First time incubating...

[Rumor001]

Hi all, have been dead for a couple of years but back now, and starting off with 8 eggs (just a test) in a new incubator..

Eggs are

Pure orpingtons
Orpington x Brahma

My bator is currently running with following temps and humidity.

Temp: 37.3 degrees C ( varys between .2 and .4 )
Humidity: holding steady at exactly 45%

Eggs have only been in for a couple of hours ( around 13.5 hours ) so still a long ways to go, but super stoked.

I will be posting pics when i do check the eggs later on, after a couple of days to show progress.

Im using a really old model of Brinsea, the Octagon 20DX plus, with the autoturn cradle.

 

[JaeG]

Good luck! I'm incubating Button quail eggs at the moment. It's always so exciting to hatch babies.

 

[Asaburks]

For a still air incubator, you want to have the temperature to be at about 102 degrees F. Humidity should be at about 60% until the last 3 days of incubation. It normally takes about 21 days for chicks to hatch. On day 18, increase the humidity to about 90%

 

[Rumor001]

For a still air incubator, you want to have the temperature to be at about 102 degrees F. Humidity should be at about 60% until the last 3 days of incubation. It normally takes about 21 days for chicks to hatch. On day 18, increase the humidity to about 90%

Hi there, this isn’t a still air incubator, currently set to around 99.5F

Most places say (when i was reading up ) 45-50% humidity from day 1-18 and then needs to go up to 65-70% humidity the remaining days..

 

[Rumor001]

Never mind....

“How do chicks get air inside the incubator”

Mins later....

“Your incubator setup is wrong”

Now I understand, we all went through that one lol..

 

[Rumor001]

So theres movement and great development in all my pure Orpington eggs, after just 7 days.

3 out of my 4 Brahma x Orpington eggs i can also see great development and movement.

There is 1 im not sure about, it doesnt seem as developed, but I thought i saw movement after looking at it for a while, so ill still keep it in there, ill candle again on 14 days and again on the 18th day (when i have to open it again anyways on day 18 to add water below the eggs, so might as well just check them again)

Ill add pictures on day 14, possibly a video. Forgot to take pictures just now.

 

[Pyxis]

Sounds like it's going well! The only thing I would be cautious of is the humidity. For me, 45% would be too high and my embryos would drown. I need to be at about 30%. This does vary from place to place, so just make sure the air cells are developing as they should be and adjust accordingly

 

[ronott1]

Humidity will be fine! The important thing is that you are using a very good thermometer and keeping the incubator temperature at 99.5.

Chicks that are incubated at the incorrect temperature do not absorb the liquid well and will lead to too much moisture that can kill them

It is extremely common for this to be mis understood in incubating chicks. Humidity ranging from 25% to 50% humidity for the first 18 days will have very similar hatch rates and hatch ability.

Temperature off by more than a degree will cause bad hatch rates. Temperature must be much better controlled than humidity. Oddly we spend way too much time worrying about humidity

To more closely monitor chick development, an option is to weigh the eggs and keep track of weight loss.

 

[Rumor001]

Thanks for the help guys,

I am running 2 thermostats in my incubator, and my temp stays at 99.3 / .4

Adjusting it is really hard and that is as perfect as i could get it... if i only kink it a little to the right it jumps to 99.7 - 100 degrees...

And its close to impossible getting it back to where it was, takes me hours lmao... so im just leaving it as is now...

 

[Rumor001]

Well ........k,

I came home to a pip and I TOTALLY forgot to remove the sponges in the incubator (sponges holds the eggs as its autoturn)

And i had to open the bator on day 21 to remove them as there was no way they would have been able to get out of the eggs with the sponges inserted as it “squishes” the egg quite firmly.

I highly doubt i did damage to the eggs/chicks, as the bator wasn’t opened fully and was open for about 10 seconds humidity only dropped about 5% from 70 so its on 65% now. (Cant get more out of it for some reason, even with all my water trots filled)