Seeking Opinions: Remove the eggs, or wait and see?

[Lizz9311]

I currently have 17 eggs in an incubator. On Friday (day 10 of incubation), I culled 3 from my original 20 and confirmed through eggtopsy those 3 had blood rings.

It is now day 14 and I just candled my remaining 17 eggs. I have 10 which appear to be measuring around day 11-12 of development and 7 which are right on track for day 14. There is a very slim chance this could in fact be accurate for those eggs, but I am fairly certain the eggs I put in the incubator were only a day apart.

My question to you: Would you remove the eggs which appear younger now or leave them in and "see" what happens? Would you wait until right before lock down, candle again, then remove if they show no further development? Is it safe to candle right before lock down like that?

 

[keith92]

leave them. i take it you are using a still air incubator, cause i had this same problem with my first 2 hatches, hatch 3 went awsome after i bought a forced air with gadgets and did dry hatch.

 

[Lizz9311]

Yes, it is a still air incubator.

Quote: How did your first hatches go? Did you succeed in hatching a good amount of the eggs put in? I'd be happy with just the 7 I've confirmed are developing right along schedule, but I need to know if I'm going to wind up with more than that for spacing issues.

 

[MrsBachbach]

leave them.  i take it you are using a still air incubator, cause i had this same problem with my first 2 hatches, hatch 3 went awsome after i bought a forced air with gadgets and did dry hatch.  

When you say "dry" hatch, do you add any water at all? Is the room you have your incubator in humid?

 

[keith92]

first 2 were a disaster. high humidity was more harmful than helpful. high humidity does two things, it decreases your temps and increases the growth of your chicks in the shell. this leads to breach chicks which cant get out of the shell( upside down chicks) and drowning in the air sac. still air incubators are awsome to start out with cause you actually learn what not to do. dry incubating is done by not ading water and using the room humidity and egg as your source of humidity. 3rd time was a charm. 25 chicks. first 2 batches 2 chicks using still air bator and humidity. these weren't my first 3 hatches ever. i used to hatch the hell out of eggs dry incubating when i was a kid 20 years ago, i just forgot and had to learn all over again. as for the eggs that seem behind. just wait, the odds aren't very good at all they will hatch but your going to be ****** when you crack them open and they are moving.

 

[keith92]

Mrs Bach Bach, i see your in ARK, im in Iowa. Our humidity levels in our region are going to be similar. My basement humidity levels are kept around 50% using a dehumidifier. with the red plugs out that is all the humidity i need till lockdown. i kept daily logs on high temp/low temp avgd 99.5, kept Room humidity around 50% can be slightly higher or lower, room temp was between 66-70 a basement is ideal and added NO water for the first 19 days. day 19 took BCmaran eggs out of turner added only a little water 1/2 the smallest cell and they started hatching on day 20. this was with a forced air incubator and not a still air little giant. i kept eggs for 18 days to test that theory as well. nothing older than 14 days old hatched. my basement looked like a science project with spread sheets taped up and incubators running.

 

[Lizz9311]

high humidity was more harmful than helpful. high humidity does two things, it decreases your temps and increases the growth of your chicks in the shell. this leads to breach chicks which cant get out of the shell( upside down chicks) and drowning in the air sac. still air incubators are awsome to start out with cause you actually learn what not to do.

What do you mean by high humidity? I keep the humidity in my 'bator at 50-55% and the only time that fluctuates is when I'm turning eggs or candling them. Otherwise, it's constant. The humidity in my basement right now is very low, not sure on exactly how low, but I don't see how I could raise it even with a dehumidifier simply because it's such an open space.

 

[keith92]

you can't raise humidity with a dehumidifier, this takes moisture out of the air. a humidifier is a way to add humidity to the air.

 

[spotsplus]

I'd keep them in the incubator and see how it goes. I've dry hatched with fairly good success. I've had better success when I started using the humidity around 50% up until the last 3 days then going with 65% humidity.

 

[Lizz9311]

I'd keep them in the incubator and see how it goes. I've dry hatched with fairly good success. I've had better success when I started using the humidity around 50% up until the last 3 days then going with 65% humidity.

That was my plan. On day 18, I will be raising the humidity to 65-70% and going into "lock down".