B2C2 Farms Shipped Hatching Egg Tips
Upon receipt of your eggs, we suggest taking them home ASAP. The less time spent in a bumpy car, the better.
1. Unwrap eggs, placing them pointy-side down in an egg carton. Eggs are unwashed. Do not wash eggs before incubating unless absolutely necessary (then use 0.5 gallon of 100 degree water with a TBSP of bleach, do it fast).
2. Allow eggs to rest for 12-24 hours in a cool, dry area (around 65 degrees)
3. You may candle at this point to check for cracks and check integrity of the air cells. From personal experience, we like to make small notes on the shell with a pencil (for example: U=unstable, I=intact, J=jiggly but intact)
4. After resting, place eggs pointy-side down in a paper carton (with the bottoms cut out to aid in ventilation) into the incubator. Use your markings to gauge the length of time eggs need to incubate without turning.
- Eggs with intact air cells can be moved into the turner after 24 hours.
- Eggs with jiggly cells can go in after 48-72.
- Eggs with unstable air cells (rolling around the egg) need at least 3-5 days without turning.
5. By day 5, all eggs should be placed in the turners. We suggest not candling until day 12. The less handling, the better. You will have a hard time candling Marans eggs (if that’s what you ordered).
6. On day 16, take eggs out of turners and place pointy-side down, back into the paper carton (with cut out bottoms) into incubator. This will give the developing embryo more time to get into the correct position for hatching (instead of waiting until lockdown). We have had the best results by stopping turning at day 16.
7. On day 18-21, you may gently candle again, and proceed with your usual lockdown settings (increase humidity, etc). We suggest leaving shipped eggs upright, pointy-side down, in the paper carton to hatch.
Everybody has their own *MAGIC* for incubating eggs. All settings vary. We have had our best results using the "dry hatch" method--running at 99.8 degrees F, with 35-38% humidity for days 1-18. At lockdown, we place eggs into a separate hatcher, at 99.8 degrees F, 65-70% humidity, for the remaining 3 days. We recommend to ALWAYS have a backup thermometer/hygrometer in place to ensure accuracy of the incubator's instruments.
DISCLAIMER: these instructions do not guarantee a successful hatch, nor can B2C2 Farms be held responsible for a poor hatch. Shipped eggs are always a gamble. These are only practices we have personally found to be successful over the course of hatching hundreds of shipped eggs.