Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco Question

[Zivas Homestead]

I have a problem I was wondering if anyone could help. I purchased a Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco Incubator to hatch some small batches of chicks on my homestead. The very 1st time I used it (and my 1st time hatching in general) I thought I had done everything right filling with water, temp at 100.5 etc but I ended up loosing 8 out of 12 eggs even though I heard peeping in many. It was very hard
for me. Im being told it was lack of humidity. So how can I keep it up so this does not happen again? Thx!

~My new Pearl White Leghorns~

 

[Kelsie2290]

Very cute chicks, that are adorable at that age aren't they, sorry about the ones that didn't hatch. Were you able to get the instruction manual with the 20 Eco, what year is it? (That temp is higher than they recommend.) Do you mean you couldn't get the humidity up during lock down? Are you using a hygrometer? Did you fill up the wells and use papertowels/sponge/evaporation card? Are you keeping track of the weight of the eggs, or the air cell size?

 

[Zivas Homestead]

I just purchased the incubator last year. All I did was fill the water well and wet paper towel for humidity. Although I couldnt keep it up for very long before I had to rewet the paper towel. I am a newbie. I watched a few videos on YT to help.

 

[Taco]

It's most important to keep the humidity up the last 3 days during the hatch. To avoid opening it and losing all your humidity can you put a small tube (like aquarium tube) through a vent or even drill a hole for it, then use that to add water. The chicks will be fine for 48 hrs in there, so don't open it during hatch.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Do you have anything to measure the humidity level? The last three days, fill both wells all the way and use two or three paper towels coming out of them to mostly cover the whole bottom under the basket. If you need the humidity even higher, if you have room you can also put a small container in the actual basket with a sponge in it and fill it like Taco suggested though the vent hole. Are you weighing the eggs or checking air cells? Usually high humidity (winding up with too small of an air cell, not enough evaporation from the egg) is a bigger problem than too low, a lot of people do dry hatches where they don't even add water until lockdown.
The link to the user manual for the 20/40 Ecos off the Brinsea website and what they specifically suggest for them. http://www.brinsea.com/pdffiles/Oct2040EcoUSA.pdf

 

[Zivas Homestead]

Thank you for you response! I did not weigh any eggs or check air cells. I did some candling through out the 21 days though. Im new to hatching and have not heard of the weighing thing. I do have a way to monitor humidity. Guess I dont know as much as I thought I needed. LOL Are there any videos you can recommend? Those are some great ideas to lift my humidity.
Honestly, I didnt want to try hatching any more after hearing those peeps in the shells and they couldnt hatch. Might sound dumb but it was very hard on me.

I will go read your link now. Thx again!

 

[Kelsie2290]

Have you seen all the BYC Learning Center articles on hatching? This is a really good one that covers about everything. https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101 What sort of humidity do you have in your area, it is not really dry is it? If you have a gram scale, or something that is pretty precise, I would weigh the eggs, it is easier than judging air cells at first... there are graphs for how the weight loss should be going, remember it is the end result/average that is important, not the humidity on a given day.
No, I agree with you it is really disappointing and sad to have chicks make it all the way to hatch, and then not be able to. Did you open up the failed eggs to see what was going on when they didn't hatch?

 

[Aphrael]

Thank you for you response! I did not weigh any eggs or check air cells. I did some candling through out the 21 days though. Im new to hatching and have not heard of the weighing thing. I do have a way to monitor humidity. Guess I dont know as much as I thought I needed. LOL Are there any videos you can recommend? Those are some great ideas to lift my humidity.
Honestly, I didnt want to try hatching any more after hearing those peeps in the shells and they couldnt hatch. Might sound dumb but it was very hard on me.

I will go read your link now. Thx again!

It doesn't sound dumb at all.

It is very hard to watch one grow for 21 days only to lose it at the very end. I'm so sorry you lost so many of them. Doing an "eggtopsy" can sometimes help to pinpoint the problems so you can correct them for the next hatch.