replacing infertile eggs in incubator (instead of removing them)?

[NatJ]

I am wondering if instead of removing infertile eggs I could replace them with fresh ones and by that increase number of eggs that will develop. I would have to do it as early as possible.

You could get a second incubator, and use it as a "hatcher."

With two incubators, it can work well to set eggs on a weekly schedule.

Every week, you candle the eggs that have been incubating for one week and the ones that have been in for two weeks. Discard any infertiles, and any that died during their second week.

Then set new eggs until the incubator is full again.

A few days later, move the 2.5 week eggs into the second incubator.
Lock them down with the appropriate humidity for hatching.
After the chicks hatch, move them to the brooder and clean the hatcher (the incubator they hatched in.)
By then, it should be just about the right day to move in the next set of eggs (the ones that were set a week later.)

I regularly run hatches in separate incubators and combine in the brooder with up to a 2 week delay.

I have also combined chicks that hatched a week and even two weeks apart, and I have read of other people who do it as well.

As long as the brooder is large enough, and the newly hatched ones are fairly steady on their legs, it usually isn't a big deal to put different ages together.

 

[CanadaEh]

Can you separate the flock for a few days to get a good rooster to hen ratio for a short time?

don't have space for that. And if I could it would slow down egg collection having to collect from fewer hens (meaning some of the eggs would be much older than 10 days recommended)

And/or start more eggs than will fit in the incubator so you end up with enough to fill it during the more sensitive time periods?

how can I start more eggs than will fit in the incubator?

 

[CanadaEh]

my biggest concern would be chinese incubator. they cook the eggs. for some unknown reason the temperature goes too high at some stage and kills the embryos. the best thing to do might be to set lower temperature than needed. it may take a day or 2 more to hatch.

I use 2 additional thermometers for control, mine does not cook eggs/

another problem is if the room's night temperature is much lower than day's temperature it will affect the inside incubator temperature. chinese incubators are not meant for winter hatching. good luck!

I hatch in the basement which is stable at 10C/50F for weeks. Also incubator is styroform insulated, so there it is not much affected by outside temperature fluctuation.

 

[saysfaa]

...how can I start more eggs than will fit in the incubator?

Isn't temperature much more important than humidity in the beginning? It isn't too hard to get the right temperature outside the incubator. Not ignoring the humidity but not needing it as precisely targeted either. Just for the few days to a week until you can candle which were fertilized.