Polish Breeders Club

Hi everyone,

During hatching,  do you lay the eggs down flat on the grate in the bator?  or do you sit them straight up somehow in a crate?  I have not had good hatches recently.  When candling, I can see embryos moving around and active but when hatching time comes they die or can't get out of eggshell.   Im thinking they're drowning.    So,  they should hatch with large end up in a crate in the bator?  

Thanks,

Sandy

Hi Sandy

First question is what's your humidity? I do hatch mine out of cardboard egg flats sitting in the same position they incubated in. But I do find that the humidity I need for Polish eggs to hatch is lower than my regular standard eggs.

and yes the aircell needs to be at the top.

in my sportsman I incubate in cardboard flats that I cut the peaks and valleys off of to allow better air circulation while still retaining stablility. They are cheap and you can throw them out when they are soiled. This allows the eggs to stay in the same position right through to hatch. (The entire shelf turns)

When I used a hovabator I had little plastic hatching racks made to set the eggs in after they came off the turner.

Humidity is REALLY important. I learned that the hard way this weekend

It could be the humidity thats making your hatches less successful.

I lay the eggs flat in the bottom 'hatching' tray three days before they are due to emerge. Just when I think I am having a general problem, my husband's naked neck eggs -- which hatch out right on time like popcorn every single time -- demonstrate that I am not doing anything wrong. All I am saying is that if ANY eggs hatch properly, you are probably not doing anything wrong.

However -- humidity is important. I keep mine around 50% -- tho that means adding water in a pieplate at the bottom of the incubator as well as keeping water flowing to the valved tray at the top of my Dickey incubator. I have a temperature and humidity "mometer" hanging in the front where I can see it and easily decide if I need to add more water to the pie plate. The room the incubator lives in is what is important -- and during spring and summer, indoor humidity can vary a LOT. You need one of those nifty digital thermometers that you can read through the incubator window. It is really worth it to know for sure what is going on.

regards, Sylvia

Leave it to me to be different. I dry hatch my eggs until the last few days then I get the humidity up as high as it will go. I lay them down, have a turner but the incubator won't hold enough eggs with that thing in it.  It must be working, I hatched 3 chicks this morning and have 7 more pips tonight.

I really think humidity is different for everyone. It depends on how humid where you have the incubator is to begin with.