HELP!!!!update: humidity thru the roof while chicks are still hatching

[chickee]

Remember next time you hatch to open your vent as soon as the chicks start hatching. The hatching chicks generate more moisture/humidity. I have eggs in my Genesis 1588 due to hatch tomorrow and I have the vent plug out and on top of the hole so it is half open. As soon as a chick hatches I will open it all the way. I also leave the vent open during incubation so the developing chicks get plenty of oxygen

How are your hatched chicks acting now? How much has your humidity dropped since opening the vent?

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[stevin]

it's actually not doin anything, the humidity is up around 98% and the window is starting to get fogged up and i'm noticing a couple of droplets of consensation too. is this going to mess up the ones that have pipped? will they end up drowning?
the chick are acting fine, there are a bunch that haven't seem to dry off completely and they have been hatched for a couple of hours now. could i crack open the lid slightly to see if some of the moisture can escape?

 

[chickee]

Yes, crack the lid. The humidity is too high. I'm glad to hear the chicks are acting OK. How many more left to hatch?

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[stevin]

ok i cracked it open.......
i think i see what the problem is, i think that the water in the reservoirs overflowed because the incubator was not sitting level.
i guess with all the excitment of the chicks hatching that the incubator had slid/pushed slightly off the edge of the file cabinet.
but now i have all this extra water surface that lowering the % is gonna be tough. i just had to close the lid again because the temp had dropped a few degrees. the brooder is up and running at 95-98 degrees. with all the humidity thats in there should i just try to lift the lid as fast as i can and start removing a couple of the dry chicks at a time and place them into the brooder and repeat it again once the temp goes back to normal?

 

[chickee]

Your temps aren't as important as the humidity at this point, but because you have too high of humidity, it should be a help to take the hatched chicks out.

Your brooder should be 95 degrees under your heat lamp but lower around it so the chicks can get away from the heat if they get too hot. If your chicks sleep just outside of the circle of your heat lamp the temps are perfect

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[stevin]

thanks for the replies!!!!!! i'm freakin out ova here!!!!!

what about the ones that haven't hatched yet. what should i do about lowering the humidity while i still have pipped eggs?

 

[Wild Trapper]

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Last summer I filled my Hova-Bator with eggs and anxiously waited the 18 days to take them off the auto-turner and wait for them to hatch. They started to hatch on day 20 and were done by 21. I got kind of nervous about the way the newly hatched were running around and rolling the unhatched eggs all over the hardware cloth. So, I opened it up and removed them when they got dry. I already had the brooder box heated up for the new arrivals, so that part was working, but I got concerned about some of the eggs not hatching as they should - some having little peck holes and never hatching. About 3/4 of them did make it out, which I thought was okay for a first attempt. One made it most of the way but died in the process, the shell was completely broke but the neck was turned back and kinda dried to the shell. Is that what you mean by shrink-wrapped or is it normal to have a few turn out that way? Only a few of the unhatched had the little holes. Also, on the forum I read about using cut down egg cartons when putting the incubator in lock down, Would that help keep the eggs from being rolled all over? Is this rolling something to be concerned about? I do plan to put some eggs in the incubator again this summer, only earlier than I did last year.

Sorry for all the questions, and thank you in advance for helping an almost newbie to incubating.

 

[chickee]

I was wondering if you could put paper towels down on the floor to soak up the extra water and then remove the paper towels and repeat. Do you have any fish tank airline tubing? You could insert it through the wire and suck on it to pull the water out of the channels. Have anymore of the chicks hatched? Sorry your having such a hard time! Incubating is such a learning experience and even if the last few chicks don't make it, it sounds like you have had a good hatch, so be proud of yourself for that

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[chickee]

It does sound like your last few chicks were shrink wrapped from opening your incubator during the hatch. I always hatch in egg cartons because I can't stand the thought of the eggs getting kicked around by the other chicks

Sounds like you did everything else right, so next time just don't open the incubator until all your chicks have hatched

Quote:
Last summer I filled my Hova-Bator with eggs and anxiously waited the 18 days to take them off the auto-turner and wait for them to hatch. They started to hatch on day 20 and were done by 21. I got kind of nervous about the way the newly hatched were running around and rolling the unhatched eggs all over the hardware cloth. So, I opened it up and removed them when they got dry. I already had the brooder box heated up for the new arrivals, so that part was working, but I got concerned about some of the eggs not hatching as they should - some having little peck holes and never hatching. About 3/4 of them did make it out, which I thought was okay for a first attempt. One made it most of the way but died in the process, the shell was completely broke but the neck was turned back and kinda dried to the shell. Is that what you mean by shrink-wrapped or is it normal to have a few turn out that way? Only a few of the unhatched had the little holes. Also, on the forum I read about using cut down egg cartons when putting the incubator in lock down, Would that help keep the eggs from being rolled all over? Is this rolling something to be concerned about? I do plan to put some eggs in the incubator again this summer, only earlier than I did last year.

Sorry for all the questions, and thank you in advance for helping an almost newbie to incubating.

 

[gryeyes]

Humidity ALWAYS goes "through the roof" during hatching; there is a lot of moisture in the eggs and when they open, the wet chicks have more wet surface area, which raises the humidity.