Humidity

[peptowishboon]

In NB, Canada.

I’ve been running day 1-18 at 35-45% humidity and 60%-65% at lockdown.
But I’m having trouble with anything surviving.

Fist hatch I had 12 out of 18 hatch.
Second hatch I had 9 out of 21 alive going into lock down and only 1 hatch. Last time I had 3 out of 17 go into lockdown and none hatch.

Temp stays pretty well stable at 99.5 - 100.5 throughout.

I have switched to distilled water instead of well water for this upcoming hatch. But any recommendations on humidity as I think that may be a playing factor?

 

[FunClucks]

Your humidity sounds just fine. Have you checked the calibration of your gages (both humidity and temperature gages)? If those are not calibrated correctly, that could be the issue.

The other thing that occurs to me is bacterial contamination. If you were using well water, that could have introduced bacteria that has continued to grow in your incubator with successive hatches. I would seriously sterilize your incubator. Are there components of it you can't sterilize? or sterilize easily? Your statistics are going in the wrong direction, so I would clean the heck out of it, sterilize it well (chlorox, rubbing alcohol, UVB / UVC wand if you have one), and then see how it goes. Might consider tossing your incubator if you can't clean it well enough.

Definitely use distilled water next time.

If you are still questioning your humidity settings, weigh your eggs before setting them, and then weigh them a couple times before Day 19. They should lose 11-13% of their initial weight by Day 19. If they aren't meeting the weight loss target, decrease the humidity. If they are losing too much moisture, increase humidity. Example below.

Initial Weight of your egg on the day you put it in the incubator is 60 grams. Target is 12% weight loss by Day 19. Day 19 target weight would therefore be 52.8 grams. 7.2 grams total weight loss divided by 19 days = 0.379 g per day, so on Day ten you should see a weight loss of 0.379*10 = 3.79 grams weight loss. Egg weight target for day ten would be 56.21 grams. If your egg weighs significantly less than 56.21 grams, increase your humidity. If your egg weighs significantly more than 56.21 grams, decrease your humidity setting. How much to increase / decrease? Trial and error. Change humidity by a few percent, and check again in a few days.

Good luck!!!