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

[Buster]

My jury is still out on hatched eggs from other elevations. My raised humidity was on my own eggs that were hatched here at 4600 feet. I will know in a couple of days if it works with eggs from Virginia.

 

[Wheaties]

Quote:
Hey Buster, Shipped eggs alone will add difficulties to any hatch. We just never know how the postal service handles them. Please do keep us updated on that as well.
I think I am more interested in your climate than the elevation. I know the two play a role in the enviroment, but it seems to me that whether the climate was dry, moist, ect. would have the most impact on the incubation. Any thoughts anyone?

 

[Jamie821]

Buster let us all know how it comes out maybe we are on to something. Maybe we need to know where eggs came from and our altitude. Chicken woman stay with this post and see how Busters comes out . Maybe it is one of the reasons or contributing factors to shipped eggs hatching so bad.

 

[Buster]

Quote:
Hey Buster, Shipped eggs alone will add difficulties to any hatch. We just never know how the postal service handles them. Please do keep us updated on that as well.
I think I am more interested in your climate than the elevation. I know the two play a role in the enviroment, but it seems to me that whether the climate was dry, moist, ect. would have the most impact on the incubation. Any thoughts anyone?

My climate is very dry. I live on a high desert plain.

I know shipped eggs have their own issues but these seem to be doing well. I have 9 of 12 left and they should start hatching tomorrow.

 

[Bammony]

I responded to ur PM wheaties!

 

[BirdBrain]

I think I must have missed something along the way. Can some one please give a detailed explanation of how you calibrate a hygrometer? Talk really slow....it has been a long day and I don't want to miss anything.

 

[Bammony]

Here is a information on how to check the calibration of your hygrometer. It is helpful in that you then know how much to adjust for in taking your readings.

To calibrate a hygrometer you will need:
• 1/2 cup table salt
• approximately 1/4 cup water
• coffee cup
• hygrometer
• large re-sealable freezer bag
Place 1/2 cup of salt in the coffee cup, and add the water. Stir for a bit to totally saturate the salt. The salt won't dissolve in this amount of water; instead, the salt should have the consistency of wet sand.

Carefully place the salt/water mix in a re-sealable plastic bag, along with the hygrometer. Note: make sure none of the salt/water mix comes in direct contact with the hygrometer, or the hygrometer may be damaged. Completely seal the bag.

Place the sealed bag aside at room temperature for 8-12 hours. Pick a location free of drafts, out of direct sunlight, and away from heating or cooling vents. The temperature should be fairly constant.

After being in the sealed bag for 8-12 hours, check the reading of the hygrometer. It is best to read it while still in the bag, since if your house air is dry the reading may go down quickly once you take the hygrometer out of the bag.
The relative humidity in the sealed bag with the salt/water mix should be 75 percent. My hygrometer read about 72 percent.
If yours is the adjustable type, adjust the screw or setting so that it would have read 75 percent. You will have to do this very quickly, or remember how much you need to adjust the setting (e.g. for mine, it read 72 percent when it should have been 75 percent, so I would need to set it ahead by 3 percentage points). You may want to put the hygrometer back in the bag for another 8 hours to double check your adjustment.
If yours is not adjustable (like mine), simply make a note of how "off" your hygrometer reads. If it reads below 75 percent, you will need to add the difference to your actual readings. If your hygrometer read above 75 percent on the calibration, you will need to subtract the difference from your actual reading. Here are some examples to help:
Case 1: after sitting in the bag for calibration, my hygrometer read 72 percent.

It should have read 75 percent, so the difference is 3 percent. I will now add 3 percent to the readings I take on the hygrometer (e.g. in a tank) to get the actual relative humidity.
Case 2: after calibrating in the bag, a hygrometer read 80 percent. It should have read 75 percent, a difference of 5 percent. I would have to subtract 5 percent from readings when using the hygrometer to get an accurate relative humidity.
Remember: always give a hygrometer about 2 hours to stabilize before

ETA: This is a post made by jimnjay from 2007, not me.

 

[ninjapoodles]

Quote:
This looks exactly like the apparatus we've used when we've had to entubate a puppy to supplement nursing. I'm going to try it--thanks for sharing.

 

[panner123]

The people shipping the eggs do one darn GOOD job of packaging the eggs. Now when you put a fragile sign on it, they do their best to throw it around. The only reason some are not broken is that they are insured. And you can't insure eggs. A postal worker that we had for years, she retired last year. Told me never to put a fragile sign on anything without an insured sticker. If she had eggs to deliver, she would leave them at the office and call the person they were going to. Not only would they get the eggs sooner, they couldn't blame her for the broken eggs. I know it is hard not to want eggs from someone in another part of the country, but you take your changes. It is a lot better to buy chicks. You stand a better chance of getting them alive. Sending eggs though the P O is like putting a ballerina on the denfensive line of a football team. Not much of a chance of coming out alive.

 

[BirdBrain]

Thanks so much for the calibration information. That should be a sticky. I'm going to print this out and file it with my "miscellaneous chicken information."