HELP!!!! Humidity all wrong!!!

[vivaciouswoman]

Greenie—my first solo (mostly!) incubator baby!!


At the end of Day 21, I have Greenie and Brownie out along with five of their friends! Out of an original 42 eggs, I’m already at 15%, which I am very happy with, and there’s still overnight and tomorrow...

Of the original eggs, 10 quit or were infertile. That left me with 32 viable, with a range of barely acceptable to pathetic air cells. 7 have hatched, leaving me with 25 more eggs. About a quarter of those have externally pipped, so who knows what we will wake up to!

The first 5 were dry enough to be put in the brooder tonight. I have 2 wet babes drying in the incubator.

There was some hatch assisting going on today. Brownie had pipped externally out of the air cell and was zipping clockwise. Poor malpositioned baby! I followed @Pyxis’s advice to drill a safety hole in the end with the air cell, then I broke away some of the shell until I could see membrane. It was an amazing view, really, and I should have gotten pictures. Sorry! But I could see that the veins still had blood, so she wasn’t ready to zip. A couple of hours later, I checked on her, and she was out!

I also assisted with the 2nd hatch, which was LIVE on Facebook! That baby was bleeding a little, so I grabbed my styptic stick, applied pressure, then put the baby back to dry. Many thanks to @WVduckchick for alerting me to be ready to intervene!

That’s where we are at the end of Day 21! Thank you to all the amazing people who have gotten me this far! I really COULD NOT have done it without your help and support!!

25 more to go! I’ll keep you posted!

 

[vivaciouswoman]

Oh, and coconut oil has been my friend! When I see an external pip with the membrane getting dry, I put the TINIEST amount of coconut oil on it for moisture. I love its antimicrobial properties, too. That can’t hurt, as long as the shell isn’t covered in it or enough is applied to get in the way of breathing.

 

[WVduckchick]

View attachment 1430219 View attachment 1430220 Greenie—my first solo (mostly!) incubator baby!!


At the end of Day 21, I have Greenie and Brownie out along with five of their friends! Out of an original 42 eggs, I’m already at 15%, which I am very happy with, and there’s still overnight and tomorrow...

Of the original eggs, 10 quit or were infertile. That left me with 32 viable, with a range of barely acceptable to pathetic air cells. 7 have hatched, leaving me with 25 more eggs. About a quarter of those have externally pipped, so who knows what we will wake up to!

The first 5 were dry enough to be put in the brooder tonight. I have 2 wet babes drying in the incubator.

There was some hatch assisting going on today. Brownie had pipped externally out of the air cell and was zipping clockwise. Poor malpositioned baby! I followed @Pyxis’s advice to drill a safety hole in the end with the air cell, then I broke away some of the shell until I could see membrane. It was an amazing view, really, and I should have gotten pictures. Sorry! But I could see that the veins still had blood, so she wasn’t ready to zip. A couple of hours later, I checked on her, and she was out!

I also assisted with the 2nd hatch, which was LIVE on Facebook! That baby was bleeding a little, so I grabbed my styptic stick, applied pressure, then put the baby back to dry. Many thanks to @WVduckchick for alerting me to be ready to intervene!

That’s where we are at the end of Day 21! Thank you to all the amazing people who have gotten me this far! I really COULD NOT have done it without your help and support!!

25 more to go! I’ll keep you posted!

I'm am sooo enjoying this!

Oh, and coconut oil has been my friend! When I see an external pip with the membrane getting dry, I put the TINIEST amount of coconut oil on it for moisture. I love its antimicrobial properties, too. That can’t hurt, as long as the shell isn’t covered in it or enough is applied to get in the way of breathing.

I like coconut oil also, especially for quick ones. For ones that I expect to be take longer, I prefer Vaseline. Seems like it doesn't harden as much for me. Jmho

 

[Rose Quartz]

Glad. Bownie made it out

 

[FarmerGirl101]

From what I've read, incubating humidity 30 - 45% from start to lock down, then up to 65 - 75% . The guide is when you candle for the air cell growth. At this point agree with Tianan's chickens .... @oldhenlikesdogs @Pyxis

Please explain what lockdown is. Also why do you need to up the humidity? Would it be the same for quail?

 

[ChickNanny13]

Please explain what lockdown is. Also why do you need to up the humidity? Would it be the same for quail?

Not sure about quails although thinking it's same only different lock down days & humidity ranges. If you're incubating quails, it would be best to start a new thread with your questions. Gets confusing when "mixed" with others

"Lock down" is the 18th day of incubation (chickens), humidity is increased to prevent "shrink wrapping" of the chick's membrane when they start pipping/hatching. In the beginning days humidity is lowered to "evaporate" some liquid in the egg (shell is porous) to increase the air cell (chicks pocket of air) for hatching, then increased to prevent shrink wrapping; when the membrane dries sticking to the chick.

 

[cmom]

Be very careful. If the chick has pipped but hasn't zipped yet it may not be quite ready to hatch. If it hasn't started to zip after 24 hours after the pip, proceed carefully. First I would check and see if it is stuck and carefully with a tweezer pick some shell away from the pip area. I also use a q-tip and moisten around the pip. Somewhere I have a picture. I'll try to find it.

These are the tools I use if I need to assist a hatch. I put warm water in the dish and use the cotton swab to moisten around the pip. I use the tweezers to carefully pick the shell around the pip to investigate.

 

[cmom]

Please explain what lockdown is. Also why do you need to up the humidity? Would it be the same for quail?

Not sure about quail. I incubate around 30% humidity which allows for some moisture to escape the eggs and the air cell in the egg should expand. The last 2 or 3 days is lockdown when I increase my humidity to around 75% to give the chicks some moisture so they can pip and zip their shells.They need to be able to turn in the shell to zip and hatch. Many people have different ideas. This is what has worked best for me and my hatch rates.

 

[vivaciouswoman]

Please explain what lockdown is. Also why do you need to up the humidity? Would it be the same for quail?

So, this whole thing started because I read the humidity for lockdown and thought it applied to the whole time. At Day 14, I had virtually NO air cells, and I was facing losing ALL of the babies to drowning. (See original post!) Thanks to the amazing people on this forum, we (the forum participants and I) got the humidity down and grew some "good enough" air cells. And here's what I found this morning!!! (Remember that I left 2 in there to dry last night.) Oo!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10100337831180763

BONUS: Two of my broodies hatched single chicks overnight!

(Trying to upload 2 pictures here, but having a lot of trouble...odd! They are appearing in my next post, #111.)
View attachment 1430548 View attachment 1430547

My daughter (the one in my avatar or profile picture) informs me that another one in the incubator just hatched!! If so, that's 16 out of the 32 (50%) viable eggs that have hatched. And just think--when we started this thread, I was prepared to lose ALL of these babies to drowning at Day 14!

 

[WVduckchick]

So, this whole thing started because I read the humidity for lockdown and thought it applied to the whole time. At Day 14, I had virtually NO air cells, and I was facing losing ALL of the babies to drowning. (See original post!) Thanks to the amazing people on this forum, we (the forum participants and I) got the humidity down and grew some "good enough" air cells. And here's what I found this morning!!! (Remember that I left 2 in there to dry last night.) Oo!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10100337831180763

BONUS: Two of my broodies hatched single chicks overnight!

(Trying to upload 2 pictures here, but having a lot of trouble...odd!)

My daughter (the one in my avatar or profile picture) informs me that another one in the incubator just hatched!! If so, that's 16 out of the 32 (50%) viable eggs that have hatched. And just think--when we started this thread, I was prepared to lose ALL of these babies to drowning at Day 14!

that's flippin' awesome!!