Anyone else incubating at high altitude (over 3,000')?

[BeardedChick]

KS, good to know. Are the eggs from everywhere?

And what do you keep humidity at?

 

[mrsengeseth]

interesting idea. I can't wait to see what the results are.

 

[greathorse]

I am at 5200 feet more or less and hatch the typical dry method with a GQF knock off. I keep my inucbator in a small bathroom and run a humidifier so that may help. I get great hatches from my own and other local eggs. 90% range. On the other hand I have really struggled with shipped eggs. It seems the membrane is loose from the shell (best way I know how to descripe it). I am wondering if the altitiude change (air Pressure) has an effect on that.

Any high altitude hatchers with great experience with shipped eggs.

When I say dissapointing I an in t he 10-15% range with my best being a 50%. I know that things like potatoe chip bags and some canned goods are under a lot of pressure in the container due to the lack of external air pressure.

I would really be curious about the O2 in the hatcher. That interests me.

 

[ksacres]

Quote:
No, those are for my own eggs. The highest I've ever had on shipped eggs is somewhere around 75% (and I think that was on quail eggs).

45% humidity 1-18 then 65-80% (varies A LOT depending on the size of the hatch) for the last three days.

 

[BeardedChick]

Thanks KSAcres. I was going to aim for ~45% humidity and see how they do. The room humidity here is usually around 30% give or take a few points. Though I am wondering...

If your eggs from home hatch well at 45% humidity, eggs that were produced at low altitude may need MORE humidity than that as they are supposed to be more porous. Hmmmm.

GreatHorse, thank you for adding information about your experience. It seems like the eggs should be able to let some of the pressure out through the pores, but maybe that is just not a good thing for the egg membrane. I dunno.

I have eggs shipped in from Georgia resting today and will set them tomorrow.

Baseline egg weight is ~70g each (I weighed them all together and am using the average). I need to look up the optimal weight loss. For some reason I was thinking 10-13%.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I guess it should be said that anyone wanting to experiment with oxygen should make sure they understand the dangers of an oxygen rich environment, especially in a confined space with a heat source.

Don't wont no one blowing them selves up!

 

[BeardedChick]

Agreed. I picked the pediatric regulator because you can set the O2 supplementation level as low as .03 LPM (extremely low).

It bears mentioning that my thermostat (digital w/ a probe) is located outside of the incubator.

ETA: Yes, thermostats produce a spark at the contact points when the turn on. I will move my thermostat further away from the incubator as an added precaution.