Giving incubator eggs a daily "breather"?

[Debbienmousey]

Hi all, I've got a question for you!

Have any of you tried letting your incubator eggs have a "breather" every day/every other day? Basically just take the lid of the incubator off for 10 minutes or so to let them cool down and get a lot of fresh air.(in a tabletop model) In past hatches I've done this a few times throughout incubation, but I normally only did it a few times because I'd always forget so I can't say that I've seen any improvement in hatching. But when you think about it..Broodies ALWAYS (unless there's something wrong with the eggs) get the BEST hatches. And what do they do every day? Get off the nest to eat & drink, which cools the eggs a little bit. They can be off for 5-10 minutes or half an hour, and they STILL get amazing hatches.

Anyway, I'm letting my current batch of eggs have a "breather" every day or so for between 8-10 minutes. What do you guys think about this? I haven't candled yet so I don't quite know how they're doing, because they still have 14 days left.

 

[XxB0rd3rsxX10]

that makes alot of sense!!! you need to let me know how it turned out cause i just might give it a try, cause my last hatch didnt turn out to well, i got 0-5 eggs i set

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

We do this with duck eggs when we mist them daily.

 

[judial8907]

Makes sense to me, you will have to let us know how this goes. Maybe it will become essential in hatching and incubating chicks. I have 8 in the bator right now, and leave a plug off all day for fresh air. My humidity still stays about 50% which I think may still be too high before lockdown, then I increase the humidity to about 65% during lockdown which stays constant even with the plug open. I would love to know how this works out.

 

[Debbienmousey]

Judial, my humidity is being annoying too. I wanted to do a dry hatch this time, which I believe is having the humidity at 20-30%, but even with the plug out it only goes down to 42-45%.

I will definitely try to remember to post my results using this method during and after the hatch.