Valentines Day Hatch-A-Long 2016

[JacksFarmNGardn]

All these chicks!!! So cute!
So I have some concerns,and hopefully someone can help ease my mind. So yesterday my eggs went on lockdown. Water was added to raise humidity. Hygrometer read 60%. Now the past couple weeks the humidity would read 10,and we added water to bring it up to 40.this morning when adding more water,noticed condensation on the lid.!so brought in my walmart hygrometer. It said 78% and the other one said 63. We think the hygrometer that came with the incubator is starting to fail. It happened with her other one. The humidity has been brought down to 60. The failing one said 53.seems off but not by much. I'm wondering if the past 2 weeks has been too humid. If it read 10 and we filled it up to 40, it may have actually been 50s-60s the whole time. Dont want to dry my eggs out,but is there anything i can do these last 2 days to make sure they dont drown? I wasn't gonna candle because of the poor looking pores,but before i put the second hygrometer inside,we checked one. Air sell looked great and was moving.

 

[junebuggena]

All these chicks!!! So cute!
So I have some concerns,and hopefully someone can help ease my mind. So yesterday my eggs went on lockdown. Water was added to raise humidity. Hygrometer read 60%. Now the past couple weeks the humidity would read 10,and we added water to bring it up to 40.this morning when adding more water,noticed condensation on the lid.!so brought in my walmart hygrometer. It said 78% and the other one said 63. We think the hygrometer that came with the incubator is starting to fail. It happened with her other one. The humidity has been brought down to 60. The failing one said 53.seems off but not by much. I'm wondering if the past 2 weeks has been too humid. If it read 10 and we filled it up to 40, it may have actually been 50s-60s the whole time. Dont want to dry my eggs out,but is there anything i can do these last 2 days to make sure they dont drown? I wasn't gonna candle because of the poor looking pores,but before i put the second hygrometer inside,we checked one. Air sell looked great and was moving.

They will be fine. Lockdown humidity should range from 60 to 80%. 'Drowning' will usually only happen if the chick doesn't internally pip into the air cell first. If the air cells are big enough going into lockdown, they should be fine.

 

[junebuggena]

Nice! I have 5 out, and 3 or 4 more pips. The two left in the incubator are playing soccer with the slowpokes, so I'm not sure how many pips there are.

They just started popping out, one after the other since about 7:00 this morning. We had at least one chick hatch every hour or so up until about 4:30. Now, we are just waiting on the last two eggs.

 

[4stakes]

Jacksfarm, Its my first time hatching also. We started with 18 eggs only put 3 on lock down. One hatched this morning and waiting for the other two to pip. If the air cell looked good on one, I would keep your humidity at 60-65 and hope for the best. Learn from this one and move on to the next hatch if your gonna hatch again. Good luck.

 

[JacksFarmNGardn]

They will be fine. Lockdown humidity should range from 60 to 80%. 'Drowning' will usually only happen if the chick doesn't internally pip into the air cell first. If the air cells are big enough going into lockdown, they should be fine.

We definitely seen that the air cell was bigger! That part i'm relieved about. What about the past 2 wks? 1st wk they were in my homemade incubator.

 

[junebuggena]

We definitely seen that the air cell was bigger! That part i'm relieved about. What about the past 2 wks? 1st wk they were in my homemade incubator.

During incubation, from set to lockdown, humidity should be kept at about 25 to 50%. Some people swear by the 25 to 30 range, others have better luck with 45 to 50 range. It depends on a lot of different things including, but not limited to, breed of the eggs, incubator, location, elevation, and even time of year. All you can do is try to keep things as stable as possible and hope for the best. Eventually, you will figure out what works best for you.

 

[TJordan]

Still only 12 for me. No sounds from the remaining eggs. I'll wait until tomorrow afternoon and carefully candle.

 

[ShadesofSable]

Still only 12 for me. No sounds from the remaining eggs. I'll wait until tomorrow afternoon and carefully candle.

Still only 1 from last I heard for me too... I'm at work so I'm relying on reports from my boyfriend.

 

[TJordan]

Still only 1 from last I heard for me too... I'm at work so I'm relying on reports from my boyfriend.

Good luck. I'm worried because my temp went CRAZY!

I hope these 17 are the younger ones I set in my simi-staggered hatch I'm doing. Like a doofus I forgot to mark the younger eggs

 

[ShadesofSable]

Good luck. I'm worried because my temp went CRAZY!

I hope these 17 are the younger ones I set in my simi-staggered hatch I'm doing. Like a doofus I forgot to mark the younger eggs

So in the time from my last report til now when I got home a second one zipped and hatched! He must not have been able to see the pip. Another of the mixes though, still nothing from the shipped eggs...

I'm sure yours must be the younger eggs! Give them some more time. (And next time mark them! )

I'm planning on eggtopsying any quitters, if you want to too we can compare notes.