frustrated as heck

[JCAS]

Thank you for your advice. The air cells looked about normal size in the dead eggs, approximately 30% of the egg for the fully mature chicks. I have been reading more about lower-than-traditionally-recommended humidity levels working for some people. Even as low as 25%. Some folks say they put no water in the reservoir until hatch starts. Definitely worth a try next time. It can't get any worse, right?

 

[oregonkat]

Thank you for your advice. The air cells looked about normal size in the dead eggs, approximately 30% of the egg for the fully mature chicks. I have been reading more about lower-than-traditionally-recommended humidity levels working for some people. Even as low as 25%. Some folks say they put no water in the reservoir until hatch starts. Definitely worth a try next time. It can't get any worse, right?

One thing to keep in mind about the completely dry incubation is your location. Lots of people who use dry incubation live in pretty humid places so the ambient humidity (if I can call it that) contributes at least some. Also, your home conditions will play a part too, especially for winter hatching. One other thing that occurred to me was that I don't mess with the eggs at all any more after having some bum hatches where my curiosity got the better of me. On day 7 I weigh, day 14 candle and weigh, and lockdown and weigh. Never more than that.

 

[JCAS]

I was concerned about the ambient humidity. I heat my house with a wood stove but the incubators are in my office, which stays cooler and not so dry. The different incubators vary widely in their ability to maintain the humidity. The Hovabator will dry out completely in two days so I am opening it every day to add water to the reservoir. The LGs can go a week or more without having to add water, but they tend to build up condensation on the top. My hatches are worse in the Hovabator. Again, all of them are forced air.

One thing I was thinking about is the lack of fresh air after lockdown and through the hatch. In order to keep the humidity high enough I have to plug the vent holes. Not a good thing but necessary or else I would have to keep opening it to moisten the sponges (I can't get the humidity high enough without at least two wet sponges, and they dry out before the hatch is done). So: decreasing humidity vs. opening the incubator during hatch? I have to come up with a fix for that.

Maybe it's time to shell out the bucks for a cabinet style incubator. If I could get decent hatches it could potentially pay for itself in two years selling chicks. Does anybody out there have a brand they like and know to be reliable?

 

[JaeG]

One thing you could do would be to get a bit of aquarium piping (or similar) and a little funnel that will fit in it, feed that through one of the vent holes down to the well/s and use that to top them up.

Good air exchange is very important at the hatching stage so that may be the biggest factor in losing so many chicks. Some people do find they have to use a humidifier near the incubator because the air in their house is too dry. It does take a lot of trial and error to figure out what works for you, especially with smaller incubators.

 

[Chickassan]

I have a little trick for the still air LG bators. At lockdown line the bottom with paper towels and put your eggs on one side of the incubator leaving one side empty. When you need to raise humidity use a straw to drip water onto the empty side of your incubator, this gives you a large evaporation surface and raises humidity quickly also keeps the chicks from sliding around. Also I take that plastic sheet off the probe and manually hang it near the top of the eggs with a twist tie. I don't use the very outside of the incubator or the area directly under the heater either. Incubator stays in a 75 to 80 degree room and I don't tinker with the default settings. I've gotten pretty good at hatching with one since its all I've got.

 

[Mosey2003]

I don't use the vent plugs at all. I put a piece of aquarium tubing through the cord notch (it will fit with the turner cord in there too, at least on my HovaBator) and I use a 60cc oral dosing syringe to put water in. I cut a notch in the wire floor for the end of the tube to go into the bottom.

 

[oregonkat]

Yes, this is exactly what I was going to suggest except I happen to use 1/4 inch irrigation tubing. The other thing I did was to drill a hole in one corner of the lid of my hovabator for the irrigation tubing to go through as the vent hole in mine houses the various wires of the extra thermometers and hygrometer but as far as I can tell, there is nothing wrong with a little more fresh air. The tubing sits on top of a 3/4 by 4 inch piece of sponge which, when kept wet, keeps my humidity at about 40%. I only use the humidity tray after the first pip for lock down.

 

[Mosey2003]

To be fair, I don't use the plastic liner in the bottom of mine, I set the wire floor on canning jar rings and fill the whole bottom as I'm an oddball (on this forum at least lol) and run my hatches with "high" humidity straight through. But the setup works whichever way you do it. I keep all vents open and add water more often, so I get more airflow and still keep the humidity up.