Have I compromised my hatch??

[Angie McMahan]

I need reassurance please! I turned off my auto turner a few days ago, after noticing saddle shaping in several air sacs. I've been turning them myself. Today is day 15. I went to turn them this morning and noticed the humidity had dropped to 28% overnight. I then realized why. After turning last night, I didn't place the lid on securely. The cord was in the way, preventing it from lining up properly. I am in panic mode now...Hoping someone will tell me not to worry! I'm ready!!! lol

 

[Harmony Fowl]

It’s not fair to give you a guarantee, but I suspect the eggs are more resilient than you think. Many people suggest lower humidity levels, some even incubate dry, and 28% isn’t even out of the range of normal for those who choose to maintain the humidity. I’d make sure it didn’t go any lower and be ready to pump it up for lockdown in a few days.

Any idea on how the temperature fluctuated? Hopefully that won’t be a big deal, either. I had the power go out and my incubator wrapped in blankets in a heated car as I rushed it to a friend’s house where there was still power. I still got a 75% hatch rate. With the lid mostly secure, hopefully enough heat was retained.

I tried an auto turner and I didn’t care for it. I use it for if I need to go out of town while incubating and that’s it. That hole for the cord is a pain. Whether the cord is in it or not, my bator loses tons of heat that way, resulting in a very inconsistent temp throughout.

 

[lazy gardener]

It is what it is. If they don't hatch, it won't be b/c of a temporary drop in humidity and temp at day 15. Shipped eggs are compromised from the moment they enter USPS. You can reassure yourself by candling a few eggs later on today.

 

[Angie McMahan]

Yeah...I know you are correct! I was looking for a "No worries, this happened to me and they all magically hatched, best chicks ever!" lol

 

[lazy gardener]

Ok, Here it is: "No worries. I've left my incubator un plugged, lid askew, had multiple power outages, had occasional temp spikes (beware day 7 and day 14!) had the humidity often drop to 10%, or increase to 50%, and the chicks managed to hatch just fine." I won't say any of those hatches were "Best ever", but IMO, it has not been an issue. What is an issue is incubating at lower than normal temps. CALIBRATE!!!

 

[Abriana]

Don’t beat yourself up if they don’t hatch, you didn’t do it on purpose. It was a total accident. But on the other hand they might be fine!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've done that with the turner cord before, on my Hovabator 1588. It wasn't a big deal. During incubation instantaneous humidity is pretty darn close to irrelevant if not even less important. What is important is moisture loss over the entire incubation and that has a lot more to do with average humidity.

That drop will not affect your hatch at all. When I did that with my 1588 I had a pretty good hatch. I can't guarantee you a great hatch, there are too many other factors involved in hatching, but that is not one to worry about.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

How large are you air cells? Compare them to a model and maybe you'll find you should run low humidity for the remainder of hatch to catch them up in size. For you to panic at a drop to 28% makes me think you've been incubating high RH.

Oh and no worries about fluctuating RH, you can run any RH with no ill effect other than not growing the air cell to size. Low Rh to grow it and higher RH to slow it down. It's temperature you really need to worry about. Keep that accurate and steady.