Maine

[hoppy]

my first incubator I hatched nothing, it kept adding too much water when I'd refill the humidity control bottle and it would just glug, glug, glug and zero hatches. no I have a no brainer incubator that thought me, in the spring, here in maine, you don't need to add any water unless your house is really dry. the spring rains keep it humid enough. too humid and they will drown when trying to hatch because the air sac will be too high and they will pip too low and drown. some people on here (SCG??) do dry hatches. I add water to my large incubator every 2 days, it's dry at that point and I'm hatching ducklings. as the chicks hatch, the humidity will go up anyway from their breathing, I heard. not sure if it's true because I don't worry about the humidity like I used to.

Feel free to explain this. Recommendations are for 50% humidity till day 14-18 and much more at hatch. I realize the egg is porous but at this point they aren't breathing air like we are, they are in a wet environment.

At present it is 33% and holding steady at 99.0. It is early yet so I might try moving this all down to the basement in the morning so the temp can hold more steady. IDK if there is more humidity down there but I can hope. I can't see it as often though so that's a loss.

 

[hoppy]

and finally- our first swap is in the process of being scheduled for MARCH 30TH, last saturday of the month at the Augusta Tractor Supply.

hoping it warms up and the snow leaves just in time for it to be a great turn out.

I will start a thread very shortly.
and here is the thread
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...icken-swap-farm-days-saturday-march-30th-2013

also click on the link in my siggy for any new swap dates and as they come in I will update it with links to those threads.

 

[lazy gardener]

my first incubator I hatched nothing, it kept adding too much water when I'd refill the humidity control bottle and it would just glug, glug, glug and zero hatches. no I have a no brainer incubator that thought me, in the spring, here in maine, you don't need to add any water unless your house is really dry. the spring rains keep it humid enough. too humid and they will drown when trying to hatch because the air sac will be too high and they will pip too low and drown. some people on here (SCG??) do dry hatches. I add water to my large incubator every 2 days, it's dry at that point and I'm hatching ducklings. as the chicks hatch, the humidity will go up anyway from their breathing, I heard. not sure if it's true because I don't worry about the humidity like I used to.

I'm a newbie at hatching, but I had a good hatch (6 of 6 fertile, one quit at around 7 days, the remaining 5 hatched well and on time in spite of 3 power outages.) During the first 18 days, I kept humidity between 10 and 40%. Would have kept the lower number higher, but started out with VERY small air cells as the eggs were super fresh. I wouldn't sweat the low humidity. (No pun intended.)

 

[buckabucka]

Finally caught up!
ashandvine, I've only tried dry hatching. I keep the humidity between 25 and 35% until lockdown, and then I aim for 65 - 75%. I weigh the whole tray of eggs and plot their weight loss out (they should lose about 13% of their weight by lockdown). If weight loss is happening too quickly, I add a little extra water. I've had good luck with the dry hatch method, but I'm not a very experienced hatcher!

Mustard Tiger, occasionally I use a heat mat (old water bed heater) for starting seeds, but sometimes I just do what lazy gardener does and find warm spots around the house. I start most of my seeds in damp paper towels in plastic bags, so it is easy to tuck them into warm areas around the house. I find that if I start the seeds in dirt, I get impatient and eventually start digging around in there to see what happened, inevitably damaging the seed.

To determine your microclimate, plant some seeds and watch them grow. Then watch them get decimated by an unexpected frost. Next, mention to all your friends and neighbors, "wow, that was some frost we had last night!". When they look at you with a very puzzled look and say, "frost???", you'll know you are in a cold spot!

 

[hoppy]

To determine your microclimate, plant some seeds and watch them grow. Then watch them get decimated by an unexpected frost. Next, mention to all your friends and neighbors, "wow, that was some frost we had last night!". When they look at you with a very puzzled look and say, "frost???", you'll know you are in a cold spot!

 

[kinsey228]

Okay... so I can raise chickens and kill chickens but I can't hatch them apparently.  I can read a chicken and treat a chicken and even judge a fair few.... this is frustrating.  I have read about dry incubations.  What is best do you think?  Low humidity but steady temps?  or fluctuation and points of reaching the right humidity?  I am really only worried about the end the most.

I am on day 19 of my first dry incubation, so I will let you know when / if the eggs hatch. When the eggs went into lockdown yesterday, all 19 babies were moving around in their eggs and looked to be right on schedule.

 

[lazy gardener]

Finally caught up!
ashandvine, I've only tried dry hatching. I keep the humidity between 25 and 35% until lockdown, and then I aim for 65 - 75%. I weigh the whole tray of eggs and plot their weight loss out (they should lose about 13% of their weight by lockdown). If weight loss is happening too quickly, I add a little extra water. I've had good luck with the dry hatch method, but I'm not a very experienced hatcher!

Mustard Tiger, occasionally I use a heat mat (old water bed heater) for starting seeds, but sometimes I just do what lazy gardener does and find warm spots around the house. I start most of my seeds in damp paper towels in plastic bags, so it is easy to tuck them into warm areas around the house. I find that if I start the seeds in dirt, I get impatient and eventually start digging around in there to see what happened, inevitably damaging the seed.

To determine your microclimate, plant some seeds and watch them grow. Then watch them get decimated by an unexpected frost. Next, mention to all your friends and neighbors, "wow, that was some frost we had last night!". When they look at you with a very puzzled look and say, "frost???", you'll know you are in a cold spot!

I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who goes sticking my finger where it doesn't belong when I'm waiting for seeds to sprout. How often do you find yourself staring intently into a little pot of soil, counting the little sprouts to see if there are any more than there were the last eight times you checked that day???

 

[CoopChick719]

I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who goes sticking my finger where it doesn't belong when I'm waiting for seeds to sprout. How often do you find yourself staring intently into a little pot of soil, counting the little sprouts to see if there are any more than there were the last eight times you checked that day???

Yup that's me too!

 

[snowpetals907]

I'm fairly new to hatching and I've been using the little giant...
First hatch was 0%, second hatch I had three out of 20, and my last hatch was 20 out of 22!

Only thing I did different was I only filled up one of the reservoirs until lock down then added three cups with sponges in them. Only way I could keep the humidity high enough. They were hatching like crazy

but I really hate the LG and I think it's time to spend money on an expensive bator that doesn't make me want to pull my hair out.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

my first incubator I hatched nothing, it kept adding too much water when I'd refill the humidity control bottle and it would just glug, glug, glug and zero hatches. no I have a no brainer incubator that thought me, in the spring, here in maine, you don't need to add any water unless your house is really dry. the spring rains keep it humid enough. too humid and they will drown when trying to hatch because the air sac will be too high and they will pip too low and drown. some people on here (SCG??) do dry hatches. I add water to my large incubator every 2 days, it's dry at that point and I'm hatching ducklings. as the chicks hatch, the humidity will go up anyway from their breathing, I heard. not sure if it's true because I don't worry about the humidity like I used to.

My scientific method of hatching is this:
Add about a half to three quarters of a cup of water to the well in the incubator. When it needs refilling, refill it (with about a half a cup again). I've found in the winter it's about every 18 to 24 hours. When I go to hatch I fill the wells 3/4 of the way up, open the air hole almost all the way and sit back and see what happens.
I pay no attention to the actual humidity numbers.

also click on the link in my siggy for any new swap dates and as they come in I will update it with links to those threads.

Thank you!