Humidity

[Sandy]

Can anyone tell me what the humidity in my Sigma incubator should be.There is automatic humidifier attached and instructions tell me to run at 40 - 45 and increase to 60 - 65 for hatching. I have just hatched 5 Ducks ok but 7 had died in the shell though 3 of these had pipped the shell but failled to hatch

 

[JamesC]

Sandy:
I'm not familiar with the Sigma make but have been using Hovabators, Marsh Roll-X's and GQF's for years. The humidity for the first 18 days for chicken eggs should be 50-55%. I have found over the years that closer to 50% gives me the best chicks. 60-65% for the last 3 days is correct. The problem most people have is that they can't resist opening the incubator during the last few days. In particular they think it's OK to remove chicks as they hatch - that is a big mistake. Eggs that pip and fail to completely hatch are suffering from the affects of low humidity which makes the chicks' down stick to the shell membranes. I don't know if you opened the incubator before the hatch was over but if you did that might have been the problem.
For waterfowl I recommend dipping the eggs in 100-105F water for up to 30 seconds once a day for the last 2 weeks, that's days 15-25. Or another method is to spray a fine mist of warm water on the waterfowl eggs once a day for the last 2 weeks, days 15-25. If you're hatch muscovy eggs, add 7 days to those numbers. I also recommend getting the humidity higher for the hatch, 70-75% will work better for waterfowl.

James