high humidity for 10 days

[rianxera14]

This is my first time hatching eggs. I made a little styrofoam incubator and check the temperature every couple of hours, I've been able to keep it more or less stable at 100F usually lower.
When I got the eggs, I was told to ensure there is humidity. I was going to put in a small container for the water, but on his advice I put in a larger container. When I checked the air cell on day 10 I circled it. I did have a hydrometer but I don't trust the readings. I was a little nervous as it appeared to be a little small for that day. I waited a couple of more days and read-up on humidity and air cells. On day 12 I removed the water completely. Tomorrow is day 14 and the cell has grown but it will not be at the size it should be. I'm unsure what to do for day 18-Lockdown when I need to increase the humidity. I suspect the chicks will be late in coming out and I wonder if I should add the water on day 19 instead of day 18. Or Stop turning them but add humidity on day 19 or 20 to get a bigger air hole?

If I know the air hole is a little small, is there a way I can intervene to help hatch and avoid that the chick drowns?
I'm am concerned about hatch day now.

 

[Ridgerunner]

First, make sure you are counting the days right. That is a real common mistake. An egg doesn’t have a full day’s worth of development 2 second after it goes in the incubator. It takes 24 hours for it to have a day’s worth of development. So you say “one” 24 hours after it started. An easy way to check is that the day of the week you set them is the day they should hatch. If you started them on a Thursday they should hatch on a Thursday. They are often a day or two early, especially when you first start hatching and haven’t tuned your incubator so consider the 21 day thing a target, not something set in stone.

You can calibrate your hygrometer to make sure it is reading right, just do a search online for a procedure, but I never have with mine. Different humidity works for different people in different circumstances with different incubators. I’ve learned over time that if my uncalibrated hygrometer’s average reading is just under 40% during incubation I’ll do OK. I don’t know what the real humidity is in there. Some people that monitor the accurate humidity do really well at 30%, others need more than 45%. It really does vary that much between us.

Turning is really important early on in the incubation. That’s when body parts are forming and you don’t want the yolk or developing chick to touch the inside of the shell. Turning helps with all that. But by about 14 days the body parts have formed and a membrane has developed around the embryo to protect it from the shell so turning isn’t really necessary after that. Don’t go to any great trouble to turn. It doesn’t hurt the embryo to turn it but it doesn’t hurt it to not turn either that late in incubation.

There is a pretty wide range of humidity that will work. They don’t have to lose a real precise amount of moisture for the hatch to be OK, though you should try to get it as close to right as you can. Don’t get me wrong, moisture loss is important. If it loses too much moisture it can be shrink-wrapped when it goes into lockdown. Too little and it does not have enough air to breathe in the air cell after internal pip and before external pip so it suffocates. What you have working in your favor is that there is a decent range between these that works. You may not be in as much trouble as you fear. I’ve had decent hatches when the air cell was a little smaller than I thought it should be.

Another problem, especially your first time, is that all eggs are not shaped the same. Some are more round and some are longer and thinner. The air cell may not look the same for all of those. Plus there is some guesswork involved in trying to figure out exactly what size they are. Some eggs are more porous than others so they lose more moisture under the same conditions. Some are held for longer times before incubation starts so they may have less moisture in them when incubation starts. It’s a science with some artwork involved. You are looking for an average, don’t go by just one individual egg.

The reason you bump up your humidity during lockdown is so the humidity is not too dry when the chick external pips. Especially if the humidity was a bit on the low side during incubation, it is possible to shrink-wrap the chick after it external pips if the humidity in there is too low. This doesn’t happen all the time, actually not a lot of the time, but it can so you want the humidity up when it external pips. Since chicks can hatch two or more days early or late we shoot to raise the humidity three days early to cover all bases.

So what do you do? If they lose too much moisture they can shrink-wrap, too little they can suffocate. It’s stressful. If you are convinced that the moisture loss is too low, reduce the humidity in there. What the humidity is in the incubator isn’t that important for a snapshot in time before external pip but total moisture loss is what is important. Since you don’t know if your hatch will be early or late, I’d raise humidity after 18 days of development. By that time you are pretty much locked in with the moisture loss. You are more likely to do more damage trying it keep it too dry too late. And keep monitoring them. You don’t want to lose too much moisture. In my opinion that’s more dangerous than not losing enough.

Good luck. It’s no always this stressful. In the back of my mind I wonder if you are over-stressing about it and it’s not really all that bad, but I can’t tell over the internet.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

The size of the air cell does not indicate the hatch time. It's OK to be a bit on the small side, the diagrams for optimum moisture loss (cell size) are merely guidelines and not a do or die thing. If you run dry now until day 18 you'll be fine and the size of air space will increase dramatically. Not all the eggs will have the same size air space, again it's a general guideline. On average I get about the right size but a few eggs will not lose as much moisture and be closer to day 14 size. Chicks still hatch and have enough air space to breath with that size.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

The size of the air cell does not indicate the hatch time. It's OK to be a bit on the small side, the diagrams for optimum moisture loss (cell size) are merely guidelines and not a do or die thing. If you run dry now until day 18 you'll be fine and the size of air space will increase dramatically. Not all the eggs will have the same size air space, again it's a general guideline. On average I get about the right size but a few eggs will not lose as much moisture and be closer to day 14 size. Chicks still hatch and have enough air space to breath with that size.

xs 2. If I felt my air cells were too small I would start running dry to try to increase the size, but keep in mind, like JR said, these charts are a guidline, what we feel is optimal for hatch, that doesn't mean if the guidlines are not exact they won't hatch right. You also have to take into consideration that after lockdown, (even with the increased humidity) there is significant growth to the aircell before they pip.

If at lockdown you are still concerned that they are small, you can always hatch upright in cut down egg cartons. This aids in the fact that when they internally pip they are upright so there is less chance that excess moisture from inadequate moisture loss draining into the air cell and drowning them.

Good luck with whatever you decide and I hope you keep us posted.

 

[rianxera14]

Thanks for all the replies.

I put my eggs in on Thursday night and counted the 1st day as Friday.
I live by the sea so it is not a dry climate, I was going to do a dry incubation or a small container as the incubator is small and changed the water container when I was told use a shallower wider pan.
Some days I had condensation on the viewing window. I was nervous on day 10 when I compared the air bubble and it was the size of day 7. On day 12 there wasn't much change in size so I took the water out. I plan on continuing dry till lockdown. Tomorrow will be day 14.
I will not be surprised if they hatch a little late as my temperature was often low the first week, Now it seems to be stable at 100-101F on the top of the ends.
My incubator is a still air
I think I will do lock-down on day 19 in the morning.
I like the idea of putting them upright in the egg cartons.
The water container will go under the light bulb. I cannot close the incubator completely as it gets too hot. I adjust the opening according to the temperature inside. We've been getting some hot days and I've had to leave the incubator 1/3 opened. Less then that and the temp, increases in the afternoon too much. At night I close it a little more so that it keeps it to 100F
I hope that by having the water right under the light bulb it will humidify the air for the hatching chicks. The water container was in the middle and closer to the eggs during incubation . I do not want it there for when they hatch. It is shallow.

Thanks again for your quick response.