A Guide to Humidity, Weighing and Lockdown.

[lazy gardener]

Everybody likes pics. Bring 'em on. I'm sure someone with experience will be able to help you.

 

[mulelover1999]

as i said these are day 8 they are the same egg but the rest look pretty much the same

 

[why do birds]

We did one hatch only, a mix of silkie and sizzle eggs. Our air sacks looked like yours do now. 8 of 9 of our eggs were fertile but we only got 3 chicks, the younger eggs hatched, they were mailed and one egg was around 10 days old by the time it was set, so we weren't too hopeful on many of them. It looked like the older eggs needed more "time" to incubate and I do think that 3 of them drowned. One zipped but couldn't get out of the shell and I was too late in helping. Another poked a hole but didn't progress.
I think it's good that all of the air sacks on yours look about the same. Hopefully they will all continue to progress with the same size and hatch together!

 

[delder2009]

very helpful, thank you

 

[DRGLENNON]

This thread was a great help. I just want to thank everyone for the information!

I finally got my seramas to hatch and have a much better understanding of humidity in incubation.

 

[sweetbanana]

love this guide

 

[iluvsedward]

Hate to resurrect an old thread but im on day 21 here with 3 of 4 eggs pipped and 2 of them have been this way since last night. In the past i have been impatient but this time i have not opened the incubator once during lockdown!! Yay me. My humidity was around 45-60% during incubation i think.. i cant really remember to be honest. Anyway i filled the second tray of my hovabator 1620N and it is currently at 72%, so my question is, is this too high? Am i at risk of the chicks not progressing? Im afraid of intervening too early but also too late. At this rate i am happy to wait until tomorrow as i think they are probably just sleeping and absorbing yolk (except for one, who contentedly chirps every few minutes). I live on the east coast next to a large body of water so it is very humid here already. I've incubated a million eggs of all sorts but I wouldn't call myself good at it and its been a few years so im a little rusty.

 

[WVduckchick]

Hate to resurrect an old thread but im on day 21 here with 3 of 4 eggs pipped and 2 of them have been this way since last night. In the past i have been impatient but this time i have not opened the incubator once during lockdown!! Yay me. My humidity was around 45-60% during incubation i think.. i cant really remember to be honest. Anyway i filled the second tray of my hovabator 1620N and it is currently at 72%, so my question is, is this too high? Am i at risk of the chicks not progressing? Im afraid of intervening too early but also too late. At this rate i am happy to wait until tomorrow as i think they are probably just sleeping and absorbing yolk (except for one, who contentedly chirps every few minutes). I live on the east coast next to a large body of water so it is very humid here already. I've incubated a million eggs of all sorts but I wouldn't call myself good at it and its been a few years so im a little rusty.

Having been a few hours since your post, I hope they have hatched, but I'll throw my 2 cents in anyway.

In my opinion, in a high humidity area, 45-60% is too high during incubation, but 72% is not too high for hatching. But... if your air cells were big enough at lockdown, it could have been just fine.

Once they externally pip, it could take around 24 hours before they zip out. Some breeds are quicker, some are slower, but 24 is a good guideline. The thing to watch is that membrane around the pip. If it gets dry and brown, intervention may be necessary. If it stays papery white, or wet looking gray, they are usually fine. Knock on the incubator or talk to them and watch for movement around he hole.

Good luck!

 

[iluvsedward]

Thanks so much for your imput! The three with pips all decided to (conveniently) hatch around 1am and they needed no help whatsoever and they did beautifully. The 4th one has a pip (thank goodness) and is taking it's sweet time. I looked at the wing feathers and i believe all three are females !!!

 

[Alaskaduck]

I'm new to BYC and not sure if it's effective to join in on an old thread. Is it?
I enjoyed reading this write up on humidity, especially the often debated lockdown methods. I've read so much in the last couple of months as I prepared to incubate my first duck eggs. I've been weighing and canceling and reading, and reading some more. I started at 45% RH, weight loss wasn't enough so lowered to 35. Still not enough by day 18 so lowered to 25. My Hovabator will run at 10% if I add no water. So as day 25 approached, I was just under a weight loss of 13%. Not ideal. So being new to this, I wanted to know why is humidity raised so high 3 days before hatch? I could really use those days to keep it low and reduce moisture. I've kept the temp very consistent so not expecting an early hatch.
I do believe in experience and gut feeling so when I read what experienced, successful hatchers have done, I feel it's valuable information. I also like the scientific method and found great data from various sources that favored a lower humidity to start. And in two highly regarded sources (Storey's Guide and Poultry Keeper) they both say to raise humidity 24-48 hours before the first expected pip "to prevent shell membranes from drying out excessively" and to "help soften the egg shells before piping." I also read that lowering humidity too much at the end causes the weight loss to potentially come from the bird itself like its legs rather than moisture from the inside of the egg. Not sure if this is true.

So my dilemma is, do I continue to keep humidity low to lose those last precise kilograms or do I raise it even though I've only lost 12.5% by day 27 to soften the shell for easier piping?