Now I'm confused.....!!???

[NestingHillsSC]

Forget that. I did throw in 5 of my Pekin Duck eggs. That's another week. Not expecting much from them though. Was pretty cold in the mornings when I was collecting eggs for this. Dang ducks lay very early in the morning. And they drop them were they fell like it. Getting better to lay in there little open front house I built them. There learning.

 

[yinepu]

Forget that. I did throw in 5 of my Pekin Duck eggs. That's another week. Not expecting much from them though. Was pretty cold in the mornings when I was collecting eggs for this. Dang ducks lay very early in the morning. And they drop them were they fell like it. Getting better to lay in there little open front house I built them. There learning.

Don't count them out. A couple of weeks ago someone asked about their eggs that were oozing.. and wondered if perhaps they had been frozen..
So I did a little experiment

froze 6 eggs for 15 hours.. (5 split.. the 6th seemed to be ok)... and then I froze two additional eggs for an hour
After bring them back to room temperature I put the 6th egg and the two who had been frozen for an hour into an incubator
after just over a week I broke them open.. the one that had been frozen for 15 hours showed no sign of life..
the two that had been frozen for an hour were forming very healthy little embryos

none of the eggs oozed btw.. so that led me to believe that the oozing eggs they had encountered were in fact old eggs

 

[OR4-hmom]

I loaded some eggs that had been sitting out in my unheated canning kitchen for 4/5 days. We have been in the low 30s at night and they are doing about same as the eggs I had inside at 70°.

 

[NestingHillsSC]

Nice!!

 

[Bill 101]

AWWWWWWW yes, the crazies.

Quote:
A bit of advice ----- They don't hatch any faster because you hover over them. The one thing you need is PATIENCE, & it's really hard.
The more you handle them the more chance of problems. Candle on day 7, remove those that are infertile (they should be obvious by then), candle at day 14, remove any that have died or don't look like the rest. Spend you time gazing, if you like, but keep the incubator closed as much as possible. If you have to be doing SOMETHING keep checking temperature & humidity. The closer you can keep those 2, the better the hatch.
When you candle, don't worry to much about how long you keep them out of the incubator. A hen will get off a nest to eat & drink, & that exposes the eggs to cooling & it doesn't hurt them at all. With Duck eggs they found that cooling actually benefits hatching rates. I take the lid off the incubator & set it aside, candle ALL the eggs & then put the lid back on & let the incubator come back up to temp, never have had a problem. The whole process probably takes 10 minutes or less.

 

[NestingHillsSC]

With this homemade incubator I have to hand turn them. Was doing it 6x a day. But I only do it 4x now.

 

[yinepu]

With this homemade incubator I have to hand turn them. Was doing it 6x a day. But I only do it 4x now.

lol.. I turn mine 5 times a day

 

[NestingHillsSC]

Yea. might be 5x. LOL. 4-5. I just have such a big fan in it. That when I open it it blows a lot of the warm air out. But heats back up really fast too though. I need to do some modifications to it when this batch is done. That will be a whole different thread. LOL.

 

[Bill 101]

Turning 4 times a day is sufficient, When I hand turned (I have a turner, but decided I didn't need it) I turned 3 times a day. At 6AM, 12 Noon & 6PM. They hatched just as well as the turner, turning every hour..
The faster the heat comes up to temp, the better. I don't think I'd change the fan, it just produces more circulation inside & that would keep your temperature more consistent throughout the bator.

 

[yinepu]

Turning 4 times a day is sufficient, When I hand turned (I have a turner, but decided I didn't need it) I turned 3 times a day. At 6AM, 12 Noon & 6PM. They hatched just as well as the turner, turning every hour..
The faster the heat comes up to temp, the better. I don't think I'd change the fan, it just produces more circulation inside & that would keep your temperature more consistent throughout the bator.

A hen will turn eggs about 96 times a day.. so there isn't really any maximum that a person should turn them

And yeah... that fan could be an issue. If it blows directly onto the eggs it can cause shrink wrapping if the chick makes a large pip and then rests.. (and that's even with HIGH humidity at hatch.. fan placement can be more detrimental to a hatch than humidity levels can)