Hatching eggs please help!!

[AmyLynn2374]

I have two of those incubators. I am by no means an expert, I have only done a few hatches (one current) and have not had amazing hatch rates. Having said that, I am confident that humidity has not been a problem for me and I have not followed the numbers in the leaflet. I have found that humidity is either low (under twenty) siting around 25 or over 65, if it is around 25, I leave it be, under 20 and I add a little bit of water, I monitor the aircell size and start to increase the humidity towards lockdown as the aircells are getting larger. The humidity figures in the leaflet seem to be counter to all other opinions I have encountered.

The problem with the instruction manuals is they don't take into consideration a number of factors that affect humidity. I incubate at 30% for the first 17 days. If it doesn't stay 30% (at least above 25%) completely dry I add a wet sponge and it usually holds it right about 30%. My pullet hatch I actually ran lower than that a couple days because I felt the air cells were still a bit bigger than I wnted to see. The styro bators especially seem to do much better with a low humidity incubation.

Do you do shipped eggs or local?

Did you keep the humidity high for your first hatch? If it works for you, don't change it.

Well I did have it high but the air spells never got bigger they apwere always small

If you find something that works for you and you are happy with the results, stay with it. Don't worry about what other people think.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Ok here are the pics that I just took of one of the eggs I thought I had seen a vein but I'm not sure

It's really not to see easy to how big the air cell is in that pic, but it actually looks decent sized. The egg itself looks more porous, so it should release moisture easily.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Ok I am using my own eggs I didn't have them shipped I set them in the incubator before I turned it on to collect a few eggs and it took a while before I got enough to start but if I waited any longer I would have had to throw away those eggs

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

That's the yolk I think the air cell is not in the pic because of the flash light and is that a good thing that it should release moisture easily

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Ok I am using my own eggs I didn't have them shipped I set them in the incubator before I turned it on to collect a few eggs and it took a while before I got enough to start but if I waited any longer I would have had to throw away those eggs

If you collect eggs and store them in a cool place, you can collect eggs for a week to 10 days and still have high rates.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

I thought it was a week but o well I am going to be adding one more egg there is five in right now

 

[AmyLynn2374]

That's the yolk I think the air cell is not in the pic because of the flash light and is that a good thing that it should release moisture easily

The white end that is all lit up should be the air cell. You can see where the air cell ends, it's just hard to see where the top of the egg is through the glare to get an idea how far up it goes, if that makes sense....lol

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Ya it makes sense I just don't see it in the pic

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I thought it was a week but o well I am going to be adding one more egg there is five in right now

A good share of people will only set eggs a week old. The "pros" say up to 10 days and most everyone agrees that by two weeks the hatch rate drops significantly.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Yes I only thought it was a week though but I already started so it's to late now but thanks for mentioning that