April Hatch Thread--Come Join Us!

[annabell254]

Soooo, I set at night and tonight will be day 21!!!!... and NOTHING is happening in the bator!!!!!! NOTHING!!!!

I hear nothing, see nothing!!!!

I wanna cry! what if none hatch!!!!!
I am sooooo confused! I bought the brinsea, and all eggs in there were developing, and have not touched them in over a week and did not candel till day 7 and then on day 14.... My directions say keep incubator at 45% humidity... and over all my humidity has been between 38-48%, if I notice it up higher then I let it get lower for awhile, this incubator has auto cooling which I think helps the eveporation of the egg so it can have the higher humity... and teh temp has been a rock solid 99.5-99.6...I have not uped the humidity yet as I was waiting for the first peep! Which HAS NOT COME!!!!

I need insperation!

 

[LBKS]

Soooo, I set at night and tonight will be day 21!!!!... and NOTHING is happening in the bator!!!!!! NOTHING!!!!

I hear nothing, see nothing!!!!

I wanna cry! what if none hatch!!!!!
I am sooooo confused! I bought the brinsea, and all eggs in there were developing, and have not touched them in over a week and did not candel till day 7 and then on day 14.... My directions say keep incubator at 45% humidity... and over all my humidity has been between 38-48%, if I notice it up higher then I let it get lower for awhile, this incubator has auto cooling which I think helps the eveporation of the egg so it can have the higher humity... and teh temp has been a rock solid 99.5-99.6...I have not uped the humidity yet as I was waiting for the first peep! Which HAS NOT COME!!!!

I need insperation!

I may be wrong (first hatch and all) but isn't day 21 the first official day they should start hatching? From what I've read they should be positioning themselves to hatch on out, so even if you don't hear anything yet that might be normal. Hopefully someone with experience can help you!

 

[pogmobum]

Soooo, I set at night and tonight will be day 21!!!!... and NOTHING is happening in the bator!!!!!! NOTHING!!!! I hear nothing, see nothing!!!!  I wanna cry! what if none hatch!!!!!
I am sooooo confused!  I bought the brinsea, and all eggs in there were developing, and have not touched them in over a week and did not candel till day 7 and then on day 14.... My directions say keep incubator at 45% humidity... and over all my humidity has been between 38-48%, if I notice it up higher then I let it get lower for awhile, this incubator has auto cooling which I think helps the eveporation of the egg so it can have the higher humity... and teh temp has been a rock solid 99.5-99.6...I have not uped the humidity yet as I was waiting for the first peep! Which HAS NOT COME!!!!
I need insperation!

You can get some late hatchers depending on temp and so on i have heard story's of some hatching out day 25! Im sure you will get your first pip 2 night.

 

[anotherripp]

I JUMPED out of bed this morning (a small miracle for me) to see if any of my eggs had hatched over night. One has! she... or he is nestled under my hen so i only saw the broken egg shell and heard her chirping. How long before I can take a good look? I don't want to distress Janet (the hen) or the chick.

 

[anotherripp]

@annabell254

Quote: I would not worry yet! Mine didn't even start breaking through until day 23. Here's to hope

 

[annabell254]

ok.... still trying not to panic ... but what should I do about my humidity

... someone with a brinsea model (what I have)... I am still unsure of this many swear by dry hatches and many dont... and I wonder if it differes with each incubator?? like with a brinsea, because of how little extra room there is between the top of the eggs and the lid and how hard the fan pushes air over them if 45% humidity in it would still be the same as 28% of a dry hatch???? and if that is the case then maybe I should bring it back up to the recomended 45% as it has been at 37% since yeasterday...

BUT I am also confused about humidity in general, because today my humidity is 67% and this is VERY common for our area... and most of the time it will be over 50%... and the weather channel (right now) states it at 100% humidity???? This cannot be right can it.... because the hens never have a problem hatching chicks, and once it rained for 14 days strait for the last two weeks of the hatch, and all chicks were fine????
so how does outside humidity differ so much from the humidity inside the bator?? because I KNOW if a bator has 100% humidity the chicks would drown!?

Or do I just have it ALL wrong?

 

[LBKS]

ok.... still trying not to panic ... but what should I do about my humidity

... someone with a brinsea model (what I have)... I am still unsure of this many swear by dry hatches and many dont... and I wonder if it differes with each incubator?? like with a brinsea, because of how little extra room there is between the top of the eggs and the lid and how hard the fan pushes air over them if 45% humidity in it would still be the same as 28% of a dry hatch???? and if that is the case then maybe I should bring it back up to the recomended 45% as it has been at 37% since yeasterday...

BUT I am also confused about humidity in general, because today my humidity is 67% and this is VERY common for our area... and most of the time it will be over 50%... and the weather channel (right now) states it at 100% humidity???? This cannot be right can it.... because the hens never have a problem hatching chicks, and once it rained for 14 days strait for the last two weeks of the hatch, and all chicks were fine????
so how does outside humidity differ so much from the humidity inside the bator?? because I KNOW if a bator has 100% humidity the chicks would drown!?

Or do I just have it ALL wrong?

From what I've read, you want the higher humidity at hatch time so the chicks don't get "shrink wrapped." More than that I can't really help answer your questions

I can tell you that the humidity swings greatly in some areas from one time of day (or the weather) to another. For instance, in Kansas using Wichita as a data point, our average spring time high humidity in a day is 79% (in the early morning) and the average spring time low humidity is 49% (in the late afternoon). When it rains you'll see 100% humidity (it's so high that rain is falling). Even with those averages, there are going to be dry days where the humidity is much lower all day, and wet ones where it is much higher too.

I'm guessing the outside humidity differs from the incubator in that it's not always constantly high. It goes up, it goes down. At some points the egg gets to lose some moisture to build up the air cells. At some points it's high enough to make hatching easier because the membrane is softened or the eggs can gain some moisture back if they lost too much. You might get a wind that blows through and removes some of the local humidity, and you might have some locally lower humidity just due to the fact that the nest/incubator is sheltered from the rain. About the only thing you can say for weather (and in Kansas in particular) is that it's not stable.

I could of course be wrong, but thought it might help to toss out an opinion. I know my incubator is running at a lower humidity than in the house - I'm guessing it's because the heat increases the moisture the air can hold + moisture escaping with the hot air rising.

 

[annabell254]

Ok.... so just checked my broody silkie, she has 7 of the eggs under her... 3 barnyard mixes.. so I was sure to have a few chicks... and the rest are the shipped eggs.... One of the barnyard mixes is hatching, just the first little crack

.....I am so happy to have a chick but so worried that my shipped eggs wont hatch...... I just keep saying ..... it is still early, Of course the 1st egg to hatch would be a one of my very own free ones..... There IS STILL time for the others... It will ALL be OK

 

[LBKS]

Ok.... so just checked my broody silkie, she has 7 of the eggs under her... 3 barnyard mixes.. so I was sure to have a few chicks... and the rest are the shipped eggs.... One of the barnyard mixes is hatching, just the first little crack

.....I am so happy to have a chick but so worried that my shipped eggs wont hatch...... I just keep saying ..... it is still early, Of course the 1st egg to hatch would be a one of my very own free ones..... There IS STILL time for the others... It will ALL be OK

Congrats on the first chickie !

It'll be OK, you'll see!

 

[annabell254]

tryed to take a pict... and the cameria batteries died before I could get even one!!!!

sending hubby to the store