Simulated Natural Nest Incubation~Experiment #1 So it begins....

[Beekissed]

Pretty sure those humidity readings wont do you any good here... It seems like you are going for something closer to a "dry hatch" than that chart indicates. Not that you are tracking humidity at all... But around 50-60% humidity is when you would get a lot of condensation on plastic at those temps.

Yeah...this hatch is nothing like a dry hatch or a wet hatch situation..it's a natural incubation, as natural as I can get it. I don't know if that means it's dry or wet, but I'm thinking it's not dry. Not with the amount of moisture in the nesting floor and the nesting materials, with the closed in heat source over those materials.

 

[ronott1]

Oh, Wow!! Thank you for the chart! How cool! I was thinking I had to keep the temps at 99.5 for some reason and was feeling pretty good about 100.0 but was worried about going over that any...thank you!!

Your Welcome!

Nice experiment. I think it is more practical then the Bra incubator experiment. You can hatch more eggs in the simulated broody box then the one or two that would fit in a Bra....

 

[Beekissed]

Your Welcome!

Nice experiment. I think it is more practical then the Bra incubator experiment. You can hatch more eggs in the simulated broody box then the one or two that would fit in a Bra....

I would crush eggs in my bra...but it seems to have worked for some.

 

[Beekissed]

Temps are now stable and solid at a little past 100.0, with the controls on #1 setting and only the heating pad on top of the eggs. It was like that all day yesterday except it had the broody pillow over the heating pad. I'm thinking the added moisture to the "ground" added heat to that nest to the degree that I may not need the broody pillow today.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm thinking that these night time temp increases upward may have something to do with circadian rhythm...maybe?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythm

 

[ocap]

there is a chemical reaction going on in the egg as the food of the yolk is turning into chick, if I remember chemistry class correctly any time that there is a chemical reaction heat is produced, very interesting that chemical reaction on day 13 is different.

edited for grammar

 

[Aacre]

I'm thinking that these night time temp increases upward may have something to do with circadian rhythm...maybe?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythm

I have noticed that in my DIY incubator that the temps seem to be the most stable during the day, after 10am. It starts rising at about 8pm and then after I turn the eggs at 9:30-10pm, it rises again until about midnight/1am. Then it cools down and is stable until about 5am, when it wants to drop down to 96 degrees (if I let it get that low). After my 7am turning of eggs, then the temp is rather unstable and usually can't decide if it wants to be cooler or warmer.. I realize now that I have typed this, that it appears as if I never sleep.

 

[Beekissed]

I think it's like having a new baby in the house. I sleep but not restfully and I awaken for no reason but have to check the baby because what if I awakened for a reason? That's what's going on with this incubation right now...I think that's natural with anything new and unstable that you have to tend. I'll learn to trust the rhythms and will be able to sleep better after I have learned them.

Right now the temps only seem to fluctuate right after sundown and full dark happens and right after daylight and full day is here. All the other times it's very stable and I never have to tweak. Now, this morning when I added a good bit of moisture to the "soil" under the nest, I saw an immediate spike in temps and it took some minutes to come back to the normal steadiness. I've got a vaporizer running in that room right now and will continue that all the while it is snowing.

It's been pouring snow since around 7 am.

 

[Beekissed]

This will be my first eggs hatched from my flock since they started fermented feed. I'll be very interested in what that will mean for nutrition in the eggs and the resulting vigor in the chicks. Will also be curious about the sometimes laughed at female to male ratio from animals fed organic acids in their feed or water.

I was encouraged to find both eggs in my frying pan this morning were fertilized, so I'm hoping this means a good result on a hatch from this rooster. Not that I really wanted any chicks from this rooster but this is all I have right now.

 

[Beekissed]

I've been curious....in a broody nest I see no way of the hen adding more humidity for the hatch~other than from her own body~ but in incubators folks are increasing the humidity in the last 4 days? I can add humidity here but a hen can't go take a quick shower and come back to the nest, so I'm wondering how those chicks hatch in that nest without the increase in humidity?

Or, does the first chick's moisture provide humidity for the rest? And, so on and so forth?