I wonder about the necessity of over-paranoism concerning temp & humid

[silkieflock]

Ok. I went and bought some eggs from my uncle 20 days ago and put them in my homemade incubator. This is after my nephew "played pool" with the eggs while gathering them. The temperature outside was below freezing when we went to get the eggs and my nephew picked one up off the frozen ground and placed it in the bucket. I am at this point, questioning the health of these eggs I am getting! He opens the door to the henhouse and much to my dismay, the hens are laying their eggs on the floor, BELOW THE ROOST!! Now my confidence plummits, expecting at this point if I am extremely lucky, no more than 1/18 hatch rate.
Some of these eggs look halfway decent so I don't turn these eggs down. Then, much to my utter horror, he begins "shooting" the eggs into the corner, so I now own some really shaken eggs with probably some cracks but neglect to check there condition.

Now I arrive home and place the eggs into the un-tested incubator for my first time. The temp at that piont is managed by extra vent holes drilled into the side of the unit. You can probably imagine what the humidity is doing all the while the eggs are in there! OOps 108 degree temp spike, lets adjust this.....now it is 81 degrees...thinking at this point of seeing how far I can throw the eggs, but my dear wife convinces me to keep them in there as I have no other eggs anyway and maybe one will hatch.


I get a water heater thermostat and get everything stabled. At this piont, we are around day 16. everything staying normal.

THEN I DROP THE WHOLE CARTON WHEN I AM TURNING THEM AND CRACK A FEW!!

day 18, I happen to look at the eggs for the 1000th time and SEE A PIP!! and it hatches. HUH, another...another... 8 pips, and I have had 7 hatch and live! one of them had a big ol' dent in the egg. now I am impressed. 50% hatch rate is not so bad for this batch.

so now, hatchers, tell me, where does being finnicky with temp and humidity pay off?

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Most of the trouble comes from shipped eggs for some reason. When hatching local or your own they seem to pop open like little ninjas!

 

[Bravo]

Quote:
LOL I just had to comment that I LOVE the visual!!

 

[cluckcluck42]

I am trying to not be too paranoid with the temp. My hovabator is great thoug, staying at 99.8 really good! Humidity, first it was too high, now its around 34, I am just leaving it until hatch day and then I will get it up. I was set on an electric hygrometer, but only found a regular old fashioned one, and its been fine.

By the way, glad to hear your catch turned out okay. Maybe next time get the eggs elsewhere, geez. Playing POOL with the eggs. Oh my!

 

[silkiechicken]

50% isn't that bad of a hatch for home made bator 1st time around. Now you know how your bator works, get another bunch of eggs and I bet you'll get them nearly all to hatch! no kidding.

I personally don't worry about humidity and once my temp is set to 99.5 with a fan, rarely even check it. I don't even measure humidity and just turn them 3x a day. A bit of care and checking can go a long way to an excellent hatch, but over do it and you can actually make your hatch worse.

The first time I hatched chicks was with a heat lamp on a dimmer switch over a cardboard box when I was 12ish... half the chicks made it despite terrible swings and no knowledge of humidity.

Where people tend to worry the most are ones who have spent $3+ an egg, had them shipped though unknown mechanical shifting and weather, or are hatching breeds known to be hard to hatch.

 

[cluckcluck42]

Quote:
LOL I just had to comment that I LOVE the visual!!

I second this, I had a perfect vision of little chicks popping out, throwing some mean karate kicks. HI YA!!

 

[silkieflock]

Quote:
I already have the next batch going in the 2nd incubator I just finished! It was a sharp looking wine cooler I modified. I have 126 eggs going and they go into lockdown in a week and a half. I cant wait but time is just a cruisin' by! I have an assortment of RIR, RIR/buff, RIR/EE, and silkies. should be an interesting hatch.

 

[little_grey_bantam]

Quote:
IT'S ALWAYS the eggs that are $3+ each LOL that never hatch!!!
We had spent $100 on a dozen and a few extra eggs only to have none hatch :-/
We realized that the person wrapping them in foam must have killed them somehow, because the other two dozen we had purchased hatched (not by much lol but enough to keep hope up!)

 

[hiddenmagnolia]

Never check humidity. I dry hatch. My incubator is a sportsman so once I set it I don't worry. I also have a homemade that I use in case of over flow.

 

[Bravo]

Quote:
LOL I just had to comment that I LOVE the visual!!

I second this, I had a perfect vision of little chicks popping out, throwing some mean karate kicks. HI YA!!

LOL!!

OP-I can't believe your uncle charged you for eggs! So much for the "family" discount LOL!