Help! Day 18 troubles...

[chickyrookie]

I cannot agree with this more. I read the BYC guide to incubation and it was a lifesaver. It should absolutely be required. I would also highly recommend
https://www.raising-happy-chickens.com/
Both were a total life saver while incubating. It sounds like a lot of this could've been avoided by researching before starting.

Thanks for the advice. I will say that I spent hours reading up on incubating the eggs before putting them in. I only used the manual as a guide. I'm a researcher for sure, hence, a new member of BYC. This site has been very helpful because of members like you.

I finally got the incubator up to 54% humidity (but who knows the real %). Temp is at 102.5. Is that too hot you think? The manual said that this incubator has proven to work best at 103.5, but that sounded crazy to me. I couldn't do it.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

When setting humidity it's best to use the right size containers or sponges of water not mist eggs. Misting is a fast way to spike up humidity but it doesn't last so you're constantly misting and making humidity spike high then low as it dries and you really have no gage what your doing.

If you calibrate a cheapo hygrometer and use that to find what surface area of water is needed in your incubator to achieve the RH you want the easier all this gets. Humidity is related to surface area of water. The depth of water relates to how long you can maintain that humidity, as in it will all evaporate eventually. Misting evaporates immediately and why it's not a good method. A cup holding water is easy to see when you need to add more water. A sponge with wet surface all sides sticking in a cup of water provides a lot of humidity. Play with what works to give the RH you want. Once you know what's needed every hatch thereafter is easy.

Everyones home is different. Some use humidifiers in home and some heat with wood. The ambient (house) humidity is the variable. Dry air into incubator will require more surface area of water in incubator to maintain a certain RH than a home using a humidifier. My house only needs a shot glass to double shot glass of water sitting in incubator to achieve 30-35% RH. For hatch time one of the three troughs in bottom needs water to achieve 70-75% RH. Your house will be different and hence the need for calibrated hygrometer so we all speak the same language.

Salt test:

Milk/juice or some other cap filled with salt.

Add drops of water until saturated, I pour off standing water.

Put cap and hygrometer into a small sealed container, I use a quart size zip seal bag and allow pillow of air.

Wait at least 6 hours, until reading is stable, and record hygrometer reading. A salt environment is 75% RH at all normal home temps.

The math for calibration- Subtact your number from 75 for calibration. Ex. your reading is 84 RH. 75-84= -9 You'd always subtract 9 from your readings for true RH.

 

[lazy gardener]

Thanks for the advice. I will say that I spent hours reading up on incubating the eggs before putting them in. I only used the manual as a guide. I'm a researcher for sure, hence, a new member of BYC. This site has been very helpful because of members like you.

I finally got the incubator up to 54% humidity (but who knows the real %). Temp is at 102.5. Is that too hot you think? The manual said that this incubator has proven to work best at 103.5, but that sounded crazy to me. I couldn't do it.

Yes, that sounds insane crazy. However, if the recommendation is based on a digital thermostat set up, the bator does not have a fan, AND, the thermostat registers the 103.5 then ramps down to 100 before coming back on again, that would average out to 102. Or if the thermometer is mounted high in the bator and reading 103.5, then, perhaps at egg level the temp would be 102, which is what you would want for a bator WITHOUT A FAN.

102 is the recommended temp, measured at the top surface of the eggs for still air.

99.5 is the recommended temp for forced air. I run at 100 for forced air, and have excellent hatch rates.

I can't stress enough the importance of having calibrated equipment. Also, even with forced air, there will be warmer/cooler zones in the bator, so it's wise to spend a few days mapping out temp grids in your bator so you KNOW what temps you are working with.

 

[chickyrookie]

I am concerned about your humidity and your equipment. Did you candle all eggs and mark air cells before going into lock down? How did they compare to the air cell charts?

GOOD NEWS...AND BAD NEWS!
Good news, I went to the pet store and bought a hygrometer AND a hyrometer/temp combo. And they both read well above 40%. Bad news, they are both off as well. One says 65% while the other reads 75%. Meanwhile my bator reads 50%. Oh brother...

Also, I have 3 different thermometer as well. They are all different. What's a future chicken farmer to do?

Also, I accidentally bumped the bator when putting in meters. Am I doomed? Will some pip upside down?

 

[chickyrookie]

When setting humidity it's best to use the right size containers or sponges of water not mist eggs. Misting is a fast way to spike up humidity but it doesn't last so you're constantly misting and making humidity spike high then low as it dries and you really have no gage what your doing.

If you calibrate a cheapo hygrometer and use that to find what surface area of water is needed in your incubator to achieve the RH you want the easier all this gets. Humidity is related to surface area of water. The depth of water relates to how long you can maintain that humidity, as in it will all evaporate eventually. Misting evaporates immediately and why it's not a good method. A cup holding water is easy to see when you need to add more water. A sponge with wet surface all sides sticking in a cup of water provides a lot of humidity. Play with what works to give the RH you want. Once you know what's needed every hatch thereafter is easy.

Everyones home is different. Some use humidifiers in home and some heat with wood. The ambient (house) humidity is the variable. Dry air into incubator will require more surface area of water in incubator to maintain a certain RH than a home using a humidifier. My house only needs a shot glass to double shot glass of water sitting in incubator to achieve 30-35% RH. For hatch time one of the three troughs in bottom needs water to achieve 70-75% RH. Your house will be different and hence the need for calibrated hygrometer so we all speak the same language.

Salt test:

Milk/juice or some other cap filled with salt.

Add drops of water until saturated, I pour off standing water.

Put cap and hygrometer into a small sealed container, I use a quart size zip seal bag and allow pillow of air.

Wait at least 6 hours, until reading is stable, and record hygrometer reading. A salt environment is 75% RH at all normal home temps.

The math for calibration- Subtact your number from 75 for calibration. Ex. your reading is 84 RH. 75-84= -9 You'd always subtract 9 from your readings for true RH.

Thanks for the calibration idea. I'm going to try it for the next batch for sure.

 

[Hyroler]

When I was kid me and my little brother would steal fertile eggs out of our neighbors chicken coop.I made a incubator out of shoebox ,a light with dimmer switch and a oral thermometer I stole from medicine cabinet.We didn't worry about humidity I was only 10 years old never even heard of hydrometer.We never bothered to turn eggs or candle them.We just put eggs into shoebox turned light dimmer switch till thermometer read around 99°f put shoebox under my bed and waited till we heard peeps.i can't even remember a time when eggs didn't hatch.Im sure there were eggs that didn't hatch but I know majority of them did hatch.
It seems to me people are making egg Incubating more difficult than it really is.If a 10 year old with a shoebox and a thermometer that was probably stuck in his ass a few times can hatch eggs .It shouldn't be to difficult for adult to do the same.

 

[chickyrookie]

When I was kid me and my little brother would steal fertile eggs out of our neighbors chicken coop.I made a incubator out of shoebox ,a light with dimmer switch and a oral thermometer I stole from medicine cabinet.We didn't worry about humidity I was only 10 years old never even heard of hydrometer.We never bothered to turn eggs or candle them.We just put eggs into shoebox turned light dimmer switch till thermometer read around 99°f put shoebox under my bed and waited till we heard peeps.i can't even remember a time when eggs didn't hatch.Im sure there were eggs that didn't hatch but I know majority of them did hatch.
It seems to me people are making egg Incubating more difficult than it really is.If a 10 year old with a shoebox and a thermometer that was probably stuck in his ass a few times can hatch eggs .It shouldn't be to difficult for adult to do the same.

What a relief! I'm just going to wait until tomorrow. Thanks for the piece of mind.