Worried about my Eggs

[championny]

I made the mistake of staggering hatches myself, however what I did do was let the eggs I was going to set warm up to room temp if they weren't already. Then i placed them on an opposite side of the incubator from the other eggs.

So far so good on my end. I just learned a valuable lesson that I won't mix hatching dates again!

 

[New2chickensnky]

Yeah, we wont be either . We never knew that you have to really clean the bator either. But funny thing is , this boy that we got it from ,well, he just bought another one , so either there is something wrong with this one that he faield to tell us and took us for 50.00 , or it was due to something we did wrong . We are planning on buying another one , NEW this time , and washing out the old one really really good , and trying in both to see what happens . If we get a hatch from both , we will know it was something to with either the temps, or the dirt that you cant see, and if it still dont work , we will know not to trust this kid again. He had already sold us some sick hens once before , but we over looked that as he did not know and we nursed them back to health. But now we know not to fool with him anymore unless they are for baby chicks that I know with out a doubt , he got from the farm store. Anyhow , with our stagered set, we did set the others on the other side , but I think ours had more to do with the other things like temp and bacteria that was in there . He said he never cleaned it , and like I said , we never knew we have to really really clean it that good. This was our first time trying. Let me know how yours turns out , and post pics if you can when they all hatch ..

Thanks for the post , and happy hatching!!!!!

 

[JordanFamily]

I live in MO and durring spring if you are getting rain you really shouldn't need to add water. I wouldn't think it was the foam incubator that did it. I just had my first hatch out of one and I had 19 out of 24 hatch and live, lost one to egg sticking and 3 never pipped. I forgot to add water for the first 2 weeks...and had wild temps from 98-105. They were Leghorns and I did have three that I had to help from egg sticking. I think maybe less water at the beginning helped them. I think the sticking problem was because I would take one out a few hours after it hatched and had moisture loss from it. The still air bators get their air from the room their in so I would not add any water if it is already around 40 F in the room, and if you need to just a tablespoon of water. I only opened my bator 4 times through the whole thing and only lifted the lid enogh to do what I needed never taking it completly off. When I did open the lid it was never more than a few second. I don't even candle the eggs. I would just place a single piece of cheese cloth or guas lightly over each of the eggs tucking into the edges if you are worried about one exploding. 101-102 is the perfect temp in a foam still air bator. Hope you the best of luck. Kristina