**ATTENTION** IF YOU INCUBATE IN COLORADO, share your secrets!

[DouglasPeeps]

I know that each state/area is different for incubating eggs. I am looking for information from my fellow Coloradans. Can you please tell me about your incubation method? My elevation is approx 6300ft.

Day 1-18

What is your humidity level?

Day 19-21

What is your humidity level?


I had trouble with my first hatch and wanted to hear from "locals" about your tricks or things you learned after hatching a couple of times or more!

 

[Wifezilla]

I am having troouble with my hatch too....more due to me using a small, home-made incubator than anything, but still...I would like to hear what everyone else up here is doing. I am at 5500 ft.

 

[kandyg_99]

I'm at 7500 feet
I'm in Alamosa,Colorado and getting ready to start up the incubator.

 

[daisychick]

I am at 5400 ft. I am new to incubating. I just did a test batch only put 4 eggs in. I hatched 3 of them. I am now doing another bigger batch and hoping I do good. I have kept my humidity at between 40 and 45% pretty easy. And the final 3 days I got it to stay at between 65 and 70 easily too. I run a humidifier in my house during the winter and I think it really helped. Colorado is soooooo dry right now well at least where I am. Where are you guys at??

 

[greathorse]

I am in Colorado and at around 5200 feet. All the hatches I have done from local eggs have been awesome. 80+ percent on hatched from eggs set and 90 plus from those that were viable from candling. I incubate at about 35 45 percent humidity and hatch at around 55%.

I have about 85 in the bator now and candled last night and they look great. Now shipped eggs is an entirely different story. I have had very horrible luck in that dept. As low as a 10% hatch on some quite expensive eggs. It is my experience that the trouble in Colorado starts when they come to this elevation. I did read somewhere that the eggs here due to the elevation are more porous and that sea level eggs may not get enough oxygen. I have actually considered adding some o2 to the incubator on shipped eggs.

I hatch in a gqf knockoff that I made.

 

[DouglasPeeps]

Quote:
Very interesting. I have heard the same thing about getting eggs shipped and having trouble due to the elevation. I am surprised that you are incubating/hatching with your humidity levels being on the lower side and having such awesome results! Glad to hear! I guess I made the assumption that humidity should be higher because it is so dry???

I incubated about 40% during days 1-18 and then about 60-70% during days 19-21. I had chicks that were shrink-wrapped in their membrane. So frustrating! I assumed it was because my humidity wasn't high enough, but now I am not so sure. hmmmmm

 

[Wifezilla]

Running a humidifier in the house is a good idea. I just need a new filter.

I am in the Security/Widefield area south of Colorado Springs.

 

[DouglasPeeps]

Quote:
I had my incubator set up in one of our bathrooms. I ran a humidifier in there the entire time.

 

[dsquawker]

Hi everyone. I'm at day 23 of my whole incubation period and nothing has hatched. I did get most of my eggs from places of significantly lower elevation (30 count). But not my Blue Cochins (15 count). The Blue Cochins were bought down in Colorado Springs and brought up to where I live in Woodland Park at 9,500 feet in elevation! They all died at day 13. I could tell because when I opened them up at day 26 of their incubation they were developed as far as a day 13 or 14 day old fetus. So they did not thrive unfortunately and I am wondering if the elevation and oxygen levels had anything to do with it. The remaining eggs were shipped from two locations. One was Ohio and the other was Florida. I'm giving them a little bit more time because perhaps they take longer to develop at this elevation. I see some movement still so I know some thing is brewing and wanting to possibly hatch. Perhaps giving them a couple extra days is key at this altitude. I'm just concerned for the future (until I can get my own flock established) that all the eggs that I buy from other states at sea level, will possibly all die. I might have to resort to buying day old chicks afterall until they grow and I can diversify my gene pool and hatch my own eggs at their own elevation. So far this is what I've experienced. It's my first time trying to hatch eggs and I'm learning at each step. I'll write another post if any hatch. Remember we're at day 23 so a few more days is what I'll give them and I'll return to write another post. Angela

 

[ghillie]

Angela,
I do not think the elevation has as much to do with shipped eggs as does the timing. When I tried shipped eggs this early I had 0% hatches. I believe that if they ship across freezing temps it severely affects them. I even had some that were cracked from being frozen. When I waited until the temps through which they were shipped was going to stay above 32 degrees I had 30% to 40% hatches.
I have hatched local Cochins a couple of times and they were always a couple days longer on the hatch - 22 to 24 days. I found by using the weight method that we had to let the incubator run dry, down to 10% humidity or lower for a few hours before refilling with water. When we hit the appropriate weight loss our hatch success went up greatly.......joe