guys, a little help please?

[TGWTHF]

alright so I recently put together a home-made incubator because our Silkie finally started laying again (she wasn't laying when we recieved her) anyway our cockerel has been mating her constnatly so my sister wanted to incubate the eggs because they're the first ones we have had hah, I have a still air incubator. and I was wondering what the humidity should be in there? the thermostat says humidity is at 44% and we're on day 4 now, is this too high?

secondly I was wondering, we only have 3 eggs in there and our silkie layed another egg this morning, would it be safe to put it in with them? cos it would go under lockdown 4 days sooner than it should wouldn't it? so should I just leave that one and try again next season after these?



also on a different note, on the up-chance that these girls do hatch, what sort of food can I use as chick feed?, our local pet store doesn't sell medicated chick starter or any chick starter for that matter, also what sort of bedding should I use for them in the brooder? wood chips? wood shaving? shredded newspaper? or even just tissue paper?

please and thanks, I'd really appreciate any and all help as this is my first attempt so i'm not expecting much from it, but would really love to succeed ^^

 

[davemonkey]

At the top of the page is a tab called "Learning Center", and in that area are various articles about hatching eggs and raising chicks. Everyone one of your questions will be answered in those articles.

For the brooder, don't use cedar chips. That's about all I know on that. I would use anything soft-ish...or maybe even just sand...but that's me.

Also, I don't see a problem if you put another egg in the incubator after the others have been in 4 days. When the first batch are ready for lockdown, just don't turn them, and just open the incubator during that time just enough to turn the younger egg 3 or 4 times a day. There is another thread about incubating refrigerated eggs, and that person rotates eggs in and out of their incubator like that with no problems.

 

[TGWTHF]

ah I can't have been looking at the right articles in the learning section haha, the ones i read didn't say anything about what the humidity should be in the first few days, I'll go take a deeper, in depth looks ((my own fault for skimming the ones that looked any good haha))

ah ok, thanks, I was worried incase the chips might hurt or kill the chicks, and sand? really? would've thought they'd eat that haha

also I see, I don't suppose that will hurt haha, will just have to be really quick about it so the humidity doesn't drop too low :3 thanks for replying, really appreciate it ^^, like I said, new to all this chicken breeding malarkey so its confusing on times ^^;

 

[tec27]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-incubate-hatch-eggs-just-21-days-from-egg-to-chicken

4th paragraph

 

[davemonkey]

I'm not sure if you'll find an actual number for % humidity. The main thing is to candle the eggs at Day 7 or so and make sure you've got some amount of evaporation....meaning you have an air space at the big end of the egg. If you browse through the Candling Pics, you'll see what I mean. Some folks recommend marking (with a pencil) where this air space is. If it is not growing slightly from Day 5 to Day 10, for example, then you are too humid. If it seems too large, the you are too dry. I have seen folks say that they keep humidity at 50% or so. I think it really depends on how dense/porous the eggs shell is.

 

[TGWTHF]

thanks tec :3

yeah the airspace is visable haha, so the plan is to get that a bit bigger by day 18? one thing said to lost 13% of weight or something? lol, ok so i got teh humidity at 45% stable so i'll try and keep it there and see how things progress thanks again ^^

 

[davemonkey]

Yeah, if your humidity is that low, I really don't see how it would be possible to NOT lose the proper amount of moisture from the egg. Candle at day 7, and again on Day 14 or 18, and make a pencil mark along the air space line. As long as the air space is increasing, you are on the right track (within reason).

 

[TGWTHF]

thanks, I'll do that haha, however day 7 candling showed that the eggs can't be fertile... I don't understand how the rooster has been mating the silkie every single day... perhaps he's firing blanks? it sucks either way, although I might leave it until day 10 just to be certain that they're not fertile, oh well, I didn't expect this first time to work it was just a test really, but would have loved for the eggs to have been progressing, sucks XD oh well. thanks for your help anyway, I'll be sure to post a thread in the Stories section when I next try with eggs to keep it updated haha