Humidity for BCM eggs

[cracking up]

The lady who sold me my eggs said BCM's need low humidity but I've heard it both ways. I read the learning center about dry hatches and his average is 50% humidity. I'm in San Diego and I have trouble getting it to 45%. Guess my question is how low is low for BCM's.

 

[Katy]

I don't have BCMs, but I've got cuckoos and wheaten Marans that both lay a very dark egg. I don't incubate them any different than I do the rest of my eggs....30-35% for the first 18 days and then up to about 65% for the last three. I incubate them alongside my other breeds.

 

[Chicky Tocks]

I have BCM eggs in the bator now. Strangely enough, I have no water in the bator and it's sitting at a steady 41%. Today it went down to 39% after I opened the bator up and candled the eggs, but within a half an hour, it was right back up to 41%. I'm happy with that humidity and hopefully it will stay that way until I need to up it for day 18. I'm on day 10 now and I've only drawn ? on 5 of the 13 eggs. They were shipped so I'm not gonna complain about that.

 

[cracking up]

Thanks - Maybe I have it a little too high in there. I've done cuckoos with no problem but my shipped eggs get shrink wrappped and I have to wet them with a q tip. Low humidity scares me. Guess I'll lower it a bit.

 

[cracking up]

Thanks Chicky tocks. What do you use to candle your eggs? I can only see in one of my lighter ones. No clue on the others.

 

[2txmedics]

Think they all pretty much incubate the same way, other than maybe others might need a few days more incubation...like quails...I believe...I keep my humidity 35-38%, Im in Hot humid Texas, been running at 40-41% though...whew!!!! its hot out here.

 

[Chicky Tocks]

Quote:
I have a nice little mini-mag luminous led flashlight. Those little aluminum looking ones that you can get at Wally World. It's the smaller than medium size, but not the tiny keychain sized one. I can't really see any veins inside the marans eggs, but I can make out a blob. I saw a blood ring in one of them *le sigh* and in another I could see that the white was wiggling around almost as thin as water...not good. Now in the serama eggs and the frizzle egg which is a creamy white, I could see them flipping me "the bird" and telling me to back off with my big white light!

 

[bigredfeather]

I had a BCM hatch yesterday. I started with 7 eggs and 5 of them hatched. I kept humidity at 55%-58% the first 18 days and then 65% the last three just as I always do. All 5 of the chicks made it out w/ out any problems. The two unhatched eggs never developed. This is the humidity I use with all my other hatches.

 

[Tuffoldhen]

They don't need different humidity levels from any other breed of chickens. It's the humidity levels that work best for your location. I use a 40 to 50% range the first 18 days and then 60 to 70% range the last 3 days.

 

[cracking up]

Thanks so much. They were expensive eggs and I'm a little nervous about them. Guess I need to relax and treat them like my others. I just finished a duck hatch and I got used to being able to see them swim around and had a real good idea how they were doing. Ive done Cuckoo Marans but they were my eggs and they always just hatched, I never worried about them. You guys are great.