Staggering a hatch

[BrianT]

I am going to put some favorelle eggs in an icubator and was thinking to minimize the amount of time storing fertile eggs in less than ideal conditions I could set what I have in 7 days and then place another set after another seven days. Have any of you done this or is it a silly idea? Of course they would be marked differently. Thanks and let me know if you think I'm being ridiculous.

 

[RachaelS]

I did the same thing so I am going to jump on and see what others say

 

[kimandrich]

I've heard of people doing that..I guess as long as you don't use an automatic turner, it could be done..

I wouldn't do it. I like keeping my incubator shut as much as I can.

I'll follow this and see how well you do, if you decide to do it.

 

[jvls1942]

that is a good way to do it.. then there should be no pips when adding eggs or removing chicks.

I do not know why you should not use auto turner for this ?

I mark my eggs with the month and date of hatch.. then I position the egg so that I can read the date without opening the bator..

 

[Saltysteele]

you're going to be told you can, you're going to be told you can't.

the fella we bought our incubator from is using 3 newer ones, and hadn't used this one in a while. he hatches gamebirds and rare chickens. some of the pheasants he hatches, if he can get the bird out the door are $600/day old chick (not a typo). he has imported eggs from the zoo in Beijing China, blue laced silver wyandottes from the netherlands. the production company that produced Mummy, return of the king (or whatever the 2nd Mummy movie with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was called), contacted him and purchased pheasant feathers to make a head dress for the movie.

he has some amazing birds, and VERY VERY expensive birds. he has been doing this for years, and his grandfather (who taught him) purchased this incubator in 1956.

he hatched staggered batches in this incubator, and does staggered batches in his other incubators.

no offense to anyone here, but am i going to take advice on whether i can stagger batches or not from someone hatching $2, $5 or $10 chicks, or am I going to believe the guy who is hatching $600 chicks? this guy has thousands of dollars worth of chicks in his incubators.

now, that is not saying you can the same thing in your incubator. i've noticed with this incubator (a redwood incubator, most likely made by Leahy, but sold under the Brower name) recoups it's temp and humidity with 2-3 minutes of closing the door back up.

once again, sorry to seem poopy, but it gets frustrating seeing people telling other people they absolutely can or cannot do something, when they are just telling you what they know based on what someone has told them (which was probably told to that person, and so on and so on)

 

[jvls1942]

salty s , how many staggard hatches have you done so far in that incubator?

 

[Bnemeth]

I do staggered hatches with my call duck eggs and I collect every 7 days - usually set on Sunday nights and they start hatching Thurs/Fri and complete over the weekend. I tried collecting 14 days on time (I was going out of town and had to skip a hatch weekend) and my fertility went down some. I have 2 incubators going though - one for eggs until lock down and one for hatching/lockdown. I just move over the eggs that are ready for lock down to the other bator. That way the turner doesn't need to be removed or humidity adjusted for the eggs that are not ready to hatch. I also candle and mist my eggs during incubation about every 3 days - opening the bator hasn't affected them but ducks need a little more humidity then chickens. If you're opening the bator once a week to set new eggs that shouldn't hurt them either. I'm not claiming this is right or wrong but its worked for me. Good luck and happy hatching!

 

[Saltysteele]

2 staggered hatches at this point, next week will be 3rd

 

[sodabottlebantams]

you shouldnt have any problem with staggering your eggs as long as they are marked. we have 3 incubators and hatch off year round.

 

[Ceinwyn]

Staggered hatches in a redwood isn't the same as staggered hatches in a LG.
It's all relative.
The problems start if you only have one incubator for both hatching and incubating and your eggs require different humidity levels and half are no longer turned.