When you lay them on their side..do you still have to turn them a few times a day?
Day 1 - 18, these were in an auto-turner. Like Catherine said, from Day 18 - hatch they don't want to be turned.
What is the water bottle for?
I fill however many water bottles there are room for (depends on how many eggs are hatching that week) with 100 degree water when I set up the hatcher and don't have to wait for it to heat up --- just plug in the hatcher, add the hot bottles and eggs --- no waiting. And *hopefully* the bottles keep eggs from getting rolled to the cooler corners/edges. And act as a heat sink/stabilizer, too. No fan in my hatcher, so every little bit helps.
Hmmm, who do I know that might have babyfood jars... edited to add: It was not a perfect hatch --- 14 chicks from 17 eggs. It was FaBuLouS though compared to the results I was getting using the 'carton method'. That was discouraging, because my hatch rate dropped to 50% using cartons in the hatcher.
I tried and tried --- 6 or 7 weeks worth of hatches, but it just wasn't working here.
it makes a big difference to HATCH quail eggs in a carton but chicken eggs hatch better when layed on their sides. Most hatcheries hatch there eggs on there sides. Just my two cents. Turners work great for incubation but not for hatching.
So just to clarify, it is okay to turn them in cartons, but need to take them out and lay them on their sides for the hatching part (days 19-21). Correct?
Hi! Some people have good luck actually hatching upright in cartons.
I was trying to remember why I tried it again and I *think* it was because I knew the humidity in the incubator was higher than usual and thought it might help (it's been wetwetwet here).
The Del chicks are as big as the 2-wk-old Silkie chicks, wow. I bet I'll have to move them to their own brooder soon.
The 2 Ameraucana chicks:
This weeks Silkie chick has that same craaazy all-over foot feathering as the one last week .
And this is the chick from the Cuckoo green-egger pen. No headspot, so it's a female and didn't inherit barring.
Thanks
