Help!! Water running out of reserve in mini brinsea on hatch day

[rachelsebast]

Hi!

Two of my eggs have pipped but the water is running low. what should I do? I know that opening the incubator will damage the eggs but are all of the eggs at risk now if the reserve becomes totally empty? Thanks for your help!

 

[BantamLover21]

I would quickly open the incubator and fill up the water reserve. Yes, you're not supposed to disturb eggs during lockdown/pipping, but I (and many others) have done it when necessary and still had successful hatches. Too little humidity can be very problematic when chicks are trying to hatch, since it toughens the membranes and makes it hard to break out.

 

[3riverschick]

If you have a mini Brinsea, go ahead and quickly open the top and refill the water. I love to hatch in these little incubators. They are great and come back to coirrect humidity real fast. I even take th lid off very quickly to remove egg shell pieces when they start to hatch. Gives more room for the next chick. Just be careful when you replace the lid not to catch any chick toes in the rim, smile. They all want to come piling out, smile. I have seen that standard "don't emove the lid at all during lockdown " doesn't apply with these mini Brinseas. Taking lid off quickly ( don't turn it upside down when you do) and quickly and carefully replacing it s just fine with this model !!
Best,
Karen

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi @rachelsebast!

I too agree that quickly but carefully topping up the water will be fine. Brinsea incubators are great at quickly getting the humidity back up. With mine it literally takes a minute or so all should be good.

Good luck with your eggs and I hope you have a great hatch

 

[rachelsebast]

Thank you all so much!! This is my first hatch and I am a nervous wreck!

 

[silkie1472]

These are my incubators right now. As you can see, they are Brinsea mini advance incubators are are full with silkie chicks. I open my incubators three+ times a day and it does not affect them at all. A helpful tip for these incubators would be to add maybe a half teaspoon of water to botttom of the incubator on the papers towel or whatever you have inside of it when you open it. I couldn't believe this, but I have had eggs hatch 2 days early and there was no moisture to be found in the incubator. Therefor, I believe that humidity does not matter that much. I understand that it may help weaker chicks, but it will not affect chicks that have genetics from healthy, strong chickens.