First time incubating, need reassurance…

[Lainey-chick]

I have a nurture right 360 incubator and am on day 2 of lockdown. There are 6 eggs inside and before lockdown my humidity was stable near 50% the whole time. Now, on lockdown, I opened the vent all the way and filled both water ports and the humidity level is around 58-62%. Is this okay or do I need to do something to raise the humidity? I keep reading where oxygen is more important than humidity, so I don’t want to close the vent, but I also don’t want to harm them by not having enough humidity.

 

[Lainey-chick]

It will be fine.

One has hatched overnight! One has made a bigger pip. Two others are still at a small pip. Yay! The other two I haven’t seen anything from them yet, but there is plenty of time. Thanks for the encouragement!!

 

[Lainey-chick]

I have 2 out of 6 that are pipping! I just noticed the first one about an hour or so ago and then after dinner saw the other one. They are due tomorrow.

 

[Huntmaster]

Now comes the hard part just watching and patiently waiting and letting them do the work can take 24hrs to hatch.

 

[Huntmaster]

Four have hatched so far. The other two eggs have not pipped yet. Is it okay to take the two chicks out that hatched early this morning and put in brooder? I’ll leave the other two in the incubator overnight because they look like they need more time. I’d like to clean out some of the egg shells, too. Would that harm the eggs that haven’t pipped yet or harm the chicks?

No, it will not harm them just be quick and bring humidity back up in incubator and you will be fine. As long as your brooder is set to right temp and the last two chicks hatched are mostly dry, I would take them out also.

 

[Huntmaster]

Four have hatched so far.

Congrates on your new hatchlings. It's such an enjoyable thing to go through the whole incubating and hatching process and then seeing those littles running around.

 

[Lainey-chick]

Congrates on your new hatchlings. It's such an enjoyable thing to go through the whole incubating and hatching process and then seeing those littles running around.

Thank you! I really appreciate everyone answering all my questions. I did so much research before starting this whole process, but then I started to question if I was doing it right. It has been amazing watching them through this whole process! I really hope the other two eggs hatch.

 

[Lainey-chick]

If you have some time soon maybe you can post some baby chick pictures.

I don’t have any really good pics. The incubator had a glare. They are under the heat plate in the brooder resting and keeping warm, so I stuck my phone under there and took a couple. They are cute. Two yellow and two black fluff balls.

 

[Ridgeback825]

Our humidity was actually lower than our first try and the air cells were much bigger. I do help if the external pip sits for more than 3 hours or so. Here is a pic, as I always outline the air cell on the last candling before lockdown, and of how I help the chick get air.

 

[Lainey-chick]

Your humidity was pretty high throughout incubation. How do the air cells look?
at this point at lockdown I'd just continue the 50% and not raise it much above that.

The instructions for the incubator said to keep it at 50% until the last three days and then raise it to 70%. Each time I candled, they were all growing. The air cells looked good as far as I could tell from pictures that I saw online.