Humidity in Bator...EXCELLENT INFO HERE! EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS!

[amazondoc]

I personally would not stress too much about opening the bator, at least until the first egg pips. After you see the first pip, THEN stop turning the later eggs until after the hatch is finished.

I myself often open the hatcher several times during a hatch. HOWEVER, on my hatcher I can remove each plastic window without opening the whole hatcher. Doing this, my humidity never drops more than 2 or 3 percentage points. If you have to take the whole lid off of yours, then try to keep it closed!

 

[spookychick]

You can also throw a wet towel over the hatcher and reach under to sneak your hand inside if you absolutely have to do so. Dropping in a wet paper towel or piece of wet sponge can also help. Incubating and hatching at the same time in a styro bator isn't the best idea though. The cabinet incubators are set up for this, but not everybody wants or needs something that big. Best to get a second styro bator on the cheap if you're wanting to incubate and hatch simultaneously.

 

[dancingbear]

I just set a batch of Delaware eggs very early this a.m., and I'm using the method outlined by Bill Worrel, posted earlier by Wheaties, and using the modification suggested by Wheaties, I.E., candle at 10 days rather than 7.

I had followed the instruction for humidity that came with the 'bator, (cheap LG, w/fan kit added, and auto turner) with very poor results. I actually had better hatches before I got a hygrometer, when I just guessed and added more water the last three days.

Once I got the hygrometer, I thought I'd improve my hatch rate, but it actually dropped. Now I believe it was because the advice given in the LG instructions is wrong, and the chicks were too wet and drowned. Many died at pip.

So in 21 days, I'll report how it went! These ae shipped eggs, too, but they arrived in very good condition, with no cracks or broken eggs in the box. Well packed. I allowed them to rest almost 48 hours before setting in the 'bator.

The temp is steady at 99.5-99.7, humidity at this point is 27%.

 

[ChickBond 007]

I took a good deal of the day today reading the novel that this thread has become and I must say:
Thank you
I have been prepping my new Hovabator awaiting some April eggs, testing temps and humidity... how much water = what humidity percentage, and how much the temp drops when the lid is off for 60 seconds, etc.
A friend on another thread referred to the syringe method of adding water, so I searched and found this thread. I'm so happy I did. It truly has been the best information about a confusing issue of incubation for this newbie.
Now, I cannot stop myself from bidding on eggs.

One last question: I don't have a seperate hatcher. Will this be an issue? My plan was to remove the turner at the end of day 18 and lay the eggs in an egg carton with the bottom cut out of each holder. Good plan?

 

[greathorse]

Perfect, the only reason to have both a hatcher and bator is that you can keep that incubator rolling while your hatcher is hatching. You can crank out some chicks with that system.

The hatcher and incubator system seems to get a lot of folks in trouble LOL

 

[Jamie821]

you wouldnt be talking about people like me Paul now would you. LOL That setup is perfect just set all eggs at same time and do the rest as you described It. Will be waiting for your results. Good luck; Hey Paul the blrws are getting closer. April 1st hatch date. Hows are babies doing.

 

[minna]

I just want to add to this thread that I have been incubating and hatching in my Dickey constantly since I got it. I have it inside, where the temp is regulated and I live in MS where humidity is quite high anyway compared to most. Mr. Dickey told me to open the vents 3/4 of the way, fill up the auto humidity bucket and leave it like that always. So I trusted him. My humidity stays around 40-45% all 21 days, my hatches have been pretty darn good. The eggs that haven't hatched have been due to infertility, shipping, ect. My dh and I open the bator constantly during a hatch. At least 4 times a day, the humidity in the air is quite high, so that may be a different factor, but none of them have gotten stuck. It amazes me that I focused so much on these things with my other incubator and I guess it wasn't as necessary as I thought.

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

I must say a big "THANK YOU" to Jamie821 for the outstanding advice on humidity requirements.

I just completed my best hatch ever a few hours ago and I'm certain that my previous poor hatches were due to low humidity on days 18-21...my peeps were getting shrink-wrapped.

Here's the link to this hatch:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=139846

Thanks a million, Jamie!

 

[Jamie821]

No thanks reguired but thank you and congrats on your hatch. All any of us want is for those fuzzies to make it and if one of us can help then it makes us feel great. This forum and the people here are some of the nicest people I have ever met. Every one will pitch in and try to help anyone that needs it. I want to thank all you hatchers out there for taking the time to help the ones that need the assistance. Yall are great.

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
That's something else to think about. IMHO when people are talking about hatch ratios, they should specify whether they are talking about ratio of eggs that went into the incubator, or ratio of eggs that were developing at the time they went into the hatcher, and so on. For instance, I'm incubating araucana eggs -- and they are notorious for both low fertility AND for genetically-caused embryo death during incubation. So if I told you I got a 10% hatch ratio, folks might think I was doing something terribly wrong -- when, in fact, my conditions might be spot on. Yet another complication to factor in!

Hi, out of 100 eggs, I was just thinking if some breeds did better than others, higher number of hatches

Very good points to consider.

I read somewhere, may have been over in the genetics area of BYC, about common lethal genes in certain breeds. Some of the lethal genes caused death at a certain stage of incubation, some at pip, some shortly after hatch. Araucana was one of the breeds specifically mentioned. So you could do everything right and still have a low successful hatch rate, if you are dealing with lethal genes.

At the same time, there are some breeds that seem to be a lot tougher than others, and survive all kinds of poor conditions. I have some birds like that, my broodies have hatched eggs that have been chilled repeatedly, had broken eggs goo washed off of the multiple times during incubation, been kicked all over by hens fighting over nests, etc., and they still hatched. These are various combos of Brahma, Australorp, Orpington, EE, and Dark Cornish, with a remainder of unknown mix from a mutt roo long ago, mixed in. I know he had some game breed mixed in, I couldn't say which one.