New Mexico

[Colie <3]

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Hey Mike Good to have you here Dont let these women Scare you They are harmless just jump right in and we will keep them under control If you are down this way stop by for coffee.
Bill

LOL Bill

 

[Colie <3]

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Awesome! Define "quite a few chickens" LOL Don't let the chicken math confuse you like I do. 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10 yep I've got 10 chickens not 20-30++
I've been having horrible luck with my incubators too, I want to blame the climate here somewhat. It's so stinkin' dry it's hard to keep my humidity up! Other places seem to value dry incubation but around here dry incubation means to me that I end up with air cells half the size of the egg! Still trying to figure out this incubation thing, who knew that I'd actually want a broody silkie?

 

[Yolkmountain]

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I finally got some FBCM to hatch and now have about 20 of them between a month old and 2 weeks. I also have some blue copper marrans. I was so excited to finally seem to be getting the incubator down, I guess It was just a lesson in patience for me.

 

[Mike32]

I have approx 70ish laying hens and 3 Roos. This doesn't include the 50 meat chicks I have. I caught chicken fever very bad last year and haven't recovered


I agree about the humidity issue. This last hatch I even put in paper towels along the bottom to help hold the humidity longer but it still dried out fast. I was trying to keep it around 30-40 but it was rough. I was planning on waiting a couple weeks until I built an incubator but my trigger happy fingers keep bidding on auctions and won another one that's due next week. Now I either have to get it built very fast or try my hovabator again.

 

[Colie <3]

My thoughts now are wondering about airflow. To keep the humidity up around 40% I end up plugging one or both vents usually then on lockdown to keep the humidity up even higher I have to keep both vents plugged. So I'm wondering if that is contributing to my dead in the shell problem now.

 

[Mike32]

Exact same here. I leave the vents open it dries out right away, I plug them both it stays somewhat steady. I have fully developed chicks that just don't hatch. I found 2 shrink wrapped 2 days ago when I got home from work. When I left in the morning it was perfect humidity, got home it was in the 20s. I'm so frustrated.

 

[WriterofWords]

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I use regular sponges in the incubator, especially at school over the weekends. With the dry air here it's hard to keep the humidity up anyway. It kicks it up a little high at first but I've never had an egg drown either.

 

[Colie <3]

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I use regular sponges in the incubator, especially at school over the weekends. With the dry air here it's hard to keep the humidity up anyway. It kicks it up a little high at first but I've never had an egg drown either.

How do you leave your vents during incubation and lockdown? I add a sponge during lockdown and it helps especially if I keep an eye on it and add water with tubing thru the vent hole. It's mostly during incubation I have a hard time finding a happy medium. What humidity % do you shoot for? I'm convinced incubating in this climate is an extra challenge, most people in the rest of the country have no idea! I still suck at it though I've literally had dozens of eggs fully formed dead in the shell most not even attempting to pip internally or externally. I'm completely lost as to why though!

 

[WriterofWords]

I keep all my vents shut and the humidity for chickens no lower than 65% then 80% for hatching otherwise they shrink wrap. At least once a day I mist the eggs the too, especially like now with 90 days straight of no precipitation at all.

 

[Yolkmountain]

I finally purchased some humidity pads on ebay which I stand in my water pan. I have a humidaire incubator. Doing that I have been able to open my ventilation holes all the way and still maintain between 55 and 60% humidity. This has been working alot better for me. I agree that trying to get the humidy up here is a unique challenge for us, but we have had to overcome harder things for our chickie addictions I dont think it will stop us by a long shot!