Hubby WANTS me to hatch some eggs! I have some questions, first....

[cjeanean]

Yes, he really wants me to! What he doesn't understand is that we only have 1/2 acre and we already have over 50 chickens....and no money for another coop....oh well, I'm gonna do it anyway. I'm gonna use the incubator that MissPrissy built, so once I get the stuff (which will be in the next three weeks) I'm gonna give it a shot!

Okay, questions:

Some place say to increase humidity to 80-85% in the last three days of incubation, others say only 65%....which is it?

Some say to keep the humidity at 75% during incubation, other say only 55-60%....which is it?

I think the general concensus is the temp has to be at 99.5 degrees, so I'll stick with that. Just based on my reading here and elsewhere the one thing no one can make up their minds about is the humidity. I'll be using a forced air version, the exact same one MissPrissy has posted. Anyways, thanks everyone!

 

[klf73]

temp for force air is 99.5-100.5. The humidity thing is always a topic of debate. Me personally, I don't add water until the last 3 days. My humidity day 1-18 is usually in the 30's, 75% is WAY too high. The last 3 days I put it to the 50's. I started doing this because I lost a LOT of chicks that were very wet and seemed to drown. Once I started doing less humidity I had a much better hatch rate. Good luck!
Krista

 

[needmorechickens!]

I built Miss Prissy's 'bator as well.
I put a small bowl of water in for days 1- 18 (hum is about 40%) then for the last 3 days I flood the bottom of the 'bator like Miss Prissy told me to and the hum ranged from 58% to 62% through my hatch. I had a pretty good hatch rate. Out of the 5 that went into the hatcher, 4 hatched.
Good luck! (and i wish my DH wanted me to hatch more chicks!

)
~Rebecca

 

[cjeanean]

I thought those numbers sounded a little high, but then again I've never hatched eggs before. I even read the teacher's hatching guide posted in the How To section and it seemed like the humidity they were instructing for was really hight, too....unless I misunderstood, don't know what 'wet bulb' means. So 40% for day 1-18, then about 60% for 19-21? And I'm looking for a constant temp of 99.5 F? Thanks, everyone....I just don't wanna kill all of my eggs on my first try.....

 

[lockedhearts]

I have seen outrageous numbers on some "official" university sites. I do 40-50 first 18 days and 60-70 last 3 days. My hatcher is a seperate still air incubator and it stays about 101 .
Wetbulb is a thermometer reading that will give you humidity percentage. My hygrometer in my bator is pretty accurate so I use my wetbulb as a secondary tool in my hatcher.
You can buy one or make it. Mine came with my bator and has 2 standard looking mercury thermometers in a stand, one has a "sock" over the end and the other end of the sock goes down into a cup. You put water in the cup and walla wet bulb. You look at your dry and wet readings and then there is a chart that tells you RH.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
This is the way my humidity usually stays as well, tho not by choice. I cannot get mine to go any higher, without taking up lots of extra room for water bowls. But so far out of my 2 hatches, I have only had 1 egg each set that didn't hatch.