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

[Huny]

So now I need to know all the mid-elevation Arizona/Southwest folks what they do. I'm at 3800 ft elevation, We get the monsoons in the summer, but we usually have no more than 20% humidity. In my house we are not using heaters, A/C or evapaorative coolers (YET! It was getting hot today, 84). Our current humidity according to Weather Underground is 8%. I am trying to hatch tomorrow, or saturday, or sunday (whatever day these guys decide) I have been running at 35%, I am now around 55% Should I go down, up, or stay the same? (General consensus wins).

 

[OCchickens]

Quote:
Reading is a way of learning. Confusion is a state of mind. If your want to have a better hatch rate and chicks that are not drowning at birth, you can follow this dry method. Useing this method, for the first days 1-18 keep the humidity below 45% and for the last 3 days raise the humidity to 60%. Provided your eggs are fertile useing this method you will have many more 100% hatches than you will have 80% or below hatches. There are afew of us that have learned over the years that this method works. Myself, I have only been hatching eggs since 1950 on my own, I helped my grandgather before that. During the 1960's, I hatched 5000 chicks per week or more. Many of those hatches were 100%'ers. Had I used a higher humidity method my hatch rate would have been much lower. How do I know this, well I tried both methods side by side. At best the higher humidity reached 80%, the dry method was NEVER below 80%. You do the math. If your your busisness is raising chickens, which method would you use.

If you're using the dry incubation method, is it important to keep the RH in the room at 50%, or can you just aim for these numbers above inside the bator? Or you keep your room RH higher so you can keep both the plugs out and increase oxygen... Interesting.

I wonder about trying a little supplemental oxygen once they start pipping... Has anyone done that?

 

[OCchickens]

I know that it is gospel not to open the bator in the last 3 days, that it causes chicks to die in the shell. Since this thread seems to have a lot of folks on it who seem to really understand what's going on, I wonder if anyone has an idea of the mechanism by which opening the bator for just a few seconds (for example, like in my last hatch, to rescue a little chick that was getting totally trounced by the others) can cause chick death in shell. The humidity seems to recover almost immediately, or within a few minutes at most. This has been a real puzzle to me. If oxygen depletion is a major factor, opening the bator should help.

In that instance, I just had one dead in the shell, never pipped. 4 or more chicks, including some already pipped when I opened the bator, hatched out fine afterward.

I would like to prevent even one dead in the shell.

 

[Huny]

Quote:
Oh sheeze I am opening it twice a day still....Of course I am not turning the ones ready to hatch but I was told I could do a second batch started a week later....so I need to keep turning those guys ( i don't have an auto turner. Am I going to kill all these guys?

 

[Jamie821]

If the eggs are only a week behind I would stop turning them. Wont hurt the last few days to not be turned. Turning is important the first part of incubation. Huny would up the humidity some at least 60,

 

[Jamie821]

I will try to explain why you dont open bator. I am not saying I have not but I have a special way I do it and only in a emergency. The first 18 days the egg needs to evaporate some of the fluid in it for the air sac. The last three days you up the humidity to stop evaporation and have the moisture in the air to keep the membrane soft and pliable so the chick doesnt get shrink wrapped inside. I personally do not think opening bator for a second or two if there are not pips will hurt but if any have pipped when you open the bator no matter how brief not only do you lose humidity but a rush of dry air rushes into the bator and the membrane will lose the moisture the chick needs to be wet enough to turn in the egg. If you have had the correct evaporation in the first 18 days there is not a over abundent of moisture in that egg and the chick will need it any drying can prevent the chick from being able to zip. They must be able to totally turn in the egg. Sometimes you are lucky and you dont pay the price but eventually it will bite you. A lot of fully developed chicks have died due to this. Some of them where at my house when I first started incubating. I didnt know not to open the bator the last three days and was taking dry chicks out so they couldnt bother other eggs and was losing all the later hatchers. Couldnt figure out why . Now it is not a issue because I leave it closed and have made a way for a emergency but it really has to be a big one for me to open it.

 

[Huny]

Ok so I have some eggs on day 12 and some on day 20. I don't have the money to get a seperate hatcher and at this point it is too close to figure out temps and getting it stable. I wouldn't of added the second batch of eggs but I read enough placed that as long as they were far apart it was ok (humidity wise). So do I need to stop turning the Day 12s for the others to hatch? I guess it would be ok if the eggs hatch tommorrow or the next day like they are supposed to, but I am afraid these might be late bloomers (I had the temp at 99 in my still air the first week, then got it up to 100-101 after reading about still airs).

I should just hope for the best and not stress but it really is hard.

 

[Jamie821]

Trying not to stress is not a option I have been hatching 25 years and I still stress to a point. I do know that if you keep opening bator you will proballyl lose the hatching eggs. As soon as the hatch is over then turn the eggs again until day 18. without another hatcher you dont really have alot of options. I do know that the critical time for turning is the first 10 days. Yes it is better to turn them to day 18 but as you said you dont have another incubator as a option. I feel more harm will come from opening the bator and turning the eggs them not turning the eggs. I hope all goes well and sending hatching vibes your way.

 

[OCchickens]

Quote:
What about putting the later eggs in an egg carton. I've heard of people incubating that way & do they not turn them at all? Seems like the egg carton would help protect the later eggs from getting bashed around by the hatching chicks, too.

Of course at this point it would involve opening the bator, so best to wait.

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Quote:
When people do that, they prop up one end of the egg carton and alternate which end is propped, thereby turning the eggs as a group.