BIG newbie mistake!

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,
I had just realised that due to my impatience I have made a monumental cock-up (no pun intended!)
I wanted some Orpingtons as well as our ex batts and our rooster and borrowed an incubator from a friend as the ex batts have never gone broody. In my excitement at getting the incubator I popped in 6 ex batt eggs. I then ordered my Orpington eggs a few days later...and in between time had collected another batch of ex batt eggs. I think you all know where this is going.

I have done calculations and I cannot figure out how I can turn the eggs which need turning, at the point when the others should be left alone to pip! Stupidly when I read the instructions and it said they mustn't be turned after day 18 I didn't realise they meant not opened at all.

The Orpingtons have only gone in the incubator this evening (about midnight) and as these are the only ones I have paid for I don't want to jeopardise their viability by taking them out and leaving it a few days before I pop then in again (they were apparently collected last Tuesday, so are 5 days old now). I also don't want to "kill" any embryos by taking them out the incubator now I was going to buy another incubator but that still doesn't help. The batches are:
1st batch in incubator: 8/8
2nd batch in incubator: 10/8
Orpington eggs in a couple of hours ago.
Please help. I have no chance of a hen going broody to help me out

 

[daniellesdogs]

iv too made this mistake. iv a large auto so put the ones i had to stop turning in to a plasti egg tray to hatch also ment they were away from the chicks that hatched. cant be card as absorbs the mosture. it does mean that the mosture and heat is wrong when start hatching

 

[foxy]

You really should only have one batch in at a time, unless has a hatcher below.

In the last couple of days the requirements are very different for hatching eggs...and this is a critical time for the chicks with high humidity and absolutely no disturbance.

In this case the you need to decide which ones to continue with and stick to those. It is better to fill an incy at the beginning to capacity, then remove the dud (clear) eggs, even then you will still end up with some that don't make it to the end, this means more chance of a decent number to brood, as opposed to a few chicks only.

Personally I would never advise hatching from exbatts, they are not designed for it and will be difficult to rehome any cockerels from cross breeds, far more likely to rehome pure breeds as long as from good stock. Of course if you are planning to kill and eat your surplus cockerels not a problem, though won't be much meat on them.

 

[E3lx]

ohhhh dear...
can you tell the orps eggs from the ex batts? try to borrow another incubator and look at the eggs carefully and pick out the orps. put them in another incubator and just hope it works out!

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your replies. I have bought another incubator for the Orps; and swapped my batch 2 day 8 eggs with my friend's day 1eggs and he just so happens to have a broody at the moment! Disaster averted! (I hope!) Having candled them and seeing them fertile, they take on a new meaning and morally I just couldn't actively stop the incubation, even though they were "only hybrids".

Yes Foxy, they will probably inevitably end up on the table. Ironic how that is ok, but stopping incubation feels cruel.

 

[Chuck]

Your hybrids could produce you some useful layers. It's always best to mate them to a male from a good laying line to get the best layers from them.