ATTENTION NEWBIES TO INCUBATING

[Ridgerunner]

When you help a chick, the gunk can sometimes glue their feathers down. I don't know how they do it, but when they hatch naturally, they can clean that stuff up so they dry fluffy. You can rinse them off in warm (100 degree) water and give them a good warm place to dry off if you wish but all that stuff does not come off just rinsing. Some people probably use shampoo, dishwashing liquid, or something else.

I had that happen once, the chick that became shrink-wrapped. It was still alive in the shell after I took the others out so I helped it and left it in the incubator to dry off. It had a lot of down glued down so I rinsed it. Helped some but not a whole lot. I’d given the other chicks to a broody hen so I picked off the shell and membrane but left that down, then gave it to the broody after it was very dry. She accepted it with no problems and in about a week that gunk was gone. I could not tell which chick that was. She raised all 15 chicks.

 

[HickoryHollow]

Here is what has be baffled about my hatch to this point. Going by weight, based on everything I have read, the eggs should loose about 12 to 15% of their original weight. My have lost 12% by day 12. I keep trying to raise humidity to slow this process. I am using a cabinet incubator that I built. I have been running the humidity at about 40% + for most of the hatch. How in the world can the styrofoam folks do a dry hatch with 25% humidity and not loose WAY more than 12% over the first 18 days?

 

[luvmypets]

Is he under a heat lamp?

Still in the incubator

 

[HickoryHollow]

Ok, so back to the weight issue. This is turning into quite an education. As I have said 20 times everything I read tells me eggs should loose 12% to 15% of their original weight by day 18. Mine have lost an average of just over 12% in the first 12 days. That is pretty high, and SHOULD indicate the air cells are way bigger than they should be, and a HUGE increase in humidity would be call for to slow the weight loss an stop the growing of the air cell.

That is what everything in "the books" say......but NNNNOOOOooooooooo

I candled a few of them tonight to check air cells. I only kept them out of the incubator long enough to quickly candle about 15 of them. Of the 15, I found 2 clears that appeared infertile.

The other 13 looked pretty good. BUT! The air cells were far from WAY TOO BIG! Some were just about right, and a couple were actually slightly smaller than they should be. That would indicate humidity should come down a bit. Now, what is with that?

That just makes no sense. Common sense tells me if they lost too much weight, they lost too much moisture. If they lost too much moisture, the air cell is too big, and there isn't room for the embryo to finish developing.

So what have I learned here? I should raise the humidity down a little so the humidity will come up to the lower setting it needs to be at......

 

[blucoondawg]

Even with the dry hatch in the Styrofoam incubator my air cells don't get overly large, I even have some that I consider too small by hatch time. It isn't an exact science but judging from your results I would say the normally used guidelines for weight are a bunch of bull.

 

[luvmypets]

Even with the dry hatch in the Styrofoam incubator my air cells don't get overly large, I even have some that I consider too small by hatch time.  It isn't an exact science but judging from your results I would say the normally used guidelines for weight are a bunch of bull.

X2

 

[Dawnrenae]

Even with the dry hatch in the Styrofoam incubator my air cells don't get overly large, I even have some that I consider too small by hatch time.  It isn't an exact science but judging from your results I would say the normally used guidelines for weight are a bunch of bull.

My air cells are huge... Is it because my humidity is too high or too low?

I am so confused...

 

[luvmypets]

Air cells that are huge is to low humidity. Pics can determine if there too big.

 

[Dawnrenae]

So, I guess I do need to raise humidity
Grrrrrrr.

This is my air cell on one of the eggs I brought in from under the broody hen.

I cannot tell how far along, as I do not know when they were laid.

Little babe was moving like a ferocious beast at the time the pic was taken.

 

[blucoondawg]

So, I guess I do need to raise humidity
Grrrrrrr.



This is my air cell on one of the eggs I brought in from under the broody hen.

I cannot tell how far along, as I do not know when they were laid.

Little babe was moving like a ferocious beast at the time the pic was taken.

If the air cell is just the lighter area at the top of the egg I wouldn't consider that too big, it really depends on how far along the egg is. At day 18 it could be a little bigger than that, at day 7 it would be a little large.