A Guide to Humidity, Weighing and Lockdown.

[pete55]

Hi

I usually hand turn all the eggs 180 degrees once a day to supplement the auto turning of the incubator. During that time I'll candle the eggs but I take my time so I dont knock or drop any. So I'd say in the first week 5 -10 minutes. I use a pen torch for easy convenience and illuminate through the air cell end of the egg.

After the first week I'll also cool the eggs deliberately for 20 mintues daily as I usually have goose eggs that dont lose moisture easily. Sharing the incubator can be parrots, chickens, quail etc and no harm ever comes to them.

Also if you think about it in the wild a bird will often leave the eggs to feed etc so the egg is quite resiliant to this cooling.

Hope that helps answer your question.

Pete

 

[h4ppy-chris]

Quote:

thanks Pete

 

[h4ppy-chris]

do the links work on post #1 for you?

 

[pete55]

Hi

You should be able to link to our website from the link as I've just checked it.

Pete

 

[h4ppy-chris]

working now must of been my PC

 

[newbee chick01]

i`m really new to incubating so this probly sounds silly question but ive got 2 ask if ive understood this right,,, am i right in thinking that before putting my chicken eggs into lockdown i should check for internal pipping??? not sure if thats what was ment ???.all my eggs are white and i can see well whats going on when candling. tomorrow is day 18 for my 6 (started small as im new and so is incubator) and im a bit confused as to what im suposed 2 do ?

 

[shanshan51]

Has anyone every done humidity 25-35% all the way through. Even through lockdown? Any success?

 

[Arielle]

Has anyone every done humidity 25-35% all the way through. Even through lockdown? Any success?

After reading this thread, (thanks Pete55), I relaxed about the humidity. For the chicken eggs,that is. During my last hatching spree I had a variety of lockdown dates and as most were from under a broody hen after she hatched her initial brood ( her friends left her new eggs everyday to cover!). SO Ididn't know their due dates and had to wing it. When I heard internal peeping , I upped the humidity immediately with 4 wet sponges. BUt sometimes I totally missed the peeps, and a little one showed up anyway. 1-2 hatched a day for about a week.

IMO, my chicks pipped and zipped in a few hours, not 24 hours, and IMO this helped. THe membrane didn't have time to dry as it can with the longer to hatch chicks.

Please note, their are some eggs, apparently TUrkey and marans, that benefit from higher humidity at lockdown. THis is according to others in the know who hatch these types of eggs.

 

[Janie1968]

Thanks Pete for all of the good info on weighing eggs and keeping track of the growth of the air cell. I have some eggs in lockdown and while I drew the air cell it was only on day 18. The air cells don't look like they are big enough according to graphics on this site. Next time I'll weigh my eggs and draw the air cell each week.

 

[Nicolla]

This may be a very dumb question, but am I to understand that you should have two incubators at the end? One for the chicks that are internally peeping and ready for the higher humidity and one for the ones that aren't ready yet? Or do you just wait until they are all ready?

Thank you so much!