egg carton hatching

[ChicksR4Me]

This is my first time incubating eggs. I used the egg carton method and 4 of the 7 chicks have hatched so far. I believe my face print is permanenly etched on the incubator window. The thing is... after the chicks have zipped and popped up, they have a terrible time getting out of the shell because they have to work against gravity. I was wondering if it would be ok to take the remaining 3 eggs out of the carton and lay them down this late? They should be hatching any time now but they have not pipped yet.

Here is a picture of my first baby ever to hatch..

 

[peaceful]

(I think so...
Here's my logic: the only reason not to is in case they have positioned themselves a certain way in the shell, however they are still zipping the egg the same way around which means their position is probably as it should be for regular hatching, and I think it's easier for them when the egg is on its side as it is in the nest)
Edit: Boy it was late last night when I responded and I wasn't thinking. There is a big reason not to at this point and that is you don't want to open the incubator at this stage of the hatching process. But for next time I definitely wouldn't hatch in the carton with the eggs upright like that.

 

[dancingbear]

I have a turner that holds the eggs mostly upright. I had planned to hatch in carton bottoms, but because of limited space in the bator. I took the cartons out and laid them down.
All but 2 (of 22) looked like well developed chicks at day 18, when I took them out of the turner. Only 8 hatched. I broke open a couple, it was full of fluid. I wondered if they chicks drowned when I laid the eggs down sideways. I don't know, maybe it had nothing to do with it, but next batch is going in carton bottoms to hatch. With the sides cut down as much as I can, but eggs upright.

If the eggs incubate laid sideways, it's ok, which I would do with my own hen's eggs. But these were shipped eggs, and the next two hatches will be shipped as well. I wanted to hatch them upright because of the risk of detached air cells, I wanted the air cells to stay near the top. It's hard for me to see the air cells on fresh eggs when I candle, I can only see them when the development is well underway.

ETA: I have now seen detached and damaged air cell in some eggs. Those are easily visible. So I guess when I can't see them, they're probably ok!

 

[jvls1942]

Quote:
How about NO..

all just born chicks etc toss about and look sooo helpless.. they are just fine.. If you really want to kill the unhatched ones go ahead and mess around...

 

[lakeshorenc]

I agree I would leave them. I hatched 17 in cartons a few weeks ago and they did great. One good thing about them sitting in the shell a little while is they do their first poop in it and don't dirty up the bottom of the incubator as bad.

 

[emit]

I pulled the egg cartons out on day 19 because eggs stuck to the carton. I laid them on the wire an 12 mail order eggs 4 mutts total 16---- 11 hatched 9 mail order 2 mutts. The football game going on inside the bator makes you wonder if it will hurt the other eggs not hatched

 

[jvls1942]

Quote:
the football game is the reason many people do use cartons..

You know, you can lay the eggs on thier sides in the cartons.. I do that with goose eggs..

I am going to try to make some wire troughs for setting eggs on their sides in my sportsman flats.
modeled after the wire troughs that hovabator uses for goose eggs

I have just about got carple tunnel from cutting all those eggs cartons for two sportsmans.

 

[emit]

I also pulled them out in 4 to 5 hours. I know what some people say but when the bator is in your bedroom at 3 in the AM something has to go....I was not sure about the eggs on their side maybe that would work. I did cut the sides down.

 

[ChicksR4Me]

I wanted to thank you for your advise. I decided not to take them out of the carton. The last 3 eggs never hatched but I don't think they would have anyway. 4 out of seven hatch is pretty good I think for my first time in a homemade incubator. I'm happy with the results.

Here is a picture of my 4 babies. They are soooo cute and appear to be healthy.

 

[Chicky Tocks]

Awww! Those are precious babies and 4/7 is better than half! Good job

I'm hatching in the carton. Well more of an egg flat. I found my first chick sitting in it's egg at 4:30 this morning. I don't know exactly how long it had been sitting there.

I ended up reaching in and tumping two of them like this over so that they could flop on the flat part of the bator.

Another issue that I had was the chicks getting themselves stuck behind and between the eggs and the bator itself in the rows. When I took out my first 3 chicks, I tilted some of the eggs slightly so that the next hatchers could easily fall out. Tomorrow is my actual day 21 and I still have a dozen eggs in there. I was afraid to go to bed and have them hatch and be stuck sitting in their shell all night. I just looked in and have 1 zipped and 3 more pipped. Hopefully they'll be done before bedtime in another hour!