Is it too late?

This is my first hatch ever. It was just a sper of the moment decision when it happened. My question, Is it too late to open the bator to put in the bowl with the sponge? I am on day 2 of Lock Down... I completely forgot to do that. Right now I have the humidity at around 55% I was told it needs to be 70% What should I do? They are Frizzled Sizzle eggs if that makes a difference.

This is just my opinion, but dry hatching is a method that people have gotten good results with. You could wait until you get your first external pip before adding moisture. As long as the shells are intact, the eggs won't loose too much moisture. We wen't with a ~40% humidity level until they started pipping, after which we went up to about 65%. All fertile eggs hatched. This was with a Brinsea Mini, which has a bowl shaped lid which doesn't release as much moisture when opening.

Oh, I meant to ask, have you been monitoring the weight loss of the eggs? That might help in considering whether you need more humidity or not. If you haven't been weighing them, how have the air sacks looked when candling? You can probably find good reference pictures in the forum if you search for candling pictures.

Thanks for the reply. So not knowing what Im doing, I haven't candled or weighed them... Is that bad?

blipit007 said:

Thanks for the reply. So not knowing what Im doing, I haven't candled or weighed them... Is that bad?

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No, just leaves you with an empty and clueless feeling. Taking them out of the incubator less is actually probably better for their development, but most of us are such fussy and over enthusiastic incubators that we can't help ourselves from weighing and candling them (way too often usually). Of course it's easier to adjust the incubator if you have an idea of what's going on in the eggs. But mother hen usually does just fine without her precision scale and highpowered LED flashlight, so if you've been keeping moisture and heat steady in there, you'll probably be fine. If you decide to add moisture, you could probably do a quick candling at the same time to see if there's some movement in there, and check how the air sacks look. And if you do add moisture, 100F water would be better than cold water. If someone else is reading, please chime in with your opinions on candling/adding moisture during lock down.

Just to be sure, have you been turning the eggs up until lockdown, and then stopped?

Ok, So I have had the humidity between 32-33ish % and on the extreme humid days up to 42%. Heat has been dropped to 99 on the cooler nights and up to 102 on the really hot days. (but I have 2 thermometers in there and while one read 102 the other read 100, so I just opened the lid and aired it out and turned the thermostat down a touch). I have had them in an automatic egg turner up until I took it out yesterday morning. Since doing that it was really hard to get the temp up to 100. It was at 98 all day yesterday. But now its good.
I did get brave and held one up to my mag-light and saw a vein at around a week and a half old. I instantly got nervous and put it back, and didn't touch any others, LOL. Right now someone is chirping inside and its getting me ALL GIDDY inside! EEeeeee!!! So that is why I was nervous to open the lid.

BTW, great avatar!

Thanks, we spent a week in Tuscany in the beginning of June.

Sounds like you're about to be introduced to the wonder that is a chick hatching. Hopefully you have your brooder all set up. Remember, the chicks need to be left in the incubator until they're dry, and you can leave them there longer too. Better to not let out moisture after the shells have been punctured by opening the lid all the time. The chicks will survive three days with what they've absorbed from the yolk, although once you get them in the brooder, you should offer them water immediately. Some bird vitamins might be a good idea too in the beginning, and you can start offering them a bit of boiled egg too. The water should be placed in a shallow bowl with marbles or pebbles in it, so that they can't drown. But don't rush taking hatched chicks out of the incubator, they will actually encourage the unhatched ones to fight harder to break their shells. The brooder should be kept at about 90 degrees in the beginning, dropping the heat 5 degrees every week (this is just a recommendation, they will survive in colder, but better to not push your luck). Also, be sure to have a plan for any roosters you might hatch, chances are half are going to be boys. How many eggs do you have cooking there? Oh, and don't worry if they all don't seem to hatch at the same time, sometimes it takes a bit longer for other eggs, and even day 25 hatches are not unheard of.

Remember to post pics of your chicks, and good luck!

Oh, and once the first one has externally pipped, you should up the humidity if you haven't done that yet. Also, I don't want to jinx anything, but you might want to skim through Sally Sunshine's article on assisted hatching. I wouldn't worry about the rest of the stuff there, but in the beginning the hatching process is explained pretty well, and it's good to be prepared if something goes wrong. Also, you get pretty good timelines for when to expect what from that article.

Thanks for all the great tips. I have 3 so far. I have another that broke a piece of shell but not thru the membrane for a few hours. When the 3 fall asleep I can hear a tapping going on. How exciting!