11th Annual Easter Hatch a Long 2020

[ronott1]

Best wishes on getting ready for lockdown!

 

[Verge134]

I can't wait for my ducklings

 

[SteveWin]

...

Then we're also getting people buying them who might have decided to get them because of all the corona stuff, I think. I guess they don't realize it'll be six months before they get eggs.

Some people might genuinely have decided to buy because they realize they want to be more self-sufficient after all the panic-buying left grocery stores bare. Those people I trust did their research and actually know what they're getting into.

I've had my 10 chickens for 2 years.. I bought my incubator on 3/14 right after I saw this:


That's a Walmart Supercenter egg section sold out - panic buying on 3/13. Less than 12 dozen of the "premium" eggs remain (non-GMO, organic, Omega-3 boosted, whatever..). My birds already lay more eggs than I eat, but I'm thinking it'll be good to have eggs/birds to trade for things like toilet paper, if everything gets worse before it gets better...

 

[CindyinSD]

So my incubator was accidentally unplugged for a few minutes. I kind of freaked out even though I know it wasn't for long since I was just in the room with them. My brother (11yrold) accidentally unplugged it when getting something else off the counter, I wonder how loose the power cords were that he could just do that and not notice.
Temperature is back to normal now, and since it wasn't long everything should still be okay. I was planning to do my last candling tonight too. The humidity Is really high right now though, 65% instead of the usual 50%. Since I've still got a week left until hatch day I hope it drops back to where it's meant to be.

The humidity will drop back when the excess water evaporates, but you can also open it and mop some water out with a washcloth if you want to.

 

[CindyinSD]

Thank you! I have bookmarked your reply so I can refer people to it since I see this question a lot. I am debating on buying both Brinsea and Nurture Right 360. Did you get yours through Amazon? Gotta check with my husband if we can get both, but right now he is very convinced at the importance of incubators right now.

If you want one fast, Incubator Warehouse is probably the way to go. Amazon is prioritizing orders and incubators don't appear to be categorized as critical. OTOH, I think the Incubator Warehouse page for the Nuture Right is broken at the moment. You might have to call them if you want that one.

 

[hysop]

If you want one fast, Incubator Warehouse is probably the way to go. Amazon is prioritizing orders and incubators don't appear to be categorized as critical. OTOH, I think the Incubator Warehouse page for the Nuture Right is broken at the moment. You might have to call them if you want that one.

My husband was able to go to Tractor Supply and they had the Nurture Right 360 in stock! So I was able to transfer my eggs to that one. We even got a refund on the faulty one even though we bought it back in July/August 2019!! But my husband does do a ton of business at TSC and most of the workers know him so I think they hooked him up.

 

[hysop]

Just wanted to share that I candled a good majority of my eggs and I saw movement in all the ones I candled. I candled at least half or more of the 15. So now that I know they’re alive I’m hoping they don’t have any problems due to the high heat.

But I checked my thermometer that read 108 and it is in fact accurate so the incubator really did get way up there. So I guess not all hope is lost if the heat skyrockets for less than 12 hrs (I can’t verify exactly how long the heat was high up there but for sure it was less than 12 hrs).

 

[ronott1]

Just wanted to share that I candled a good majority of my eggs and I saw movement in all the ones I candled. I candled at least half or more of the 15. So now that I know they’re alive I’m hoping they don’t have any problems due to the high heat.

But I checked my thermometer that read 108 and it is in fact accurate so the incubator really did get way up there. So I guess not all hope is lost if the heat skyrockets for less than 12 hrs (I can’t verify exactly how long the heat was high up there but for sure it was less than 12 hrs).

It sounds like the eggs did not get to death temperatures internally. It does take a bit of time for that to happen

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

@muddy75
Here's a family hatchery that we've bought meat birds from for the last 7 years.
http://schlechthatchery.com/chickens.html

 

[SteveWin]

So my incubator was accidentally unplugged for a few minutes. I kind of freaked out even though I know it wasn't for long since I was just in the room with them. My brother (11yrold) accidentally unplugged it when getting something else off the counter, I wonder how loose the power cords were that he could just do that and not notice.
Temperature is back to normal now, and since it wasn't long everything should still be okay. I was planning to do my last candling tonight too. The humidity Is really high right now though, 65% instead of the usual 50%. Since I've still got a week left until hatch day I hope it drops back to where it's meant to be.

Generally speaking, a given mass of air, with a given mass of evaporated water in it, will have different RH readings at different temperatures, because cooler air can hold less moisture, and RH is "the moisture you have" as a percentage of "the maximum amount that air can hold at a specific temperature". As your air cooled, the same concentration of water (think ppm..) gave a higher RH reading because the "ceiling" had dropped.

If you have a problem, it'll be due to the low temperature, not "high" humidity.

I covered this in more detail last week in another thread..

I found an online humidity calculator at https://www.rotronic.com/en-us/humi...umidite/humidity-calculator-feuchterechner-mr

I ran your numbers through it.

85°f air at 80%rh contains 10.28 gr (grains: 437.5 grains = 1 oz) of water per cubic foot. 85⁰f air is "saturated" at 12.86 gr/ft³

Air at 99.5⁰f, with 10.28 gr/ft³ water vapor, is at 58.6% rh. 99.5⁰f air is saturated at 17.53 gr/ft³. Since this temperature is our reference, the other temp's saturation point is 26.6% lower than this standard.

So, your incubator was running near (probably right at..) 60% humidity at 99.5⁰f. When the power went off, the heater stopped and the air began to cool, but the air didn't gain extra water to jump to 80%rh, the higher rh reading was relative to the 30% lower maximum for the cooler air. When heating was restored, the air had lost only about 1.5% of its water content in that period. (You didn't say what the post restoration humidity dropped TO, so I'm going off the calculation for this endpoint). ((If your car has a top speed of 175mph.. and mine's top speed is 128mph.. and we're both driving the same route at the same time, at the same speed (103mph, which is 58% of your top speed, and 80% of my top speed), which of us reaches our destination first?))

Also.. though the air around the eggs was 1.5% dryer at the end of this cycle.. the moisture content of the eggs themselves, and of the air in the air cells, didnt fluctuate as much, due to the "diffusion coefficient" of eggshell, the fact that water evaporates from the outside surface of the shell, and replacement water must then migrate through the shell thickness before it can evaporate.. and these rates (evap and migration) are proportional to the humidity and temperature differences from inside to outside the shell. So, fluctuations of the egg interior environment, lag those of the incubator air, and are dampened by the shell and membranes..

So, I think you have nothing to worry about here, your chicklets should be fine. I hope so, anyway..