having major humidity issued in home made incubator

[Tumbleweed Farm]

I dry incubate to. I figure the mamma hen dontwet her bottom every time sge sets on the nest so I just do it dry. I told my hubby I dont see my hens with lysole under there wings spraying there eggs every time she moves them so I try not to over think it to much. It drives him nuts but I have a great hatch rate.

Agreed Lisa. Wash your hands before turning eggs, disinfect your incubators, don't set soiled eggs, don't lift cover during lockdown. On and on and on. A mother hen has walked in poo and who knows what else, then steps on he eggs, sometimes poos on them. I had a broody silkie that tossed every single egg out from under her when it started zipping, she watched them hatch then put the newly hatched back under her--I was furious she'd shrink wrap them, I watched the entire hatch, all came out fine--Momma knows best. I do think sterilizing incubator between hatches is a good idea but most folks here are not hatcheries!! I always take a wet newly hatched out of bator and out of hundreds I've hatched I have never had one, not one, shrink wrapped chick.

 

[lisaterrell88]

Agreed Lisa.  Wash your hands before turning eggs, disinfect your incubators, don't set soiled eggs, don't lift cover during lockdown.  On and on and on.  A mother hen has walked in poo and who knows what else, then steps on he eggs, sometimes poos on them.  I had a broody silkie that tossed every single egg out from under her when it started zipping, she watched them hatch then put the newly hatched back under her--I was furious she'd shrink wrap them, I watched the entire hatch, all came out fine--Momma knows best.  I do think sterilizing incubator between hatches is a good idea but most folks here are not hatcheries!!  I always take a wet newly hatched out of bator and out of hundreds I've hatched I have never had one, not one, shrink wrapped chick.

but one day I will find that dang calender that my hens have hid where they marked off those darn days telling them when those eggs will hatch lol

 

[Tumbleweed Farm]

Quote: LOL!

 

[Fred's Hens]

"Lockdown" a term I never heard for over 50 years until coming to BYC. We call it simply incubating and hatching round these parts. Lots of funny made up stuff among the internet crowd. Shrug. I don't pay all that much attention.

 

[subhanalah]

"Lockdown"   a term I never heard for over 50 years until coming to BYC.  We call it simply incubating and hatching round these parts.  Lots of funny made up stuff among the internet crowd.  Shrug.  I don't pay all that much attention.

that's my point! I really am beginning to think this whole lock down business is a con.

 

[Tumbleweed Farm]

Quote: Yup, I open bator-- a whole lot-- and I've never, I mean never, ever had a "shrink-wrapped" chick. In the beginning of my hatching experience I drowned a few from way too high humidity, that will kill faster than opening a bator, lol.

 

[ktblue3]

I am also having difficulty maintaining a constant humidity. We use Hovabater 1588 for school hatching. Temp stayed constant but I'm a nervous nellie over the humidity. Levels. Humidity can be 50 at 4 PM but by the time we come in a 8 AM the humidity is down to 14. Should I not worry too much about this? Only thing I have not tried is using a sponge which is my next step. Is humidity more critical the last 4 or 5 days? How high/low can we go at that time and still have a good hatch?
K....

 

[shan04]

I can tell you after I posted this I decided to not worry about humidity and did a dry hatch, until I got to day 18 then I made it around 70 to 75 humidity, all 9 off my eggs hatched. 100% success rate. But I did notice my first chick that hatched got stuck because it wasn't humid enough so I had to help him and put him in a warm bath to get all the dried shell off. After him I bumped the humidity up to 85% and everyone came out perfect. They are 2 weeks old now and doing great. I was very worried too but thought, you can't control that out in nature so I won't worry so much about it. Good luck hope they hatch for you.

 

[sunheeter]

I am having a HORRIBLE time with my incubator. I don't know if it's cause of the summer, but I can't control how much the temperature fluctuates in my house! I try desperately to keep it right at 100, and it's down to 95 in the morning when I wake up and 102 when I get home from work in the afternoon. Ugh. We really want to buy hatching eggs (right now we're using our own mixes) but if this hatch doesn't come out well (which I don't think it will) I don't know what else I can do! I spent over $100 on this hovabator, and am just mad. maybe I can only hatch in the fall and spring - when the weather isn't so extreme.

Question- being so preoccupied with the temp, I didn't fill up the tray often enough, and I'm afraid the eggs went for a few days with pretty low humidity. I just pulled them off the egg turner (day 18) and filled up the tray. Could that cause a bad hatch?