How should I correct a too great of a moisture/weight loss after day 10?

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Prairiechickmom

Prairiechickmom

Hatching
Mar 11, 2015
3
0
7
Saskatchewan, Canada
Hello everyone!
After obtaining as much information as possible on THIS wonderful website (hatching eggs 101 is my bible ;-)) and f setting my first batch of chicken eggs in my Brinsea Mini Eco I was keeping humidity mostly between 25 and 30%. The first couple days it was between 45 and 55 when I decided to go slower).
Now last night was the 10th day and after candling and weighing 3 of the 6 keepers (2 didn't start and 1 was an early quitter after day7) have already lost 10-11% moisture while
the other 3 range between 4 and 8%.
My understanding is that eggs in an incubator only loose but not gain any moisture, is that correct? So if my weight/moisture loss at "halfway point day 10" already is at such a high point I'd have to preserve what ever moisture is left as good as I can by raising the humidity level - but how much?

BUT what's with the other 3 eggs who appear to be rather "normal"? They have been in that very same bator under the same conditions in always different spots.
How should I handle this? Has anyone had such discrepancies in moisture loss before?
ANY HELP WOULD BE HIGHLY APPRECIATED!!!
 
Prairiechickmom said:
Hello everyone!
After obtaining as much information as possible on THIS wonderful website (hatching eggs 101 is my bible ;-)) and f setting my first batch of chicken eggs in my Brinsea Mini Eco I was keeping humidity mostly between 25 and 30%. The first couple days it was between 45 and 55 when I decided to go slower).
Now last night was the 10th day and after candling and weighing 3 of the 6 keepers (2 didn't start and 1 was an early quitter after day7) have already lost 10-11% moisture while
the other 3 range between 4 and 8%.
My understanding is that eggs in an incubator only loose but not gain any moisture, is that correct? So if my weight/moisture loss at "halfway point day 10" already is at such a high point I'd have to preserve what ever moisture is left as good as I can by raising the humidity level - but how much?

BUT what's with the other 3 eggs who appear to be rather "normal"? They have been in that very same bator under the same conditions in always different spots.
How should I handle this? Has anyone had such discrepancies in moisture loss before?
ANY HELP WOULD BE HIGHLY APPRECIATED!!!
Click to expand...
I don't weigh my eggs, I check air cells. It is my understanding, (hopefully someone will correct me if I am wrong) that when you are weighing the eggs, you want to take the loss by average and not neccessarily by individual egg weight loss as eggs will loose moisture at different rates do to different factors, (such as shell thickness and porousity.) Of course a bigger egg has more moisture to loose. First I would look at the average of weight loss among all the eggs then if I was still worried I would also look at the air cells of the eggs. If the air cells are not overly large, I would not worry about it.


This is the pic I use to judge air cells with.

If you still feel the humidity needs to be highered I would shoot for increments of 10%. Good luck with the eggs and the hatch.
 
If the three egss with that much weight loss are the ones that quit why worry about them?

Your good eggs are 4-8% moisture loss and I believe target is 12% loss so wait till day 14 to see how they are coming along.

If you get your humidity up to 60-65% there will be near no loss in moisture of egg. I don't weight eggs but watch the cells and find 35% humidity is perfect for the first 18 days. I achieve that with shot glass of water set next to turner.
 
I'm sorry for the confusion but those are not quitters. They are together with the 3 other lower-loss eggs.
I thought with such small numbers you would weigh individually, is that not so?
If I were to raise humidity to what you suggested to keep their moisture level from getting even lower, I might have the "low" 3 eggs
loose not any more moisture too which will probably be way too much for them in the end?
Do I have to make a decision in the end which ones I want to hatch and loose the others because their requirements are not going to be met??

PLEASE, I need some help here.
 
Last edited:
Prairiechickmom said:
I'm sorry for the confusion but those are not quitters. They are together with the 3 other lower-loss eggs.
I thought with such small numbers you would weigh individually, is that not so?
If I were to raise humidity to what you suggested to keep their moisture level from getting even lower, I might have the "low" 3 eggs
loose not any more moisture too which will probably be way too much for them in the end?
Do I have to make a decision in the end which ones I want to hatch and loose the others because their requirements are not going to be met??

PLEASE, I need some help here.
Click to expand...
You take the average of all the eggs together. As I said, check your air cells and compare them to the chart. If they are in that range, your humidity is fine. Yes, if you raise your humidity to slow down the ones you feel are loosing too much, then the ones that haven't will slow down as well. There's nothing saying you will loose any of them. You are just look for the best conditions on an average.
 
Thanks for your reply AmyLynn!
The average is 8.33% which is still a bit high. I'll get the humidity up to around 45% then and see where I'm at day 14 then?
I've been reading somewhere that Ameraucana eggs should rather be kept a bit on the drier side but ironically the two who lost the most moisture yet are Ameraucana eggs.
Regarding their air cells - I've marked them all and I'll have a more specific look at them tonight in comparison to each other.
The problem is that they are more or less all saddle shaped (shipped eggs) and therefore not so easy to compare with that picture of yours.
I guess I worry too much. If we're talking average it looks much better though ;-).
Thank you for your advice!
 
Last edited:
Prairiechickmom said:
Thanks for your reply AmyLynn!
The average is 8.33% which is still a bit high. I'll get the humidity up to around 45% then and see where I'm at day 14 then?
I've been reading somewhere that Ameraucana eggs should rather be kept a bit on the drier side but ironically the two who lost the most moisture yet are Ameraucana eggs.
I guess I worry too much. If we're talking average it looks much better though ;-).
Thank you for your advice!
Click to expand...
You're welcome. I've never heard that about Ameraucanas.
 

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