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

[BCMaraniac]

I think the electric was off?


I'll try to test it tomorrow, though I'm not sure how accurate that thing is.

You're right, Bee......but knowing me, I would have still gone after my blow dryer.

Besides, I have well water, so warm water wouldn't have been an option for me either since I have no hot water without electricity.

 

[Beekissed]

This is how you can test it....you don't have to buy anything! ;-)

Hygrometers can be tested by putting 1/2 cup salt and 1/4 cup water in a dish or jar and mixing it to a slurry.
Put the salt slurry jar and the hygrometer next to each other in a sealed plastic bag.
After 8-12 hours the hygrometer should read 75%...note any differences to adjust your readings and you're set.

That's interesting! I'll have to try that! Thank you for that little tip...always learning here, aren't we?

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: I am all for positivity but what is "it"

 

[Lacy Blues]

I am all for positivity but what is "it"

"it" is Bee's 4th attempt to hatch eggs with a heating pad.

 

[aussie pete]

hi Bee ,haven't been around much lately (internet problems)
seems u have things well figured for this attempt.
marking aircell size works for me

as i've said before i use "dry method" usually about 45 % rite thru.

have found greater success weighing eggs to gauge aircell size,ie loss of approx 14-15% of initial weight x hatch

initial weight 65 grams x 15% = 9.75 g- end weight needed approx 55.75 g

i usually weigh when i candle day 7- day 14 - day 18 to check I'm on track
use a kitchen scale (i use grams) rather than chasing relative humidity levels via a hygrometer

aircell size visually should be approx 1/3 of egg for hatch

seems simpler to me than adjusting humidity levels (cant remove water if too much in soil )

maybe this can be some help

cheers Pete

 

[Beekissed]

hi Bee ,haven't been around much lately (internet problems)
seems u have things well figured for this attempt.
marking aircell size works for me

as i've said before i use "dry method" usually about 45 % rite thru.

have found greater success weighing eggs to gauge aircell size,ie loss of approx 14-15% of initial weight x hatch

initial weight 65 grams x 15% = 9.75 g- end weight needed approx 55.75 g

i usually weigh when i candle day 7- day 14 - day 18 to check I'm on track
use a kitchen scale (i use grams) rather than chasing relative humidity levels via a hygrometer

aircell size visually should be approx 1/3 of egg for hatch

seems simpler to me than adjusting humidity levels (cant remove water if too much in soil )

maybe this can be some help

cheers Pete

Pete!

So you don't increase humidity at the end either? How can you get by with that when everyone else says they will shrink wrap without humidity? I'd love to not have to mess with humidity issues!

 

[aussie pete]

chics produce their own humidity when they hatch,

my own observations seem to point to shrink wrapping being caused by chics being too big for egg (sml air cell size)& membrane being thick ,still containing too much fluid(sticky) which drys too fast when chic externally pips
imo -membrane supplies nutrients etc to chick, if humidity is too high ,membrane absorbs excess moisture thus making a membrane of nutrients & water ,thus a food supply more than required which chic doesn't use up.so u end up with an over size chic which cant turn around to pip & zip & excess membrane which suddenly dried up from water evaporation on exposure to air when external pip happens.

air cell size is a good way to gauge if chic is growing too fast (excess moisture in membrane)


as was said earlier broodies have been observed pushing chic out to dry & fluff up then get back under to warm up

 

[lazy gardener]

Lacy and Bee, from my reading, those doing the dry hatch are running even dryer during the first 18 days of incubation than the originator of the concept was doing. But they are all bumping up to 55 - 65% for the hatch, and that bump can happen even as late as the first pip, however it's generally recommended that the humidity be up before then. Also, that first hatchling will increase the humidity for the rest of the hatchlings merely be the process of drying off. My goal is 25%. and I agree with Pete: the egg ready to hatch, looks like it's lost about 1/3 of it's volume, even though it's only about 14% by weight. (I've never weighed... just one more thing for me to obsess about.)

I'm going to throw out a bit of a theory I've been rolling around in the pea brain: I'm thinking, that as long as the humidity is low enough during the first 14 - 18 days, that the membrane and shell may do quite a bit of self regulating about how much moisture it actually looses. And, perhaps, that's why the dry hatch method doesn't seem to be too precise, and yet gives good results.

 

[aussie pete]

my observation of egg shell after hatch show very thin membrane remaining after hatch ,where as shrink wrapped one have a very thick membrane remaining

if chic is too large, like the 2 u had from "hooties" hatch, i think they actually absorbed all the excess membrane(too high humidity) became too big to turn ,pip & zip after internal pip

chic can also drown from excess moisture in membrane when they internally pip ,(break thru membrane to start to breath)

 

[Beekissed]

chics produce their own humidity when they hatch,

my own observations seem to point to shrink wrapping being caused by chics being too big for egg (sml air cell size)& membrane being thick ,still containing too much fluid(sticky) which drys too fast when chic externally pips
imo -membrane supplies nutrients etc to chick, if humidity is too high ,membrane absorbs excess moisture thus making a membrane of nutrients & water ,thus a food supply more than required which chic doesn't use up.so u end up with an over size chic which cant turn around to pip & zip & excess membrane which suddenly dried up from water evaporation on exposure to air when external pip happens.

air cell size is a good way to gauge if chic is growing too fast (excess moisture in membrane)


as was said earlier broodies have been observed pushing chic out to dry & fluff up then get back under to warm up

Lacy and Bee, from my reading, those doing the dry hatch are running even dryer during the first 18 days of incubation than the originator of the concept was doing. But they are all bumping up to 55 - 65% for the hatch, and that bump can happen even as late as the first pip, however it's generally recommended that the humidity be up before then. Also, that first hatchling will increase the humidity for the rest of the hatchlings merely be the process of drying off. My goal is 25%. and I agree with Pete: the egg ready to hatch, looks like it's lost about 1/3 of it's volume, even though it's only about 14% by weight. (I've never weighed... just one more thing for me to obsess about.)

I'm going to throw out a bit of a theory I've been rolling around in the pea brain: I'm thinking, that as long as the humidity is low enough during the first 14 - 18 days, that the membrane and shell may do quite a bit of self regulating about how much moisture it actually looses. And, perhaps, that's why the dry hatch method doesn't seem to be too precise, and yet gives good results.

my observation of egg shell after hatch show very thin membrane remaining after hatch ,where as shrink wrapped one have a very thick membrane remaining

if chic is too large, like the 2 u had from "hooties" hatch, i think they actually absorbed all the excess membrane(too high humidity) became too big to turn ,pip & zip after internal pip

chic can also drown from excess moisture in membrane when they internally pip ,(break thru membrane to start to breath)

This all makes so much sense to me! Just how much humidity is a hen adding to the nest during incubation beyond her own body respiration and the humidity from the soils...if she is even on soil? I think I'd like to do dry all the way through and see what happens...it would take such a load off my mind and certainly simplify things a good bit...and I do love simple!

So, air cells should be one third of the egg at time of hatch? Mine were most definitely not that big and I think your assessment of it, Pete, explains why those chicks couldn't get out...they were enormous and had huge abdomens from absorbing all that yolk.

Dry, natural hatch it is!