Humidity in the bator......

[Old McDonald 27]

Well my royal palm hen started laying again and i FINALLY found her nest. I took 6 eggs and went ahead and started them in the bator since I don't know how old they are. It is a really old metal incubator and this is my first time trying to hatch turkeys ( I let her hatch them last time) I put a digital thermometer/ humidity thing in there. The temp has been perfect. The high/low has been between 100*and 102*. But I can't get the humidity up. It is staying around 30%. The water cup is full. What else can I do??? If I don't get the humidity up are my eggs gonna die?

on a side note. When I took her eggs yesterday I put 3 chicken eggs in there so that hopefully she would keep laying in the same spot..... today when I checked it there was only one chicken egg and a turkey egg. Do you think a snake ate them or could she have rolled them out??? The nest is in some underbrush. I brought the turkey egg inside and put it in an egg carton to save for the next batch to go in the bator, but..... I really don't want to be sticking my hand into the brush where I can't see if there is a snake in there!!!!

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

You can take a spray bottle and try misting to get the humidity up, some people put sponges or damp towels also. ours runs about 40% during incubation.

If the turkey stepped on the chicken eggs she could have broken them. The hens will carry the broken eggs away from the nest so not to call in predators. If you have any ducks those eggs will work much better.

Steve in NC

 

[Struttn1]

If you have the old round metal incubator those things are very difficult to get the humidity right or at least the one I used to have was. Fold a wet bath towl and place it in the bator and you will get a big boost in humidity. You really need to get hold of a candler or make one by putting a bright light in a small cardboard box and seal it with a quarter sized hole cut in one side. You can -place the small end of the egg against the hole and candle them that way but the small hand held candlers work a lot better. I bought one cheap off ebay. You need to get an idea of how far along the embryo development is and also to monitor the air space in the egg.

 

[Old McDonald 27]

how early can I candle? They have only been in there for a couple of days.

 

[chunky_ficken]

I used a wash cloth along with the water tray to hatch our Eastern Wilds. It brought the humidity fro 45% up to 70+.......we were successful in hatching 18/30 in the incubator. One of our hens hatched 7/13.....she did a great job on her first brood, and just started laying again yesterday. Here's a pic of her and her young'uns (a face only a mother could love). Have a great weekend everyone!

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[Old McDonald 27]

I put a wet dish towel in there and that has brought the humidity up to about 45-50% so that is alot better. They have only been in for about 4 days, is that too early to candle??? She sat on them off and on for 2 days before I got them.... That is how I finally found the nest. I could see about 1 square inch of her white feathers. I had been looking for the nest for a week!!

 

[Zahboo]

I think you have to wait about a week to candle...