A Guide to Humidity, Weighing and Lockdown.

[why do birds]

This is our first hatch. We are at day 17 and have large air sack's in some of the eggs but we have small air sacks in some of the eggs. Humidity is at about 35 and temp is 99 to 100F. What do I do now? I listened to the eggs today with a stethoscope but can't hear peeps at this time. Do I stop the automatic egg turner for all of the eggs and place them on the little grate or do I let the ones with the smaller air sacks keep turning? The eggs are: 1 sultan with a large air sack with dips, 1 silkie with large air sack with dips, 1 sizzle with large air sack with dips, and 2 silkies and 2 sizzles with smaller air sacks. It's a pretty even split in air sack size. We didn't weigh the eggs.
Please provide guidance for:
Do I stop turning ALL of the eggs?
What is the ideal temperature in Farenheit?
What is the ideal humidity given the difference in egg air sacks?
They all went into the incubator at the same time.
Thanks so much!

 

[why do birds]

Took the advice and kept humidity at about 55% until first pip, then only increased it to about 60%. Now have 3 more pips and humidity is about 55%-60%. Have removed 1 red ventilation plug from the Farm Innovator 4400 Pro. Been maintaining humidity by inserting a straw through the red air vent and using a Walgreen's oral syringe to administer 5 cc (5 ml) of warm distilled water into the center of the incubator, directed by straw and flashlight to slightly increase humidity periodically.

 

[why do birds]

 

[why do birds]

Please forgive me for posting so many pics. Thought this may be of some interest to those on this site. We began day 18 with 1/2 air sacks large and 1/2 air sacks small. I didn't want to drown those in the small air sacks. 4 pipped, 3 hatched, 2 sizzles and 1 silkie, shown in pic. More important is the strategy that we used in an effort to have maximum hatch. Eggs were shipped nearly 1100 miles in the winter from Midwest to NY. We maintained humidity at about 55% even during hatch so as not to drown the remaining chicks who had tiny air sacks and needed more time. Please note on the photo the middle egg. It was the hardest shell and it zipped at the same time as the sizzle egg that was adjacent to it. This one in the hard shell tried to zip, even the first hatched, Chicken Nugget, tried to help it come out. Chicken Nugget freed Fredo the other Sizzle and he hatched but had egg shell stuck to Fredo for a while. I believe that humidity was too low and a factor in the hatch. I went to sleep for 4 hour-oh no not that long-and humidity had dropped to 45%. It's really dry here with the heat on. By this time this zipped egg was struggling. I increased humidity, retrieved the chicks inside and added a warm sponge. Have both air vents open. I do believe that this chick will not make it for multiple reasons but the primary reason is the shell is way too thick. Humidity too low may have been a partial factor, but all the humidity in the world can't change the thickness of the shell. Just wanted to share. It's sad that I lost this one, it would've been a silkie, but we are very happy we had any hatch, given the conditions. We have 3 eggs left, 1 silkie, 1 sizzle, and 1 sultan. None have pipped yet. We only just began Day 22. We will see if the low humidity worked to allow these eggs to have an increase in air sack and hatch. The way to do this is like one person said, have a double incubator system, one to incubate, one to hatch.

 

[waldeneffect]

We weigh eggs during the incubation process.

My wife summed up the math needed to calculate weight loss in a blog post here.

http://www.avianaquamiser.com/posts/How_to_weigh_eggs_and_calculate_weight_loss/

 

[CashandTracy]

I just set a batch of eggs Saturday afternoon. This is my first run and my experimental run before I incubate more valuable eggs. I'm following the guidelines very closely, fingers are crossed for a successful hatch. I'll keep yall updated!

 

[SassysMom]

I fear I have lost my first hatch. Went pretty much according to the book (supplied with each of 2 different brand incubators) The smaller bator said at lock down (18 days) to turn the humidity to 70% or greater. There are 6 (LF) English Blue Orpington eggs in this bator. I did weigh them 3 times over the first 18 days, but using the "average" of all 6 eggs never did seem quite right. There were 3 very heavy eggs and 3 considerably less weight than the others. Yesterday was Day 21 and as Day 22 ends, nothing is going on. I've talked to my friend and breeder that I usually get my fowl from, and the first thing she said was 70% was most likely too high. I've now dropped the % to 60 and I'm trying not to give up. Never the less, I'm feeling very sad tonight.

I'm so glad to have found "A Guide to Humidity, Weighing and Lockdown." Thank you!

Connie

 

[designer43]

I'm REALLY green at this. First attempt at hatching.

Pleased so far with my 3 d'Uccle's that have hatched (today is day21). I set 10 eggs in my DIY bator. One egg never showed signs of development, and another got dropped when I was startled when the bulbs came on as i was candling and the egg flew as my hand jerked. I have a possible eight now.

The hot-water thermostat was real iffy, in that I saw temps of 97-104. It helped to put aluminum foil around one of the two 25 W. appliance bulbs that directed heat right on the thermostat. I have an old 12v computer fan running on a 6V wall wart. There is a hole directly behind the fan sucking air, and another hole in the lid blowing air.. Apparently there is enough oxygen, as I now have 3 adorable chicks.

The humidity also swung 16-34% early on. I put paper towels in the water channel to wick up more water. I've got a tube to add water.

Needless to say I was shocked yesterday (day 20) when my wife heard cheeping. I didn't think to check that early. This morning another hatched, and another had zipped. The zip chick wasn't making any more progress, so I completed the zip, but after an hour it still had not pushed out of the shell halves. I managed to get the bottom half off easily, but the shell was stuck to the top of it's head. I got it off, and it seems OK.

Added another wet, warm paper towel to up the humidity.

I think I see another pip, so I'll post an update if anybody is curious

 

[SassysMom]

I fear I have lost my first hatch. Went pretty much according to the book (supplied with each of 2 different brand incubators) The smaller bator said at lock down (18 days) to turn the humidity to 70% or greater. There are 6 (LF) English Blue Orpington eggs in this bator. I did weigh them 3 times over the first 18 days, but using the "average" of all 6 eggs never did seem quite right. There were 3 very heavy eggs and 3 considerably less weight than the others. Yesterday was Day 21 and as Day 22 ends, nothing is going on. I've talked to my friend and breeder that I usually get my fowl from, and the first thing she said was 70% was most likely too high. I've now dropped the % to 60 and I'm trying not to give up. Never the less, I'm feeling very sad tonight.

I'm so glad to have found "A Guide to Humidity, Weighing and Lockdown." Thank you!

Connie

Update. I left the eggs for 24 days. No hatches. Very sad...until I decided to start the inspection process. Even though my "sacrifice" egg showed all signs of being fertilized, none of the hatch was fertile. I now have a "proven" batch of fertilized eggs, Icelandics and LF English Partridge. Tomorrow is Day 21. And, I set another hatch of 7 LF English Blue Orps. yesterday. I learned A LOT from that first try. Bought a better thermometer and hygrometer and have calibrated them. Feeling a lot better about that. So, fingers crossed for a happy hatch.

 

[mulelover1999]

I have some day 8 eggs and I was wondering if I could post a couple pics and see if you think the air cells are alright?