Hatch-Along - Setting eggs this weekend (Jan5/6) WHOS WITH ME!

[FeyRaine]

Humidity chickens & Ducks, oh my:

Yes, most ppl say 40-50% chickens 55-65% for ducks prior to lockdown.
But I've also seen that the Ag Dept officially recommends 50-60 for chicken,
and on NYDH thread ppl did "dry" incubation at 30% til lockdown w/ excellent hatch rates,
I had all sorts of disasters plus couldn't get humidity above teens to 20s
& had 5 of 23 still alive after the bator crashed to the ground day 21 and in the end 2 healthy live chicks.

So I'm not sure what the other factors are exactly but it seams to me up til lockdown there is a pretty wide range of ok for chickens.

I am trying to run mine a little higher humidity this go round, mainly b/c of the duck eggs, so what I've done is I have the eggs grouped,
the duck are on the right, and I have wet sponge in that corner where the fan blows across the sponge onto the duck eggs first
my idea is that the most humid air will pass onto the duck eggs, while the chicken eggs over beyond the light bulb will get the dryest air.
My aim is 45-55% humidity until lockdown, but I'm going to candle & mark pencil lines on the air cells on the eggs at days 7 & 10 to check they are progressing correctly
and will have a week to adjust up or down depending on what looks like I need. -- of course if anyone w/ more expirience than my zero/just winging it here wants to jump in
w/ a better plan I am very willing to shift tactics, it is a homemade cooler-bator and everything is a grand experiment but I really would like a better hatch rate this time !!

 

[SusanRenee]

I had some annoying temp changes this morning and for a couple hours it sat at 97 degrees before I could convince it to go up. Hopefully it won't affect anything! I figure the eggs would notmally get a bit chilled when mama leaves the nest, so a bit lower for a bit can't be too bad, right??

 

[puglady]

You should be fine, thats not much of a swing and for a short time. If you fiddled with the temp control to bring it back up you may want to keep a close eye for spikes for the next day or so.

 

[ChickenChaser34432]

The inside of the bator is one atmosphere, one temp one humidity (that the goal). When ya do ducks ya GOTTA have lotsa constant humidity as well as 2-3 times a day mist eggs with warm water. This is because the membrane in duck egg is SUPER tough and thick. Without enough moisture ducks can't get through membrane and get shrunk wrapped.

 

[Peggy-Sue]

We are going to start turning tomorrow evening around 6 pm (end of day 3) Then we will let them sit on the opposite side till the next morning and then start turning 3 times a day from there on out!

 

[SusanRenee]

I've been eagle eyeing it all day... Hopefully I have it stable now. Silly eggs causing me headaches!

 

[TweetyNPetey]

A day late is fine We arent picky lol. I believe we have a few who set early also. Im Hatching Olive Eggers and Easter Eggers.

Lol. I can't wait to candle them for the first time! I don't thing I can wait another 20 days for the peeps to hatch!!

 

[BroosterSpringsteen]

I had some annoying temp changes this morning and for a couple hours it sat at 97 degrees before I could convince it to go up. Hopefully it won't affect anything! I figure the eggs would notmally get a bit chilled when mama leaves the nest, so a bit lower for a bit can't be too bad, right??

The temp dropping for a little is no cause for concern. You're right! Mama leaves the nest for a little while. My incubator even has a "periodic cooling" option to mimic a broody hen. I think the real problems are when the temp spikes upward, which is why you're only supposed to make tiny adjustments until it stabilizes.

 

[FeyRaine]

The inside of the bator is one atmosphere, one temp one humidity (that the goal). When ya do ducks ya GOTTA have lotsa constant humidity as well as 2-3 times a day mist eggs with warm water. This is because the membrane in duck egg is SUPER tough and thick. Without enough moisture ducks can't get through membrane and get shrunk wrapped.

Yes, theoretically, but I found out my cooler bator had w/ the fan running a 6 degree temp diff internally -- I cannot even explain how that is possible w/in the laws of physics as we know them : (

But I figured I'd take advantage of the weirdness and my hypothesis is that if the eggs near the fan have plain air blowing on them it will tend to dry them out *more quickly* relative to the ones in less turbulent air, and so the reverse is also true ie by making sure the fan hits the wet sponge first, the eggs it then blow across will get the wettest (like mother duck water droplets even). The hydrometer is in the center so that is "avg" humidity in the bator, but the eggs past the lightbulb will get the dry_er/est_ air. I know it doesn't seam like there should be that big of a differential, and in a commercially built bator I certainly would not expect it, but my little home made model is just odd that way and I'm trying to work w/ the quirky thing rather than be defeated by it. I figure if the recommended humidity between chicken & duck eggs is only about 5% then the differential w/ the sponge/fan may be just about correct, and certainly better than if the position of the chicken vs duck eggs was reversed. I could be totally wrong, of course.

Also, I will absolutely up the humidity at lockdown, above is just the phase I part.

 

[SilkieSensation]

I'm doing Mixed hatch -- Chicken & Duck eggs-- & I have some questions...
if anyone here can answer or point me to some links it would help.

I know normally, ppl put the duck eggs in then add the chicken eggs later so they all lockdown & hatch together,
BUT I got all the eggs together and did not want the chicken eggs to sit around a week waiting so now in my bator are:

6 green EE chicken eggs hatch day 21
5 choc. Maran chicken eggs hatch day 21-25 (my NYDH maran hatched late on the 23 day for reference)
7 WH Duck eggs hatch day 28

So, I have 2 weeks to figure out a plan & 4 days to implement the plan of how to handle my lockdown/hatch!

Option #1 -- Build another incubator/hatcher to move chicken eggs into at 21 days , well DH not so thrilled I've set more eggs after the NYDH fiasco so trying to not have to go there on this.

Option #2 -- ??_help?? I have no other ideas...

Option #3 -- Leave them together, lockdown at day 18 , keep humidity over 70% when I pull out chicken chicks & hope for the best...??Is that a reasonable thing to do?

All advice and creative ideas for a middle ground (Option #2) very welcome, & Thanks!

I hatch chicks, ducks, quail & turkeys together in staggered hatches all the time. Best solution is as follows: Keep humidity as low as possible as long as possible. Watch for the 1st pip & add a bowl of HOT water to quickly raise humidity & also mist lid of bator with HOT water before closing. As soon as last chick hatches from 1st batch remove all chicks & water. Repeat when next batch begins pipping. Ducks can stand a bit higher humidity than chicks, especially if humidity has been low through the 1st 2-3 weeks of incubation. Perfect humidity for chicks for 1st 18 days is 30-40%, ducks is 40-50%. Chicks can hatch well with humidity 40-60% & ducks hatch best 55-70%. (Quail hatch best when humidity is NOT raised & stays below 45%.) Turkeys fall somewhere in between chicken & ducks at about 50-60%. I try to keep everyone at 30-45% until lockdown, but as I said, ducks can handle slightly higher humidity for the 1st 25 days if need be.