Egg 'pip' - up the humidity?

[jher77]

For first 18 days I had it at around 50% and I candled but did not weigh them. I see a small spot of condensation but its very small. I can see the beak now of the chick and it seems to be getting ready to zip... but what is zip exactly? Is that where it's beak starts going around the egg, all the while making a little circle to pop out of? Sorry, new to this hatching business

I'm guessing you should use 60-65% humidity at this point. 70% is a little high since it's probably been elevated throughout.

Basically you want a chicken egg to loose ~13% of its weight from being laid to hatching. Humidity controls this and the air cell shows it. It is the final avg humidity that is the key factor of the final weight loss but you don't want it so high in the end that the chicks drown trying to raise the average humidity.

No single specification is set in stone. Those are just guidelines. I try to adhere to those. If you were to hire three different carpenters to build you a porch, then you would still have three porches but built a little differently. If you want all the porches to be the same, then you use blueprints (the guidelines).

 

[als77]

For first 18 days I had it at around 50% and I candled but did not weigh them. I see a small spot of condensation but its very small. I can see the beak now of the chick and it seems to be getting ready to zip... but what is zip exactly? Is that where it's beak starts going around the egg, all the while making a little circle to pop out of? Sorry, new to this hatching business

50% until lock-down is what many aim for (but not all, some like to "dry hatch"). Of course we don't know if your humidity reader is correct, but if you see a small spot of condensation now at 70% then it might be somewhat accurate. Good enough I guess. Most people aim for a somewhat less humidity (60-65%, some 55% as well), so a tiny bit less would probably be idea (but probably not an issue as long as you stay at 70% and don't go higher - which is likely to happen once they hatch)

Yes, zipping is when they go around like a zipper

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

I'm new to this but my incubator says to open the hatch for the humidity all the way during lock down and keep at 50% while incubating. I've noticed the more you close the hatch the more humidity and the more you open it less humidity. I'm just following my incubators directions right now because this is my first time.