First Time Incubating - Stressed!

Kizmet

Songster
Feb 22, 2020
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Hi everyone!

I am a complete newbie with incubating and am on day 9. Stressing like crazy!

I set 50 eggs. These came from my own flock. I collected them over a period of about 5 days and daily turned the eggs that were waiting. Some of the eggs weren’t fertile and some started developing but showed blood rings yesterday, so at my last count there were about 40 still developing. Some of the ones that stopped I probably shouldn’t have bothered with due to the odd shell shape but I figured it was worth a try. Hopefully I get at least a couple hatching!

I’ve been reading about everything that can go wrong and I’m super stressed though. My temp has been a perfect and steady 37.5, eggs are on a 2 hour tilt pattern but my humidity is worrying me. I’ve just read so much conflicting information about what it should be. For the first week I’ve had it between 45-50%, a few times after filling the water trays it would go up to about 60% and slowly fall again. Now I’m concerned about it being too high and drowning the chicks so I’ve let it dip to around 40%. Some say it should be even lower! Comparing them to candling charts shows the air cells are about average for day 9. Am I on the right track or should I change my humidity? 😧

And my other question; a couple of the eggs are Guinea Fowl and I realise now that incubation times for them will be longer. Should I just put everything into lockdown on day 18 and leave the GF eggs in there too?

Thanks in advance!
 
The guinea fowl will be fine. Just lock them down with the others. Turning the first week is the most important, after that it isn't as crucial. I do 35-40 percent for chicken eggs. Out of 11 eggs and 3 different batches I've had a 99 percent hatch rate. It should go to 55-65 percent at lockdown. Keep the humidity in the 35-40 range until day 18. Its the best way to go.
 
Honestly, I really dislike the widespread "dry hatching" advice. I like to keep mine right between 50-55% humidity, which is what all the universities recommend. I've done much higher all the way through and that did give me trouble. What everyone needs is a really accurate measurement of the current humidity, I think that's where a lot of "this worked for me!" stuff comes into play, we aren't all comparing apples and apples. If nothing else, print out one of those air cell charts and keep an eye on the cells, they'll tell you how you're doing.
 
Hang on! We thought ours were to hatch Friday and the first one hatched Sunday evening. We now Monday morning have pups on most eggs! Hang in there they will make it!
 
I've always had really small air cells with that high humidity and only had one chick hatch, who was sticky and died. I don't run it dry, I just keep the humidity in the 35-40 range.
 

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