Sorry to tell you this but I'm afraid it won't be :-D
The Great Egg Shipping Experiment!
- Thread starter Wisher1000
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #173
Soon, Grasshopper, very soon.I have been leaving the bator alone for 6 days now! It is still doing great keeping a constant temp and humidity is staying at 30%. Now if it will just be that easy when the eggs arrive.
that is the hardest part for me. Well actually there are two times and I blame a lot of failing hatches on them. You get the bator stabilized, you put the eggs in and everything goes wonky. The eggs are cooler bringing the temp down then when they heat up, its like having a hot brick in there and suddenly the temps are high. Then I go thru a similar problem at lockdown, take the eggs out of the turner and put them on the rack and just because they are 1/2 an inch lower stabilizing a temp is near impossible. All you experts can chime in at any time because I still don't really have this worked out.
- Thread starter
- #175
I think the answer is simple, but VERY difficult.......leave it alone!
If your thermostat holds the temp without eggs, it will hold the temp with the eggs. I know that it is so hard to look at your eggs in there, at the wrong temp (too low) and do nothing. But you have to, it will regulate itself.
The humidity change will affect the temp, as will heat loss from opening the bator, and having to make up the difference with the cooler eggs, but it will all level out and stay at the pre-egg temp eventually. It is imperative that once you open the top for any reason, or add eggs, that you don't adjust the thermostat for at least 24 hours afterward (you will find that it is not necessary at all, most of the time.) Heat sinks like Jess uses, water filled bottles, or sterilized stones, help tremendously in keeping the temp swings to a minimum.
If your thermostat holds the temp without eggs, it will hold the temp with the eggs. I know that it is so hard to look at your eggs in there, at the wrong temp (too low) and do nothing. But you have to, it will regulate itself.
The humidity change will affect the temp, as will heat loss from opening the bator, and having to make up the difference with the cooler eggs, but it will all level out and stay at the pre-egg temp eventually. It is imperative that once you open the top for any reason, or add eggs, that you don't adjust the thermostat for at least 24 hours afterward (you will find that it is not necessary at all, most of the time.) Heat sinks like Jess uses, water filled bottles, or sterilized stones, help tremendously in keeping the temp swings to a minimum.
couldn't have said it better myself!
Cant wait to see them
just reading thru this thread, thought i'd put my 2c in... maybe my experiences will help others who might have problems or questions...
i just got done hatching some eggs for a friend. 12 shipped RIR eggs (1 was cracked and waxed), 6 of her own 'homegrown' (3 from silkie 3 from sfh pullets) and 3 of my own (2 EE 1 buff orp/)... these eggs were shipped directly to my friend, who lives about 2 hours away now (wish she hadn't had to move). our own homegrown eggs were not purebred, but mixed flocks.
for background, this is my setup...
I use a hovabator picture window with wafter thermostat (have 4 actually) with added fan (use 12v computer fans running on 6-9v cell phone chargers) and egg turners for 3 of them. the 4th is a dedicated hatcher only, with a disposable plastic container (about 2cup size rectangular) with a hardware cloth wire lid (to keep chicks from jumping in) for humidity. The hatcher is lined with paper towel and a 30-egg crage (either paper or plastic) on top of the paper, with the bowl in one corner for the hatching eggs. I prefer this to laying them on the floor, as hatched chicks seem to roll eggs around horribly. when the bowl is filled, the humidity goes to about 60% and will vary once chicks start hatching, up to about 75% briefly. temps on hatcher and incubators are all right at 99.5 but vary slightly (+/- 1 degree) depending on what the heating element is doing (just turned on, just turned off).
i dry incubate, usually between 10 and 15% this time of year, 15-20% in the summer. (yes, you read that right). I ignore everything, for the most part, candling on day 5, 7 and 10 to check for growth (some darker eggs are harder to see early on) and again when eggs go into the hatcher on day 18, candled once more on day 19 to check for internal pips, unless i see external pips then i leave it be.
so these eggs were shipped to my friend, then driven the next day up to me and incubated immediately, with the turner set as flat as i can catch it (no tilt). I start turning all eggs on day 3, regardless of shipped or local. by day 10 it was obvious 3 of the shipped, the 3 sfh pullet & 1 of my EE eggs were clear. the cracked egg was growing well even!
on day 18, all the eggs were still cooking along, on day 19, it was obvious most had internally pipped. by the end of day 20 i had 8 chicks hatched and were removed to the brooder (i use a squirt bottle to wet the paper towel on the bottom when taking chicks out, to get the humidity up fast), 4 more pipped who were all out by the next morning. the cracked egg appears to have quit around day 19 or so, and the other pipped in the small end and appears to have suffocated in it's own blood when a few vessels were ruptured while zipping. not sure what day that happenned, as i discovered the fact when i removed the last 4 to the brooder.
calculating hatch rate, some people count infertile/clear eggs, others don't. i don't tend to count clears myself, since that had nothing to do with my own hatching abilities, so that would give me 78% hatch on the shipped eggs, 100% of our homegrown eggs (even tho hers were transported by car 2 hours,so technically shipped as well).
with the dry incubation, i've had great results on shipped eggs from a number of sources (bhep, DMRippy, luckypickens to name a few). from those same people, using higher humidities (prior to going totally dry) hatch rates were around 20%, with most lost during hatching because they were too wet.
oh and i live in sw virginia, where humidity in the house is 35-40% over the winter and 60%+ in the summer...
hope this helps others...
i just got done hatching some eggs for a friend. 12 shipped RIR eggs (1 was cracked and waxed), 6 of her own 'homegrown' (3 from silkie 3 from sfh pullets) and 3 of my own (2 EE 1 buff orp/)... these eggs were shipped directly to my friend, who lives about 2 hours away now (wish she hadn't had to move). our own homegrown eggs were not purebred, but mixed flocks.
for background, this is my setup...
I use a hovabator picture window with wafter thermostat (have 4 actually) with added fan (use 12v computer fans running on 6-9v cell phone chargers) and egg turners for 3 of them. the 4th is a dedicated hatcher only, with a disposable plastic container (about 2cup size rectangular) with a hardware cloth wire lid (to keep chicks from jumping in) for humidity. The hatcher is lined with paper towel and a 30-egg crage (either paper or plastic) on top of the paper, with the bowl in one corner for the hatching eggs. I prefer this to laying them on the floor, as hatched chicks seem to roll eggs around horribly. when the bowl is filled, the humidity goes to about 60% and will vary once chicks start hatching, up to about 75% briefly. temps on hatcher and incubators are all right at 99.5 but vary slightly (+/- 1 degree) depending on what the heating element is doing (just turned on, just turned off).
i dry incubate, usually between 10 and 15% this time of year, 15-20% in the summer. (yes, you read that right). I ignore everything, for the most part, candling on day 5, 7 and 10 to check for growth (some darker eggs are harder to see early on) and again when eggs go into the hatcher on day 18, candled once more on day 19 to check for internal pips, unless i see external pips then i leave it be.
so these eggs were shipped to my friend, then driven the next day up to me and incubated immediately, with the turner set as flat as i can catch it (no tilt). I start turning all eggs on day 3, regardless of shipped or local. by day 10 it was obvious 3 of the shipped, the 3 sfh pullet & 1 of my EE eggs were clear. the cracked egg was growing well even!
on day 18, all the eggs were still cooking along, on day 19, it was obvious most had internally pipped. by the end of day 20 i had 8 chicks hatched and were removed to the brooder (i use a squirt bottle to wet the paper towel on the bottom when taking chicks out, to get the humidity up fast), 4 more pipped who were all out by the next morning. the cracked egg appears to have quit around day 19 or so, and the other pipped in the small end and appears to have suffocated in it's own blood when a few vessels were ruptured while zipping. not sure what day that happenned, as i discovered the fact when i removed the last 4 to the brooder.
calculating hatch rate, some people count infertile/clear eggs, others don't. i don't tend to count clears myself, since that had nothing to do with my own hatching abilities, so that would give me 78% hatch on the shipped eggs, 100% of our homegrown eggs (even tho hers were transported by car 2 hours,so technically shipped as well).
with the dry incubation, i've had great results on shipped eggs from a number of sources (bhep, DMRippy, luckypickens to name a few). from those same people, using higher humidities (prior to going totally dry) hatch rates were around 20%, with most lost during hatching because they were too wet.
oh and i live in sw virginia, where humidity in the house is 35-40% over the winter and 60%+ in the summer...
hope this helps others...
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #180
Are you going to post the pics tonight? I will wait up for that........
besides, I have eggs to wrap and pack for Bama1!
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