Newbie with a cheeping bator!

[alicat4]

Hi, I'm Ali and I've been lurking for quite awhile and have learned so much from everyone. We built a 'bator as a homeschooling project and incubated our first batch of eggs. The 'bator worked great, but in my fear of under humidifying, I overhumidified and ended up with a batch of drowned eggs and oversized babies who couldn't get out of their eggs.

We got 2 buff orpingtons and a speckled sussex out of the batch. They're 3 weeks old and doing well. I learned about dry incubating here and we're on day 21 in a little giant hovabator with 45 mixed breed eggs. (The homemade one has purebreds set to hatch Friday: Sussex, Orps, and Australorps) So far we've got one little guy in the hovabator all hatched and ready for some buddies and another that's doing his best. I'm worried about the humidity now, though, b/c it's staying at about 45% in there and it won't seem to come up. Plugs are in, water's in the troughs, I even dripped some in the plug holes. Chick # 2 doesn't seem to be making progress and i'm having flashbacks of the last hatch. I know that the air cells are good sized and my eggs lost 13% weight by day 18. I don't want stuck chicks. We had the first one pip last night, and it immediately died, and I think it pipped it's yolk sack b/c it had yellow goo around it inside the egg. I thought it might have been an exploder, so I slipped my hand in and pulled it before the others pipped. Could that be the problem w/ my humidity? I've not opened it AT ALL except for that. I just didn't want to lose the whole batch from contamination. The humidity has stayed at 40-45% since day 18. It didn't drop when I pulled the first egg. STRESS. It's worse than having a baby!

At least I know what to expect with that! Anyway, thanks to everyone on here for all the wisdom!!

 

[cici_p]

I'm a newbie too, but have found you can raise your humidity very quickly by slipping in a wet paper towel, or slightly slower but for longer term with a wet rag. . .just be careful not to cover the heat element or you can mess up you temperature. Yes, doing so will involve opening the bator, but if you can't get it up any other way it seems worth it to me?
Humidity will also usually naturally rise when the eggs start hatching, but if it didn't raise significantly with your first egg it might be worth a try.
Like I said, I'm new at this, so hopefuly a pro will help soon. . .

 

[alicat4]

I ended up cutting a sponge into strips and poking them thru the plugholes. That way I didn't have to open the bator. We'll see how that works. Number 2 is still working at it and approaching 24 hrs, so we'll see. There's another almost out, so I'm hoping it'll help raise the humidity. It's very exciting and totally nerve-wracking. And I have to do it all over again on Friday! Whew! I don't know how so many people do lots of batches at a time!

 

[TheBuff]

If the humidity is to low and it's the last few days I add good warm water to the trays that will boost the humidity right up.Cool water takes to long to warm up.

 

[alicat4]

The sponge strips seem to be working! Humidity went up to 64% and we got another cheeper! Number 2 is still struggling...not too hopeful for him. Bummer.

 

[lurky]

Congratulations

Dont forget to post pictures

 

[william9792]

is your bator a still-air , or forced air? have you calbrated your humidty guage? is your bator a hova or a LG? and you did what i do on day 18 by adding the sponges. i hatch about 100 to 150 chicks a month, but this month i will have around 300 hatch. i amd glad you have new chicks, where are the pic's? william