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

1. light sandpaper to get most off and incubate them.
2. 99.5 to 102.5 shooting for 99.5 though, and yes the hens actually leave the eggs in natural incubation as well.

NEXT......

Edited for poor spelling

 

[silkieflock]

1. Do I need to wake up in the middle of the night to turn the eggs?

2. This is a practice run before I get silkie eggs to hatch, so far, it seems as though all eggs seem to go at about the same temp. is this correct?

3. Is it possible I can regulate the temperature without a thermostat(using vent holes to equalize temp)?

 

[Cindiloohoo]

1. No
2. Yes
3. Yes, but make sure you have an accurate thermometer/hygrometer.

NEXT!! This is fun..

 

[silkieflock]

I started my eggs and the humidity keeps rising. will it level off and drop soon? Maybe my hygrometer is bad? Will the eggs sweat a lot if the humidity is too high? I havn't seen any sweat yet but what do I do if humidity stays high? do I need to be really concerned for the first few days?

 

[Cindiloohoo]

If the humidity is high take out some of the water or get a smaller tray. High humidity throughout the process can be bad for the chicks. Get it under control as soon as possible. 30-40% is ideal. It will fluctuate but needs to be as close as possible. The last 3 days it's crucial to have it up to at least 55-65% so that the eggs don't get too dry and the membrane sticks to the chicks. If that happens you will have to help them out of their shells.

 

[silkieflock]

The temp got up to 96 so i opened the vents. One is high and the other is low so it pushes extra hot air out. When I opened them, the humidity started to drop. I am keeping a close eye on it. is it possible to turn the eggs too often?

 

[Cindiloohoo]

96 temp is not high enough. What r u using for your humidity control? Sponge? Bowl? Surface area is what matters. If u have a 5x5 inch surface area for instance and getting high humidity, and want to reduce it...switch to say a 4x4 inch surface area and graduate down until the humidity id where you want. That temp needs to stay up. You will have to figure out how to reduce the humidity and be able to leave the incubator closed to not let the temp. drop.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Eggs should be turned 3-5 times a day. No more. No less.

 

[silkieflock]

I am not stopping heat at 96, just slowing it down. it is still slowly heating. I am using a 9x13 pan with three kitchen style sponges. I will watch it for a while longer as humidity is still dropping. Thanks for the info. Will vibrations bother embryo?