Pretty Please Help me with this Dilema.....

[fiset94]

Thank you SO much for reading my post....


~I'm new to Incubating.. ( first time)

~I bought a Hovabator - still Air with Automatic turner- Wish I would of gotten the one with the fan after seeing how important it is!

~It is set at 100.5 at the top of the egg... and Humidity is at 55%


~I purchased eggs through ebay- got my partial shipment in on Wednesday- (Serema Chick eggs)

~ Delays in P.O made the remainder of the eggs not show up until today- (Friday)

~ I placed the Serema Eggs in on Friday and intend to place the other eggs in on Saturday.


Here is where I REALLY Need advice. - The Serema eggs hatch in aprox. 19 days... my other eggs are 21 days.

When I go into lockdown.. and take them all out of the egg turner.... How am I supposed to hand turn my other eggs with out harming the Serama eggs? I read that If I open the bator in Lock down I could shrink wrap my babies... I just don't know what to do- Can the other eggs go 6 days with out being turned? ( The last 3 of the 6 days - those other eggs will be in lockdown.)

Michele

 

[Ridgerunner]

Relax. Life is not that bad.

An egg needs to be turned early in incubation for two main reasons. Turning helps the body parts form in the right place. Turning also keeps the yolk or developing chick from contacting the porous egg shell, where it could get stuck and dry out.

By day 14 the body parts have formed. Scratch that reason off the list. By day 14 a membrane has formed around the chick and yolk, protecting it from the inside of the shell. Soon after that the chick is so big it can’t avoid the inside of the shell anyway. That’s the same membrane that can shrink wrap a chick. So scratch that reason for turning off the list. The chicken eggs really don’t need to be turned after 14 days, so you will be fine.

It is possible you could shrink wrap a chick by opening the incubator after the egg has pipped. It is possible you could have a fender bender next time you drive to the grocery. Because something is possible doesn’t mean it will happen for sure. Lots of people open the incubator during lockdown without a problem, but occasionally eggs do get shrink wrapped. It can even happen without opening the incubator during lockdown if you incubating humidity is too low. It’s possible. I consider it good practice to not open the incubator during lockdown because it is possible it could cause a problem. But if I need to open it to handle a situation, I open it and take that risk.

Welcome to the adventure.

 

[lazy gardener]

Put them all into lock down at the same time. Skipping the turning on the late entry eggs won't hurt them. The bigger concern would be if the extra few days of humidity don't allow the air cells to increase in size enough to allow them to hatch well. Best practice is not to stagger hatch. But, if I was going to be stuck in a situation of having to stagger hatch, it would be best to have it such that they all go into lock down at the same time. One thing I suggest is that, if you have room, you could put a divider in at lock down to keep the later eggs separate from the hatchers. Perhaps a plastic or wire basket? Be sure the sides are tall enough. After they get out of those eggs, they can be amazingly agile.

 

[fiset94]

Thank you so much for all the great advice! I appreciate you taking the time to read my post and respond so quickly.

I will put in practice the above suggestions and hopefully have some beautiful baby chicks to show for it!

Michele



Edit to add a * good grief* moment....


So on the bator the light kept switching off... So I assumed that the heat needed to go up... 102 degrees later... I can't get it back down.. I call the company and they informed me that the light comes on and off... naturally to regulate the temp. I can't believe that I thought that the light has to be on the whole time. I literally set my clock every 15 min to go down and check to make sure that the light stayed on!! and when it turned off... I spent another 15 min getting it to turn on again!! Seriously... I can't believe that I spend the last 5 hours fighting with the light!!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I only have one thing to add. Still air incubators are recommended to be used at 101-102F (measured near the top of the eggs), despite the generally recommended temps that manufacturer's instructions list at 99.5F which is the average recommended for still air.

 

[lazy gardener]

I only have one thing to add. Still air incubators are recommended to be used at 101-102F (measured near the top of the eggs), despite the generally recommended temps that manufacturer's instructions list at 99.5F which is the average recommended for still air.

AmyLynn: Above post a bit confusing. Did you mean still air = 101 - 102, and forced air + 99.5?

ETA: correction! and forced air = 99.5?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

AmyLynn: Above post a bit confusing. Did you mean still air = 101 - 102, and forced air + 99.5?

LOL. That's exactly what I was trying to say, while acknowledging that these still air bator's manufacturer's instructions say 99.5.

 

[lazy gardener]

LOL. That's exactly what I was trying to say, while acknowledging that these still air bator's manufacturer's instructions say 99.5.

Frustrating when even the manufacturers can't even get it right!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Frustrating when even the manufacturers can't even get it right!

I absolutely hate manufacturer's instructions. They mislead new hatchers, both with the temps on the still air, because most of them list 99.5 whether it's still or forced, and a lot of them will say fill the water wells "this" full for the first 17 days....it doesn't take any variables into consideration and when your new, you don't understand all that and you just follow what the instructions say, because you figure they know what they are talking about. So aggrevating.

 

[fiset94]

So....... You are saying that 100 degrees is too low for top of egg and it needs to be closer to 101-102?

Right now my temp is at 100.4

Michele