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Hatching at high altitude
- Thread starter Haney3
- Start date
Micmac1234
Songster
Thank you!!!
- Jun 5, 2017
- 11
- 30
- 99
Hi Everyone, I live at 8,600ft above sea level and have been doing all the research I can to successfuly hatch eggs. I have encountered so many problems on the way!!! I've had severe incubator problems, actually had to send one incubator back to Brinsea and am getting a replacement right now (Ova-Easy 190). I'm considering suplemental oxygen even though Brinsea does not recomend because of fire hazards, but I believe it is because they have no clue about high altitude incubation and are afraid of liability.
Bought a calibration thermometer to measure and be certain what the incubator was doing. There was a 6°F variation inside the Ova-Easy, when Brinsea advertises no more than 0.7°F variation. The Zoologica worked as it should before going crazy and it's also going back to Brinsea.
Have been incubating eggs laid at 7,200ft with good success but incubators have failed on me. On the last hatch, out of 20 live eggs, the Brinsea Zoologica stoped warming the eggs and when I checked on them during lockdown, eggs were at 73 degrees. On the last day, 10 eggs pipped, 4 hatched and I moved them to another incubator. I believe the Zoologica thermostat went dead and heated the incubator up to 125 degrees, killing everything left inside, including 6 pipped eggs.
To determine proper humidity I'm weighing half the eggs every 4 days to adjust humidity and have proper weight loss, magic number for this altitude has been around 62% for a 12% weight loss during incubation.
Have tried incubating eggs laid at sea level with very low success, but I attribute my poor success also to bad incubators.
Bought a calibration thermometer to measure and be certain what the incubator was doing. There was a 6°F variation inside the Ova-Easy, when Brinsea advertises no more than 0.7°F variation. The Zoologica worked as it should before going crazy and it's also going back to Brinsea.
Have been incubating eggs laid at 7,200ft with good success but incubators have failed on me. On the last hatch, out of 20 live eggs, the Brinsea Zoologica stoped warming the eggs and when I checked on them during lockdown, eggs were at 73 degrees. On the last day, 10 eggs pipped, 4 hatched and I moved them to another incubator. I believe the Zoologica thermostat went dead and heated the incubator up to 125 degrees, killing everything left inside, including 6 pipped eggs.
To determine proper humidity I'm weighing half the eggs every 4 days to adjust humidity and have proper weight loss, magic number for this altitude has been around 62% for a 12% weight loss during incubation.
Have tried incubating eggs laid at sea level with very low success, but I attribute my poor success also to bad incubators.
I live at 7,000 ft in New Mexico. My biggest issues with hatching is the need for oxygen and correct humidity levels. Vents need to be wide open at all times, so forced air incubators only and wet sponges inside the machine keep the humidity up. Candling is a must to determine if your humidity is allowing for the correct air cell development. It's best to use eggs laid at your elevation, birds at your elevation will have adapted to your environment of less oxygen and their eggs will have a better chance at developing and surviving.
Good luck with your hatches!
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