My First Lock Down

[malan37209]

lock down today.
10 eggs left out of 17
5 silver laced wyandottes/ 2 silkie/ 3 cochin
only using the incubator because all the other hens are either broody or busy brooding their little ones.
all I have are two wyandottes that have not gone broody once since i've got them two years ago. but they are very good production hens

 

[BarredR]

Day 1-18 my temp was 99.5 and humidity was 45% on day 18 went into lock down and increased humidity to 65%. On day 19 I lowered my temp between 98.0-98.5 day 21 I lowered temp again to 97.0-98.0. On day 18 all my eggs were alive and well wobbling around the bator. Now I read on line to drop my temps to what I did on day 19 and 21 but was later told by a member of this great forum we have to keep your temps at 99.5 start to finish. Mabey that's where I went wrong with it all.

 

[BarredR]

Good luck malan37209.

 

[subhanalah]

BarredRive read that its good to lower temps a bit for hatch.


It seems to me that your humidity was too high during the first 18 days and so they didn't lose enough water throughout incubation resulting in chicks that are too large to properly pip and turn in the shell to zip.

 

[BarredR]

45% is too high day 1-18? Not saying your not correct but everything I have read says 45% including post I've seen here on the forum.

 

[BarredR]

I candled my eggs 7,14 and 18 marked all eggs with a pencil. They seem to have the proper weight loss referencing this.

 

[subhanalah]

45% is too high day 1-18? Not saying your not correct but everything I have read says 45% including post I've seen here on the forum. 

a lot of people here are doing "dry incubation" with humidity levels around 25-35%. It really depends on your eggs, their freshness and the climate inside your home. I didn't measure humidity in my incubator, I filled one of the water troughs with water and would refill it when I saw it had gone dry...not the most scientific method!

 

[BarredR]

It's hard to say a lot of things could of gone wrong I even had a power outage for about 5hrs during my first incubation and had to put my bator in the car with heater on high. I just hope I have better luck in the future. I appreciate all you guys and your advice thank you.

 

[BaileyBoy]

im running dry incubation and my bator is around 39-45% thats ok right? also, my air cells seem to be a little small on day 10, what should i do?

 

[subhanalah]

I can't help you specifically but the folks here https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ll-detatched-shipped-eggs/25430#post_13129878
will probably be able to help you. Do you have pictures of the aircells? That would be very beneficial.