HUMIDITY 5 HRS AFTER FIRST CHICK HATCHED

[KEarthman]

Hi!
Have BCM hatching in a Nurture Right 360. One hatched at 8:30 this morning, and a second hatched at 9. I had to leave for work for almost 3 hours and went I got back the incubator humidity was at 58%. Never had that happen before. Do you think the remaining eggs are ok. A few others are pipped. Would they get shrink-wrapped from that happening? Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Debbie292d]

Oh no, they should be fine. You had it at 70% I'm assuming. When they hatch, they add humidity so it's strange it dropped so low but that's still decent humidity for them. That won't cause shrink wrap to those pipped either.

There are people who dry-hatch or dry-incubate that do lockdown lower than that and they swear by it. I sure won't do that myself though. If it's not broken, I don't fix it.

Wishing you a great hatch!

 

[KEarthman]

We dry incubate with the BCM and have a much better outcome. But we have never had the humidity bottom out that low while hatching. We were concerned about shrink wrap, etc.

 

[Eggs_Over_EZ]

Both my hatches this year we dry hatched. We only added water at lockdown. The humidity was no more then 45%. Once hatching began the humidity went up and was as high as 75% while chicks were hatching. It would go down between active hatching. My hatch rate was 70-85% respectively. That is % of eggs that hatched to the number that were locked down.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Do you think the remaining eggs are ok. A few others are pipped. Would they get shrink-wrapped from that happening?

I would not expect you to have shrink-wrap from that humidity during lockdown, but it is below optimum. My only concern would be if the humidity was really low during the rest of the incubation. If the eggs lost a lot of extra moisture during incubation then they could be more sensitive to shrink-wrap.

Any suggestions?

Why did that humidity drop? Did you somehow leave a lid ajar or provide some way for humidity to escape? I did that once with a different incubator, the power cord was not in its slot so extra air escaped and lowered the humidity. Nearly drove me crazy until I figured it out. That was during incubation, not during hatch.

I don't have that incubator but apparently it has two water reservoirs that are supposed to be filled during hatch. Did one of those run dry?

Did something stop working or a line plug up?