June Hatch A Long

[jolenesdad]

Yesterday, I did a very quick, in place candle of the Day 11 shipped + our own eggs in the incubator; I’ll do a real, decision making candle this weekend at Day 14. I’ve been running humidity at 30-40% with an overall average of 37%. Even in our own eggs, the air cells looked big, at least like the 14 day image in the attached image, if not bigger. I did not weigh eggs. So, I’m increasing humidity. I added water slowly yesterday but wasn’t getting above 40% so just added much more water this AM and am now at 54%. I was curious on thoughts of how high to go on humidity if air cells are big?

My humidity in TX gulf coast is running st 48% for my duck eggs and were right on target at last weigh.

Somewhere in a sally sunshine thread there’s a description of this. I know “somewhere” doesn’t help much, I’ll try and search myself later. Something like 5% of humidity for every xxxx amount you’re above or below your target. I feel like a couple of us brought it up in the Easter hatch a long.

@ronott1 would you happen to know or know who we could ask? (Sorry to loop you in during the middle!) How much humidity you want to increase in the incubator when you are below your target?

@Mixed flock enthusiast are you good at math, and do you have a kitchen scale?

Normally a duck you want to lose .55% a day. You could maybe go for .45 or .40 since they’re big? You could adjust it, weigh today, and weigh the next two days to see what’s happening....

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Yesterday, I did a very quick, in place candle of the Day 11 shipped + our own eggs in the incubator; I’ll do a real, decision making candle this weekend at Day 14. I’ve been running humidity at 30-40% with an overall average of 37%. Even in our own eggs, the air cells looked big, at least like the 14 day image in the attached image, if not bigger. I did not weigh eggs. So, I’m increasing humidity. I added water slowly yesterday but wasn’t getting above 40% so just added much more water this AM and am now at 54%. I was curious on thoughts of how high to go on humidity if air cells are big?

I go by air cell size as well and have never gotten into weighing my eggs. I have 2 identical Incubators that for whatever reason one likes to sit around 45-50% and the other 50-55% for the first 18 days. I have had 100% hatches in both and with slightly differing air cell size because of the humidity. With all that said, since you're aware that the air cells are slightly large for the stage they're in, if it were me I would lean toward 50-55% so I think it sounds like you should be at a good point where you are.

 

[ronott1]

My humidity in TX gulf coast is running st 48% for my duck eggs and were right on target at last weigh.

Somewhere in a sally sunshine thread there’s a description of this. I know “somewhere” doesn’t help much, I’ll try and search myself later. Something like 5% of humidity for every xxxx amount you’re above or below your target. I feel like a couple of us brought it up in the Easter hatch a long.

@ronott1 would you happen to know or know who we could ask? (Sorry to loop you in during the middle!) How much humidity you want to increase in the incubator when you are below your target?

@Mixed flock enthusiast are you good at math, and do you have a kitchen scale?

Normally a duck you want to lose .55% a day. You could maybe go for .45 or .40 since they’re big? You could adjust it, weigh today, and weigh the next two days to see what’s happening....

For incubation, I would not go above 50%.

It would be a good idea to calibrate the hygrometer too. It sounds like it may not be set correctly or maybe not working well.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

For incubation, I would not go above 50%.

It would be a good idea to calibrate the hygrometer too. It sounds like it may not be set correctly or maybe not working well.

Hi, the hygrometer is recently calibrated, but I’m adjusting the humidity manually (styrofoam incubator with wells on the floor). I was aiming for a low-ish humidity of 30-40% in the beginning, based on all of the dry hatch stuff I’ve been reading. It looks like that humidity was too low for these eggs so I’m trying to correct it.

 

[Milkywayranchsc]

Do you still see veins like LilyD suggested looking for?

yes, as of last night, and still some this morning

 

[Milkywayranchsc]

I used coconut myself too as it's less runny. You might find some in the Asian food section of large supermarkets?

they sell organic coconut oil at wal-mart, $10 for a huge tub of it.

 

[Milkywayranchsc]

Yup I check and then reapply coconut oil and put them back in. Each time you reapply work at the edges of the membrane to make sure it's not sticking to the chick. They will let you know when they are ready. They get very loud and start moving around much more when they are ready. When they are still absorbing they just lay kind of quiet.

he has been quiet and sleepy, so I guess not ready yet. I hope he finishes absorbing and pops out soon so I can stop worrying. I will touch up the edges with coconut oil like you suggested and recheck when I get home this afternoon.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

My humidity in TX gulf coast is running st 48% for my duck eggs and were right on target at last weigh.

Somewhere in a sally sunshine thread there’s a description of this. I know “somewhere” doesn’t help much, I’ll try and search myself later. Something like 5% of humidity for every xxxx amount you’re above or below your target. I feel like a couple of us brought it up in the Easter hatch a long.

@ronott1 would you happen to know or know who we could ask? (Sorry to loop you in during the middle!) How much humidity you want to increase in the incubator when you are below your target?

@Mixed flock enthusiast are you good at math, and do you have a kitchen scale?

Normally a duck you want to lose .55% a day. You could maybe go for .45 or .40 since they’re big? You could adjust it, weigh today, and weigh the next two days to see what’s happening....

Hi Jolenesdad, I haven’t hatched a ton of eggs, but I’ve tried keeping a constant humidity (55%) in one chicken hatch and adjusting for weight loss in one duck/guinea hatch. I actually had good hatches for both, but with the constant humidity hatch, I did have several full term, dead in shell chicks that had developed and were positioned normally, but failed to internally pip. When I weighed eggs and attempted to adjust humidity, the eggs were all over the place in weight loss, but almost all still hatched. From that, I decided that weight loss was not a very sensitive indicator anyway, so with this hatch, I decided to go by air cell size. I could weigh and try to adjust, but I think that I’m currently trying to judge how high I can safely go in humidity to keep them from losing more water than necessary. I only have them in the incubator for six more days (today is Day 12), then will place under the broodies at day 18 (assuming that they don’t break!).

 

[Mosey2003]

I'm starting to get antsy. Tomorrow night any early birds should start hatching. I am SO impatient to see if these poor shipped kids are gonna make it

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I go by air cell size as well and have never gotten into weighing my eggs. I have 2 identical Incubators that for whatever reason one likes to sit around 45-50% and the other 50-55% for the first 18 days. I have had 100% hatches in both and with slightly differing air cell size because of the humidity. With all that said, since you're aware that the air cells are slightly large for the stage they're in, if it were me I would lean toward 50-55% so I think it sounds like you should be at a good point where you are.

Thanks CluckNDoodle! I’ll aim for 55% until Saturday, when I’m doing a more thorough, 14 day candle. Maybe I’ll draw the air cell in the eggs and get a better handle on whether it’s abnormal then.