Help! Another emergency humidity question!

[PrairieFarmer]

First time hatch. Put them into lockdown on Tuesday, expecting hatch starting on the 5th. Brought humidity up to about 75 percent. Then I had to go to hospital for family emergency, came home today at about 3:30 and humidity was down to 30 percent! And they were pipping and cheeping like mad! Put more water in and had to leave for hospital again. Came home and humidity is to 90 percent and some cheaps but not so strong.
I went ahead and changed out the towel to get humidity down a bit (I had read 75 percent for hatching) but anything else to do?
Thanks!

 

[Baralak]

Howdy...

What type of incubator are you using?

What are you hatching?

Any Pips?

Joe

 

[ThaJuicyJuice]

If your vents are opening then you can pinpoint there the loss of humidity. Play with it, one open, one closed. I work long hours and have to go without attending hatching chicks. I keep it around 60-65 for hatching. Wet bulb should be 80-90 degrees for hatching. pipping and hatching should raise the humidity as well.

 

[jcfuente51]

oh wow it dropped that bad if they were pips chances are they are in the proces of shirkwrap i hope not but that was way too low when they had already pip and the chipiring can u still hear them??? if u start at the pips could u see litle movement on the pip? like if they were making it biger?? what has been the progress after they pip and how many hours its been?

 

[ThaJuicyJuice]

You will see a lot of folks talking about waiting 24hours--- to even days. Since I work long hours and can't be there to monitor, I check for progress, not listening to cheeping. If not, I help zip.

 

[jcfuente51]

im wonder how long it has been i will def help them since the humidty dropped so much after pips. but who knows what has happened.

 

[PrairieFarmer]

I know it dropped bad. I was shocked!

But when I got home and found them they were all chirping quite loudly. One had beak through and rest just "zipped" (that's when they've made the crack but not poked through?).
So then I added water and I watched it, thought it was okay, but again had to leave and it went up to over 90 percent! I thought that was too high?
When I got home again after about 5 hours away, with the humidity at 90 percent, they are still cheeping but not so loudly. The one that had it's beak out seems to have enlarge hole a bit, but not a lot. It is moving it's beak. Humidity is now at 85 percent.
I'm hatching with a Genesis 1588. I only have one vent and it's been open the whole time (I guess I should have closed it before I left for the hospital). This has been very bad timing for my first hatch (also think my brain not functioning too well with the hospital issue).

 

[PrairieFarmer]

I just opened briefly to hear better, still getting peeps from the shells but it is so much fainter than before. I'm afraid now I got the humidity too high after being too low? Eek...

 

[PrairieFarmer]

Okay, I guess proper terminology is they have pipped (all but one just a crack on the shell) but not zipped. (I couldn't figure out what the difference in the meaning was). And I'm hatching chickens, FYI.

 

[Baralak]

Very good..

The 1588 generally does really well with humidity.. Of course the key is what is your room humidity. Right now I only have the trays full but I don't have any towels or anything else in mine and the vent is open. Of course I'm in Louisiana and my humidity is quite a bit higher than most. My 1588 is full of duck eggs, and one just popped out.

If your eggs are still peeping there is a good chance everything is ok. I have over the years become quite distrusting of anything digital when it comes to temp and humidity. However in your situation if it has been more than 24 hours since the first pip then it could be time to help.

Helping comes with risks.. Mother nature in the broody world, is cruel, but in the artifical incubation world, she can be even more so and that is a lot of time due to our wanting to help. I have had good and bad experiences with helping. I helped one out that I knew for sure was pipped for 24 hours, and it hadn't absorbed the yoke yet. I have also opened the bator and not noticed that I had a pip and had a stuck chick/duckling. I still waited to ensure enough time had passed, and sure enough.. back stuck to the membrane. So got it out, and was good to go.

Just make sure that when you make the decision to help, remove shell on the large end of the egg. If you run into any blood STOP. Peal the membrane from the chick/duckling and let it come the rest of the way out of the egg. If you did pull the trigger too soon and you see yoke, STOP. Wrap the remander of the egg with a damp warm paper towel and return to the incubator.

After you have a few hatches under your belt, you will become more aware of the right time, and the wrong time to help