By Day or Event

[Rooftop808]

So.... I read that on day 15 I should reduce the temperature and increase the humidity because it’s about this time that my quail eggs should be pipping.

Do I wait for movement/pecking and then turn down the heat or do I anticipate my quail eggs will pip and I should just make temperature and humidity adjustments automatically?

 

[Erkenstein]

Hi. Here is what works for me in my basic forced air styrofoam incubator with automatic egg turner: At Day 14, remove the egg turner and eggs from the incubator. Fit a piece of rubber shelf paper liner (the kind with holes) onto the wire mesh in the incubator to give chicks grip once they hatch out. Add additional warm water to the incubator and lay a wet sterile sponge in the incubator to raise the humidity (positioned under one of the venting holes in case I need to add water during lockdown). Candle each of the eggs and remove the clears; they will not hatch. Return the developing eggs to the incubator and place them out of the way of the venting holes so that I can add water if I need to without accidentally splashing them. Lockdown and raise the humidity from 50% to around 60%. Wait for chicks.

With my wafer thermostat, I've noticed that the temperature is slightly lower when the humidity is raised (and higher when it's dry, so I try to avoid bottoming out humidity during incubation). I don't make any adjustments to temperature during the hatch and IMO don't want to mess with trying to readjust the temp when I'm also working on getting the humidity where I want it.

To answer your original question, whatever adjustments you decide to make, go by day and not by event. Your chicks need the humidity up before they start pipping so that the shell is a bit softer and they don't get shrinkwrapped once they get through. Also, once they start hatching the humidity will go up from all the wet insides of the eggs, so you won't want to try to do any fine-tuning then.

 

[Erkenstein]

Oh and I add water with a big giant syringe that has a piece of aquarium tubing on it, fed through the vent hole. I don't just pour it straight into the hole.

 

[Rooftop808]

What you said makes perfect sense! And I didn’t even think about how temperature affects the humidity. It’s been kinda tough keeping the humidity constant, as if something is soaking up the moisture relatively quickly. So if I’m having a hard time now, it’ll be harder with temperature changes.

Thanks!

 

[Erkenstein]

Water evaporates from the surface. So, when you add water to your incubator, if you add more water so that it's deeper, it won't raise the humidity any more (same amount of surface area), but it will be longer before all of the water is depleted and the humidity drops. For the plastic water insert with channels like in my incubator, I generally keep a single channel full when I want it at 50% and a second channel with the sponge when I want it at 60%. I don't ever end up taking out the vent plugs, but that will depend on the humidity of the room as well. When I take out the turner for lockdown, I also put a piece of tape over the hole where the cord for the turner goes in. The fan vents things enough so that I don't need to worry about CO2 buildup.

It's also best if your incubator is in a draft-free room. If the humidity is not constant in your incubator it could be related to room humidity that is also not constant.

Good luck! I just locked down a set of eggs myself. They'll probably pip at 2AM, so that's another reason to just go by the day.