# Setting eggs at different times



## chelsboers (Mar 25, 2010)

I have a Brinsea Octogon 20 Eco. It will hold 24 reg. chicken eggs. I ordered 18 eggs off Ebay and they should be here Friday/Saturday. I plan on letting them sit for 24 hrs before I put them in the incubator. I saw some other eggs on Ebay that I'm thinking of getting also but they wouldn't be here until next Friday. Would they be ok if I put them in the incubator with the other ones or will the humidity from the chicks hatching mess them up?


----------



## mjs500doo (Nov 24, 2012)

chelsboers said:


> I have a Brinsea Octogon 20 Eco. It will hold 24 reg. chicken eggs. I ordered 18 eggs off Ebay and they should be here Friday/Saturday. I plan on letting them sit for 24 hrs before I put them in the incubator. I saw some other eggs on Ebay that I'm thinking of getting also but they wouldn't be here until next Friday. Would they be ok if I put them in the incubator with the other ones or will the humidity from the chicks hatching mess them up?


We use a cabinet and set eggs every Sunday in groups from Jan 1st till completed hatching on June 1st. Hatch hundreds. Doesn't seem to bother the chicks at all. Many people practice "lock down" but we have had no significant difference between lock down and off set hatches.


----------



## Frosty1 (Jul 12, 2011)

It should be just fine!  Just pencil the date you set the eggs onto each egg, and then you'll know when they should be hatching.  If you have a hatcher, you can move the eggs over when they are ready to hatch, and that way your incubator stays clean and the humidity isn't an issue.


----------



## chelsboers (Mar 25, 2010)

I don't have a hatcher, just the little incubator. Its really humid here so I don't usually have to even had very much water. Someone told me I couldn't because the fuzz carries bacteria that will harm the other eggs. I think I will go ahead and try to hatch them together and mark the eggs.


----------



## Stacykins (Mar 27, 2012)

I've done staggered hatches in my Brinsea Eco 20. I too have no hatcher. When hatching that many eggs, I do not use rails to divide them, I just line them pointy end down in snugly rows. And I am sure to mark the eggs of each batch. Not turning for a couple of days during the hatches isn't a huge issue, I've found. Especially because the hatching chicks are kind enough to 'turn' the other eggs. Yep, they often shift around the other eggs as they do their thing.


----------



## chelsboers (Mar 25, 2010)

Stacykins said:


> I've done staggered hatches in my Brinsea Eco 20. I too have no hatcher. When hatching that many eggs, I do not use rails to divide them, I just line them pointy end down in snugly rows. And I am sure to mark the eggs of each batch. Not turning for a couple of days during the hatches isn't a huge issue, I've found. Especially because the hatching chicks are kind enough to 'turn' the other eggs. Yep, they often shift around the other eggs as they do their thing.


 I forgot about how much the hatched chicks move around. I was thinking about trying the egg carton method since my 4 yr old son found the dividers from the incubator and used them to set a trap to catch dinosaurs and then lost all but 2 dividers.


----------

