Give me the "skinny" on incubating silkie eggs

[pottersway]

Okay - I have read lots of posts, but I still have some confusion.

How can you adjust the humidity without opening the incubator ?
A straw doesn't always hit the water channels.(I have a still air LG)

How can you remove eggs to candle without opening the incubator?

How many thermometers should you have in the incubator?

If you are using egg turners, is the reading at the top of the eggs accurate?

Do you put the eggs into an incubator that is at 100* ,or put them in with the lid partially open for a short time and let the eggs get adjusted??

With Mother Nature, my hens leave the nest to feed and water - and they still have about a 95% hatch rate.

Help me out - I'm starting 24 eggs tomorrow.
thanks a bunch!!

Silkie Mom

 

[brkuk]

Ok I have an lg with turner. I put a water wiggler taped to two egg holes. I use two electronic temp/hygrometer.I put a row of sponges on the bottom and add water when needed thru the holes. I had my temp at 99.5-100. I put the eggs in at 99.5. I hatched one silkie. A great white one three weeks now. Good luck.

 

[Akane]

You can open the incubator just fine up until about the 18th day when you want to raise humidity for hatching. I turn mine by hand and open 3 times a day plus removing them for candling. The reason you don't want to open it when they get close to hatching is that it causes a drop in humidity and that will temporarily dry out the membrane. If they are hatching at that time they won't be able to break the membrane or if they have broken into the air cell will dry to the inside of the egg and get stuck resulting in dead chicks.

For a still air I would have one thermometer in the middle and one on the edge so you can see how much variance there is. Mine can be as much as 6F different from center to edge. If there is a big difference and you put in lots of eggs so some are close to the edge you will have to rotate where they are located every few days or they will hatch at different times. Like I said I turn by hand so I just rotate the row when I turn. Otherwise this is where a forced air comes in handy.

You want to always measure the temp at the top of the eggs or with a water wiggler on level with the eggs. The temp will vary depending how high up in the incubator you are from the layering of the different air temps. If you don't measure on top of the eggs you will not be measuring the actual temp they are at and may be many degrees off.

Eggs can be put in an incubator that's at temp (99-102) so long as they are at least room temperature. If you get them from the fridge or outside in cold weather it's best to let them come to room temp first. Once in the incubator they will slowly warm up and depending how many you put in it could take hours to nearly another full day for your incubator to hold the proper temp again. Don't touch the controls because it should level out on it's own if you had the temp right before you added the eggs.

 

[Jamie821]

instead of using a straw go to walmart and buy aquarium air tubing you can cut it to length. You wont need to use it though until the eighteenth day on. I have three thermometers and two hydrometers in my incubation and average them out. Yes you take the temp at the top of the egg in a still air.