Eggs on day 17 and I'm FrEaKiNg OUT!

[LuckyCluckyCA]

Ok I have a batch of 6 eggs in the incubator I got as a gift. It's a little janoel 12 ( small plastic thing) - I've kept temps normal with the help of a different temp/ humidity gauge but the problem is that on this machine you can't change humidity and it's almost always way too high. granted the outside humidity today is 76 and temps are 67 but the guides books etc say 65 humidity and I can't get it that low and as it gets closer and closer to hatch, I'm so stressed out that the little ones will shrink wrap that my tummy is a jumble. or worse than a jumble, whatever you call that!

I have an excellent friend kind of talking me through stuff, she's a show bird person back east, but I think I'm driving her nuts.

She advised on lockdown tomorrow just do NOT refill any water, don't stress out so much and remember that chickens are surprisingly hearty.

words of wisdom welcomed.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Your friend is right. Freaking out won't make things go better.
Since your home is so humid, It may have been better to never put water in. You may have to put the incubator in a space with a dehumidifier.
Have you candled to see how much the air cell has grown? At this point, you need that information. Hygrometers are notoriously inaccurate.

 

[LuckyCluckyCA]

I did a couple days ago and they looked OK. I didn't know about the dry incubating until today. That's what she does. They've had that high humidty now since eggs were laid.

 

[007Sean]

If the air cells look ok, I wouldn't add any more water at lockdown. I'm kinda surprise they look normal at that high of humidity during incubation. They will still hatch just fine if the humidity drops to 50%RH. I've had chicks hatch at 35%RH, not recommended and it wasn't intentional but they hatched without any being shrink wrapped.

 

[LuckyCluckyCA]

wow that takes a lot of worry away from me, the incubator has had high humidity the entire time, it won't let you adjust it down and it didn't lower much at all when it was almost out of water, maybe 10 degrees if I was lucky. mostly its around the 80s no matter what I do. I stressed out, then figured it was being consistent, so stopped, then its day 17 and I learned about hte shrink wrapping and I freaked out again. when my husband gets back I'll get thebright flashlight and candle them one last time.

 

[007Sean]

wow that takes a lot of worry away from me, the incubator has had high humidity the entire time, it won't let you adjust it down and it didn't lower much at all when it was almost out of water, maybe 10 degrees if I was lucky. mostly its around the 80s no matter what I do. I stressed out, then figured it was being consistent, so stopped, then its day 17 and I learned about hte shrink wrapping and I freaked out again. when my husband gets back I'll get thebright flashlight and candle them one last time.

Taking the top off should drop the %RH, how much so, depends on how long it's open.

 

[LuckyCluckyCA]

oh it drops promptly but keeps dropping. I just opened it to candle them to check the air pockets and it went down to 42 for once. I only had it open less than 2 minutes.
2 of the eggs look iffy number 3 and number 5 as they aren't really filling up the majority of the egg, but they were started for sure as there is baby hamster size blobs on the sides but a lot of clear and then the air pockets.

 

[LuckyCluckyCA]

These are the iffy 2

 

[LuckyCluckyCA]

And the black is bigger than last week

 

[LuckyCluckyCA]

all the others almost all dark, still have veins and good air