Help!

[jumbocoturnix]

Hello BYC,

I recently come upon an issue with my incubation schedule. I only have 1 incubator at this moment. I have some quail eggs that are due to hatch by this Friday, but yesterday I just put in 20 new eggs. I forgot to realize I have have lock down on the 14th day which I have to raise the humidity to 60-75%. If I do this, what should I do with my 20 new eggs I just set in? Will this negatively affect them during these 4-6 days? I would greatly appreciate any help or advice. Thank you.

 

[DK newbie]

I've never incubated anything, but I've read a fair bit about it, and as far as I know, the purpose of adjusting humidity is to make sure the air cell has the right size when they hatch. So if your humidity has been too high at one point, I would think you can correct it by making it too low at another point. It's probably not ideal, but once the first batch has hatched, I'd stop adding water or even remove the water that's there depending on how quickly the incubator uses it itself. How long there shouldn't be water in there, is an estimate at best, but if you are used to candling your eggs at different stages perhaps you know what kind of air cell size you should go for.

 

[feedman77]

There are 2 options.

1st you could just keep humidity where you have it during incubation. Don't raise it. And let the hatchers hatch.

2nd raise the humidity for the hatchers. Then when they are done. Completely dry out incubator and run humidity dry as possible to help dry out the air cell some on the new eggs.

What humidity are you incubating at?

 

[jumbocoturnix]

Atm I am incubating my humidity at 40 - 50%. During lockdown, I'm planning to raise it up to 70 - 75%. Thank you!

 

[jumbocoturnix]

Thank you!