Hatching and need some advice!

[TNBarnQueen]

I locked down 25 silkie eggs after carefully candling and tossing those that where not good. I LD around 10PM Sunday and had 2 pips last night which hatched this morning. Let me back up a minute..when I LD after putting the water in per recommendation in Hovabator instructions...the humidity jumped to 73. I ran a small hose through the vent hole and removed part of the water..no change. So...early monday it dropped to 63 so I felt better about it. Could this have harmed the chicks?? Humidity was around 57 Tuesday evening I had the 2 pips and after they hatched had 3 more hatch. It has been 6 hours and nothing else has happened.

Am I being too impatient (which I am)?? My first hatch with a friend went really bad and every time I have eggs ready to hatch I worry. All hatched since then have went good....just worries me cause 20 are just sitting there. I appreciate any help and advice!!!

Thanks
Terry

 

[tia]

I'm not much help as I am hatching chicken eggs for the first time, but maybe this will bounce you back to the top where someone who knows something can give you a hand. Good Luck!!!

 

[shellrae7]

If you have had hatches already, i would chip into another egg and see what's going on. YES, unfortunately too high of humidity CAN be a problem. and that is REALLY high for chickens. I am not an expert either, but I DO hatch alot, and I know that is too high. I have problems of my own still that I am trying to solve, unfortunately I think this falls into Rocket Science category.... there's not much else you can do but chalk up to experience.

This is a controversial statement, but I help my birds hatch if necessary. If you have internal pips and they haven't pipped externally within 24 hours, they'll die if you don't help... if you do help do it slowly... a little at a time...and plan on dealing with shrink wrapped chicks...I have had too many late deaths that I don't wait anymore.... and I still have some deaths... humidity is a big issue, have to study it and see what needs to happen.

Hope that helped. Good luck!

 

[TNBarnQueen]

Quote:
I have no idea why the humidity went up so high...I ended up only adding 4 tbs of water. They suggest you fill 2 channels full!! Of course we had a lot of humidity in the air because of the storms and rains. I have some more pipping now. Also...had forgotten that those that are near the heating elements develop quicker than the middle ones. I try to keep humidity around 65 during LD...but sometimes it does what it wants!

I have helped chicks out too. I have one right now that I am going to as soon as no more are pipped. It slipped when I was candling before LD and had a small crack...I put a piece of tape on it and it is trying to zip!! It is laying down flat in the egg cradle so....gonna help it out when I can. I learned from my first ever hatch that opening the bator during hatching equals a huge loss!!