any advice for a new hatcher??

[lfrye11]

hey y’all,
i’ve ordered quite a few eggs, 27 to be exact, and they are about to come in the mail. i’ve received my incubator, and will follow the instructions for setting it up. i’ve never hatched eggs and am brand new to the whole process. i would love any advice about rotating, candling, brooding, when to put with the other ducks and chickens, etc. i ordered several different breeds of ducks along with some silkies. again, anything helps. thank you!!

 

[lazy gardener]

My first advice would be to practice on local eggs first. Incubation has a steep learning curve. Learning the details of a new incubator has it's own learning curve. Shipped eggs are delicate, and have a dismal success rate. All that being said, I suggest that you read all of "hatching eggs 101" in the learning center. There is a wealth of information dealing with incubation, equipment calibration, and managing shipped eggs. Don't believe the "how to incubate" literature that comes with your bator. Often, those instructions are less than ideal. And don't believe the thermometer that comes with your bator. It's lying to you unless you have calibrated it.

 

[lfrye11]

thank you for the response

 

[Chickassan]

Two thermometers and two humidity gauges just for peace of mind. Plug your incubator into a battery backup like they use for computers in case of power outages. Wash your hands before handling eggs for any reason. Common sense stuff, can't steer you on duck eggs,never hatched a duck. I've hatched a pile of chickens though and quails and swans "we won't be hatching those ever,ever, again".

 

[Birdinhand]

in general, avoid the spikes and don't worry as much about the dips in temp. eggs don't get cold and shiver, like a little puppy, they just slow down when they get a bit cold. a mother hen can leave a nest for up to 12 hours and still have a decent hatch rate. higher than normal temps, particularly above 102 don't happen in nature and are much more likely to be devastating to the forming embryos.

I use three thermometers and if there is a big spread in temp, I try and verify which one is accurate. I usually go with the closest two and ignore one if it's way off. if you have trouble stabalizing the temp, make sure you don't let the water dry out or it can cause a sudden spike in temperature.

good luck and welcome to BYC, you are at the right place with lots of great, helpful folks!!

 

[Chickassan]

Yep,you're in good hands! You can't possibly mess anything up in a way that at least one of us hasn't already done and quite possibly know how to fix.

 

[oregonkat]

Agree to all of the above posts. Welcome to the world of the hatchaholic!! Herein lies the path to obsessive behaviors known only to those who hatch eggs. It is addictive and can be absolutely thrilling and totally devastating, so be prepared. Please leave your shipped eggs alone for 24 hours after you receive them in a nice cool place, they need to rest and relocate their air cells. Of course, make sure they are sitting quietly fat end UP, talk to them if you wish, we all understand. Unfortunately shipped eggs have only about a 50% hatch rate so be prepared for that too! As was said above make sure you have several thermometers all going at the same time. Do not trust your incubator thermometer or the hygrometer, get independently calibrated ones. RESIST the temptation to mess with the eggs once you have them in the bator until day 7 unless you are manually turning, and handle extremely carefully when candling. Are you manually turning or do you have an auto turner? Some folks here wait a day or so before turning shipped eggs, me included. There are many other tips that other far more qualified hatchers will chime in with here but from me, I wish you good luck and may your first hatch experience be the beginning of ....... well, something wonderful!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

My advise to anyone who wants to roll their own chickens is to buy yourself a copy of Janet Stromberg's little book, A GUIDE to BETTER HATCHING. Be advised though that it won't help you at all if you fail to read this book, study this book, and take everything in it to heart. Good luck and may all your only foul ups be fowls.

Find yourself a medical rectal thermometer, especially one that uses Mercury. Medical thermometers are more accurate and a medical rectal thermometer made for humans has a convenient mark on the scale at almost the PERFECT temperature for incubating chicken eggs. Also never trust the readings on analog or digital hydrometers. Use the kind of Hydrometer pictured below.

Don't forget to only use distilled water on the wet bulb thermometer and print off the scale needed to accurately read the humidity by the difference in the temperature between the two thermometers.

If you have good eggs and equipment a wet bulb temperature of 83 degrees should get your chicks hatching like popcorn popping.

 

[Amer]

Lets just say I'm not an expert. But with my two failed hatches I know what not to do and I think this time I am going to succeed. So here's how NOT to hatch eggs.
Putting them in the incubator thick end down if you have an automatic turner. Don't put them thick end down.
Unplugging the incubator and not knowing it. Checking the incubator every day should do the trick, so you can monitor temps. Six more days!

 

[Beer can]

You'll learn a lot on the hatching thread. Only thing I can think of that you'll probably hear anyway is plug your incubator in a day before, let it level out. Kinda like preheating a oven so you don't burn the cake lol.
And if your using a automatic turner plug that in also early cause the motor does create some heat.
And best to have the incubator in a draft free room, one nobody hardly ever opens the door. Easier for the incubator to maintain temperature in a room that doesn't have varying temps, less likely to get a spike.
Other than that I don't have any good advice, I just toss them in and say a prayer
Good luck! I enjoy watching those eggs a poppin as much as I did having kid's (DW did all the work )