can you add eggs?

[wcah]

I put 18 eggs in the incubator today and i have today bought 6 more which i should recieve next friday, but i never thought if it would halm my eggs that will have been in the incubator for 6 days already. Will it be ok or should i have planed better and put them all in at the same time?

 

[Chuck]

They should have all gone in together. The first problem you will have is that you will need to increase the humidity when the frst eggs chip, which could harm the later ones you put in.

 

[AlexArt]

If you have a seperate hatcher to move the eggs into 3 days before they are due to hatch then you'll be fine as you can leave the later ones in the inci - that's what I do and it works well as I can put eggs in as and when in the main inci and then move them into the hatcher as long as I leave a 3 day window for each batch to hatch so I can clean everything out! But otherwise as Chuck said you have to increase the humidity when the others start to hatch so could damage the others which are due later or could even kill them by drowning them in shell. Not to mention all the mess and gook the hatching chicks will make all over the other eggs which in turn could go nasty and smelly and kill them off by infection. If you've just got the one incubator then I wouldn't put the new ones in, get them when the others have hatched and you've sterilised the inci.

 

[wcah]

what type of thing do you mean by a hatcher?

 

[AlexArt]

A hatcher is another incubator set aside specifically for hatching - I use a little R-com suro as my hatcher as the humidity controls are pretty reliable so I just move things across when they are due to hatch, my main inci takes 60 eggs then the suro takes upto 24 odd so as long as I don't put more than 24 at a time in the main one so I can hatch them all in a batch then it works pretty well as the main one stays running all spring really.