What stage are my eggs at and humidity control!

[kelciep14]

Hi everyone,

Eggs were pulled and candled them and now, here I am, incubating chicken eggs.

I have done my research, looked at photos, etc. and I am having quite the time figuring out at what point (day) my eggs are at. I pulled all, but 2 of them, on the same day, with the understanding that at most, they were sitting for 2 days therefore once I started incubating them, I started my "21 day countdown".

However, after viewing others progress photos---mine seemed to be in all different maturities. First timer with incubating so, I do not have a clue as to what day they're on and understand the importance of knowing!

Side note: From Tuesday-Saturday early morning, I was doing an at-home incubator....therefore, I do know the temp. fluctuated and who knows at what point the humidity was at. However, Saturday morning my incubator arrived and I ordered a thermometer that reads temp, humidity, comfort, last 24 hr stats, etc. and this darn incubator either is at 31% humidity or 71%. I have added and taken out water at different levels, etc. and cannot seem to get it close to 50%. I'm at one end or the other.

I will post photos to assist in the determination of maturity, if at all!

 

[PD-Riverman]

Question--I you thought the eggs had been Sitting for 2 days what does this mean?

Why would you have a problem understanding the humidity---31% or 71%?

How much did your home made incubator fluctuate?

If it got to 103 or more for a while the embryo's could be fried?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

What do you mean you "pulled all of them except two...and they were sitting for two days"? I can't make sense of that. Pulled from under a broody?

When temp of eggs are 99-100F, that's the start of incubation. So if you pulled the eggs from under a broody that was on them two days prior to putting in an incubator then subtract two days from 21 days of incubation. Sense total incubation of chicken eggs is 3 weeks it's easy to keep track of. The day of week they started to incubate is the same day of week they 'should' hatch three weeks later. If started on a Saturday then projected hatch day is on a Saturday.

Humidity and water levels: Depth of water means nothing to humidity it's the surface area that effects the RH inside your incubator. A coffee cup half full of water or completely full will result in same humidity in incubator, the full cup will have water in it longer is all. Those wells in bottom of your incubator usually are too big to use for first 18 days of incubation. Far too much surface area.

Run the incubator dry and see where your at. If 25-35% RH without any water at all in there your good to go. 50% RH for first 18 days is rather high, try drier.

 

[kelciep14]

Sorry for confusion---

I don't pull our eggs, at random I will, but for the most part my husband, father and brother in law pull them. Multiple eggs were pulled from the coop on Tuesday the 20th and were brought inside for me to check before giving them to family. Well, 9 of them looked questionable to me and it was suggested I try incubating them and see what happens. I asked about how long they thought the girls could've been sitting on them because the eggs were still warm. They said 2-3 days, but probably 2. I took the 9 eggs and did quick research before heading into work. On Thursday, I went into our coop to clean around and one of our girls was sitting on 4, I grabbed them and started incubating 2 of them. Of the 9 eggs, all seem to be at different stages and because I've never incubated eggs, I'm looking for advice.

I mentioned humidity because most of the posts I've read, they stress the importance of the humidity in the incubator being around 50-55%. My incubators humidity has been 30-38% or jumps to 70-71%, no inbetween. So, I was asking how to better stabilize that number.

I will post each egg in a different post to create less confusion.

I appreciate the help!!

 

[kelciep14]

Egg #1

 

[kelciep14]

Egg #2

 

[kelciep14]

Egg #3

 

[kelciep14]

Egg #4

 

[kelciep14]

Egg #5

 

[kelciep14]

Egg #6