B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[greenhorn]

personally i think 50% during incubation is a bit high... i've never had any luck above 20%, usually incubating dry around 10-15%... i only increase humidity during hatching (last 3 days).

I try to keep the humidity at 35% during days 1-18. My aircells keep right on track. Monitoring your air cell size on day 7, 10, 18 will give you the perfect picture on whether your humidity is too high or too low. If they are too little, your humidity us too high & if they are too big, your humidity is too low. During lockdown (days 18-21) I bump the humidity to 65%. When chicks start pipping your humidity starts to climb naturally. Some people weigh & measure the percentage of moisture loss which I hear is pretty successful but I hate math and have pretty great hatching rates gauging air cells.

Happy hatching!!!

Ok, I went back and did some research and there seems to be some weight to you two's advice. Thanks so much for bringing this to my attention. I adjusted the humidity down a bit to 35%. Gotta love how fast and easy it is to adjust the humidity in this unit.

Anyway we'll give 35% a try and see how it goes.

 

[yinepu]

The new GQF MFG 1500 Digital Professional Cabinet Incubator came today while I was gone. Got home and saw the big box on the porch and was pretty stoked. She put together easy and tuned in pretty easy too. The humidity is holding at a perfect 50% and the temp hangs pretty tight to 99.5F. I put in all the eggs we've saved up since we loaded our reptipro. The reptipro is supposed to be hatching Thursday (in 2 days) but we never seem to get more than 2 or 3 birds to hatch when we fill the bator.

I think we are going to start having better luck with our hatches now that we have this new incubator. Now we can finally start loading an incubator every week and not worry about running out of space.

Amazing what you can do when you put your head into it. I hope the breeding goes as well as everything else has. It took a little time, patience and luck and lots of work to get to where we are at right now but everything has worked out as planned. So far so it's been well worth the effort. We really have something started here. Soon we will begin to see the cute little fruits of our labors.

I always get 100% hatch rates on fertile eggs with the Reptipro.. shipped eggs will be a bit lower just because of damage during transit.. Heck.. i even stack eggs in it and still get 100% to hatch

Have you been monitoring weight loss or air cells?.. because with humidity at 50% during incubation you are setting yourself up for problems

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I agree with you.. 50% is too high
I always start out dry then monitor air cells and weight loss.. then adjust humidity from there if needed

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Let the eggs tell you what they need.. don't go by something that was written by everyone else since they are not there in YOUR home with YOUR incubator and those particular eggs.. the air cells and weight loss should be your guide

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[Yellow House Farm]

What is dry bulb and wet bulb? I'm not certain, but I know it's of importance.

There seem to be several methods of incubation. That which I follow is the idea of 50-55% for days 1-18 and 60-65% for days 19-21(23). We have excellent hatches. Moreover, it works with the pre-set settings of our GQF Sportsman 1502 incubators and hatcher. We keep the pan full days 1-18, which maintains the 50-55%, and in the hatcher we add two sponges to the water tray, which brings it to 60-65%. Greenhorn, I'm tempted to think that our basement might add to the need for the two sponges; other spaces might need only one, but the reader adjusts so quickly that you'll be able to tell what you'll need to the correct humidity.

I do feel though that humidity is paramount.

I do not remove chicks until the end of day 22 or, better yet, day 23. I have found that repeatedly opening and closing the doors leads to humidity variance, which causes the inner membrane of the egg to adhere to the chick and keep them from hatching; the chicks ar emore than equipped to stay in the incubator for a couple of days, just as they would under a hen. Moreover, by that point, any chick that hasn't hatched, even if it's peeping, isn't going to, and if it does, there is a problem.

I hope everyone is has had, is having, and will continue to have awesome Dorking hatches!

 

[Totalcolour]

Quote: It's a good thing we have incubators instead of using chickens. They just wouldn't get all that stuff right - would they!

 

[yinepu]

What is dry bulb and wet bulb? I'm not certain, but I know it's of importance.

There seem to be several methods of incubation. That which I follow is the idea of 50-55% for days 1-18 and 60-65% for days 19-21(23). We have excellent hatches. Moreover, it works with the pre-set settings of our GQF Sportsman 1502 incubators and hatcher. We keep the pan full days 1-18, which maintains the 50-55%, and in the hatcher we add two sponges to the water tray, which brings it to 60-65%. Greenhorn, I'm tempted to think that our basement might add to the need for the two sponges; other spaces might need only one, but the reader adjusts so quickly that you'll be able to tell what you'll need to the correct humidity.

I do feel though that humidity is paramount.

I do not remove chicks until the end of day 22 or, better yet, day 23. I have found that repeatedly opening and closing the doors leads to humidity variance, which causes the inner membrane of the egg to adhere to the chick and keep them from hatching; the chicks ar emore than equipped to stay in the incubator for a couple of days, just as they would under a hen. Moreover, by that point, any chick that hasn't hatched, even if it's peeping, isn't going to, and if it does, there is a problem.

I hope everyone is has had, is having, and will continue to have awesome Dorking hatches!

a wet bulb reading is in degrees on a wet bulb thermometer... it's not the same as a % reading on a hygrometer.. both are used to determine humidity.. but won't read as the same number..

For example lets say you have a reading of 80º WET bulb and 99.5º on the DRY bulb .. that will give about a 42.65% relative humidity

a lot of people will confuse the wet bulb reading with the relative humidity.. thinking that the number is interchangeable without the notation of "º or %".. but as you can see.. there is a big difference between 80 and 42.65

 

[ki4got]

What is dry bulb and wet bulb? I'm not certain, but I know it's of importance.

There seem to be several methods of incubation. That which I follow is the idea of 50-55% for days 1-18 and 60-65% for days 19-21(23). We have excellent hatches. Moreover, it works with the pre-set settings of our GQF Sportsman 1502 incubators and hatcher. We keep the pan full days 1-18, which maintains the 50-55%, and in the hatcher we add two sponges to the water tray, which brings it to 60-65%. Greenhorn, I'm tempted to think that our basement might add to the need for the two sponges; other spaces might need only one, but the reader adjusts so quickly that you'll be able to tell what you'll need to the correct humidity.

I do feel though that humidity is paramount.

I do not remove chicks until the end of day 22 or, better yet, day 23. I have found that repeatedly opening and closing the doors leads to humidity variance, which causes the inner membrane of the egg to adhere to the chick and keep them from hatching; the chicks ar emore than equipped to stay in the incubator for a couple of days, just as they would under a hen. Moreover, by that point, any chick that hasn't hatched, even if it's peeping, isn't going to, and if it does, there is a problem.

I hope everyone is has had, is having, and will continue to have awesome Dorking hatches!

dry bulb tells you the actual temperature in the incubator. the DIFFERENCE between dry and wet bulb tells you how fast water evaporates. as water evaporates, it lowers the temperature of the wet bulb... the faster it evaporates, the cooler the wet bulb will read. so a larger diff. between the 2 numbers = lower humidity. if the difference is minimal, then you've got extremely high humidity. there's a chart that will give you the exact percentages per degree of difference...

I believe every incubator has it's own 'personality'. 2 incubators of the same brand, in the same room, set at the same exact temperature and humidity, may have totally different results with eggs... vary that by brand, make, model, the individual room in your house, region of the country, heck probably even the cycle of the moon (and some breeds even, i'm learning), all have subtle effects on what works best. so the fact that a 10-15% humidity works for me, while 50% works for joe, and 35% works for greenhorn just means that you need to learn YOUR incubator and what works best for your situation.

it took me 6-8 months of nearly constant hatching to learn what worked best. even then i still need to tweak things here and there now and then to keep it all flowing smoothly. a front moved thru a few days ago, and took my humidity in the hatcher from 60 to about 40 over the course of a couple hours, resulting in 2 shrink-wrapped chicks (so far) and i've got 3 more i am monitoring, that should have been out yesterday. (not dorkings, they all hatched on time!)

 

[yinepu]

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Yup.. which is why i tell people who have had problems with bad hatches to start out DRY then monitor the eggs and adjust from there..
getting to know how your incubator works in your home at that time of year with those particular eggs is the best road to success.. which is also why so many people fail when they follow some book or owners manual that is doing nothing but parroting info set out by the commercial poultry industry. What those instructions always fail to mention is the info they are putting forth works great.. IF you are in a climate controlled building.. since that's how the poultry industry came up with those numbers. But i don't think everyone who attempts to hatch out eggs has the benefit of having "climate controlled" buildings or rooms to set up a hatcher and incubator in. Some do (even if it's just by chance).. but i know most of us don't

 

[capayvalleychick]

My goal is to hatch out about 300 Dorking chicks this season. Off to a slow start...

I have a friend who incubates the eggs for me. He's a BYC hatchaholic - multiple incubators, an impressive set up with all kinds of the latest equipment. He's always hatching something, for the past year or so, so he's experienced. He gets some almost 100% hatch rates on eggs shipped cross country.

I gave him 52 eggs to start. All 17 Delaware eggs were clears. He set 35 Dork eggs. 20 clears and early quitters. 15 made it longer but then another quitter. 35 set and 21 no goes. 14 clears and 6 quitters out of 35 set.

Four hatched last night and there are 2 more so far with pips.

Any ideas as to what the issue could be with the small hatch rate? It's not inbreeding depression. I had combined several lines in the past, only recently started to line breed. I may have had too many hens with a young cockerel. My next hatch will be from a trio to see if that helps.

What can be the cause of quitters?

Thanks. Cross your fingers that the rest will hatch!

 

[BlackPanther]

It's a good thing we have incubators instead of using chickens. They just wouldn't get all that stuff right - would they!

What is you guys' opinion on the hatchability of shipped eggs that get drastically rattled around on the way home? (Even if they ship fine, they're going to bounce getting onto the property -- that's a guarantee.) For the sake of the argument, let's just assume that they do pretty well in the mail. What do you think?

 

[sandiklaws]

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I have gotten anywhere from zero to 80%, depends on the air sacks being intact and how much moisture the eggs lose in transit. I will say the best hatches were NOT wrapped in bubblewrap- eggs gotta breathe and new plastic gives off toxins, so the bubblewrap, while doing a good job of PROTECTING FROM BREAKAGE, does a poor job of PROTECTING THE VIABILITY. IMHO