Help me please!

dashenka

Hatching
5 Years
Oct 27, 2014
9
0
7
My husband just got me my first incubator and we are trying our hand at hatching 12 eggs. I'm having issues with humidity. I added water to a reservoir and my humidity is around 60%. How do I get it down and what would be optimum? My eggs are about 3 days old now,should i discard them and start fresh with adjusted humidity or wait and see.Thank you so much.
 
My husband just got me my first incubator and we are trying our hand at hatching 12 eggs. I'm having issues with humidity. I added water to a reservoir and my humidity is around 60%. How do I get it down and what would be optimum? My eggs are about 3 days old now,should i discard them and start fresh with adjusted humidity or wait and see.Thank you so much.
No no no, don't discard them. They should be fine. They are only at day three, you have plenty of time to adjust the humidty. I might be biased, but I would try a dry incubation. Take the water out and run it dry and see what the humidity is. As long as your humidity is above 20-25% you should be fine running the first 17 days dry. If it gets below 25% add enough water just to get it back above 25%. If you feel better having the water in the bator, decrease the surface area, (not sure what kind of bator you are using but for example if you have two water wells, fill only one.) I would recommend if you are using the standard method to shoot for 40-50% until lockdown. At lockdown it needs to be at LEAST 65%. (I shoot for 75%.) It's the average humidity during incubation and how much moisture the egg looses that matters and not what the humidity is on any given day. The best way to judge wether you need more or less humidity in the bator is by monitoring the air cells. If your air cells are growing at the proper rate the % of humidity is a moot point. Use the chart on the hatching 101 page, or google air cell size and you'll find multiple graphs that show how big the air cell should be at key days during incubation (usually 7/14/18 days). Candle your eggs and if the air cell looks small for that milestone,decrease your humidity. If it looks too large you know you need to up your humidity. you have plenty of time to even out your humidity as long as you are keeping an eye on your air cells. Good luck on your hatch and do not give up on them. :)
 
Thank you. My temperature inside my incubator is 101. Is that ok? I have pro series incubator 4200-40w/120 vacation by farm innovation.
 
Thank you. My temperature inside my incubator is 101. Is that ok? I have pro series incubator 4200-40w/120 vacation by farm innovation.
That has the fan kit if I am right? If it has a fan (if it's a circulated air incubator) then it needs to average 99.5. 101 is a tad high. If it is a still air incubator (no fan) then 101 is great as they are recommended at 101-102 degrees. Also, never trust an uncalibrated incubator thermometer, (or any one thermometer in my opinion) as incubator thermometers are known to be off. I would recommend checking it against another thermometer, or have at least two thermometers in the bator.
 
I used infrared thermometer gun and it reads 99.6 and another one isnide is reading almost 101. I'm going to lower temperature in a minute.thank you so much. Oh and I candle the eggs and they seemed a little more developed for day 3.
 
That has the fan kit if I am right? If it has a fan (if it's a circulated air incubator) then it needs to average 99.5. 101 is a tad high. If it is a still air incubator (no fan) then 101 is great as they are recommended at 101-102 degrees. Also, never trust an uncalibrated incubator thermometer, (or any one thermometer in my opinion) as incubator thermometers are known to be off. I would recommend checking it against another thermometer, or have at least two thermometers in the bator.

Do you tjink my eggs are still ok even with temperatures being so high?
 
I used infrared thermometer gun and it reads 99.6 and another one isnide is reading almost 101. I'm going to lower temperature in a minute.thank you so much. Oh and I candle the eggs and they seemed a little more developed for day 3.
99.5 to 100.5 is good 99.5 is better though.. Use EXTREME CAUTION!!!! when adjusting temps small even tiny adjustments are good. It will take time to see the results of an adjustment. once you make an adjustment wait at least 30 mins before making another one. Might have to wait longer depending how well the incubator hold in the heat.
 
Do you tjink my eggs are still ok even with temperatures being so high?
Ya, that isn't extremely high. As you said you candled and they looked a little more developed- with average temps higher than normal often chicks will develop a little faster and hatch a little early. (That sounds like a win win,but it also means there is a higher chance for problems because of the rate of developement.) But with you only being at day three, you can adjust and get it more averaged out and they should be fine barring any major spikes or chills or any trauma.
There are people on here who have had spikes of over 103 and cool offs that lasted hours and still had viable chicks. My theory is never give up until after a couple days after hatch day.
I don't usually see anything at day 3 so if you are seeing developement it is probably because of the warmer temps.
 
Ya, that isn't extremely high. As you said you candled and they looked a little more developed- with average temps higher than normal often chicks will develop a little faster and hatch a little early. (That sounds like a win win,but it also means there is a higher chance for problems because of the rate of developement.) But with you only being at day three, you can adjust and get it more averaged out and they should be fine barring any major spikes or chills or any trauma.
There are people on here who have had spikes of over 103 and cool offs that lasted hours and still had viable chicks. My theory is never give up until after a couple days after hatch day.
I don't usually see anything at day 3 so if you are seeing developement it is probably because of the warmer temps.

yeah... it looks more like day 6. My hen just hatched 7 chicks and what I have now is very similar to what I had on day 6 with my hen. I love red my temperature a bit,I will check on it and we will see I guess. I'm not going to give up.
 

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