Incubating in desert like weather. Help!!! UPDATE PG 2

[NightHeronFarm]

Well, I am on day 6/7 of incubating 8 d'Uccle eggs. Even though I live on an Island every so often during winter the weather pattern changes and we get a warm, dry as a bone, wind that comes in from the Arizona and Southern California deserts and our normal humidity of around 60% drops to less than 10%.

Of course this happened after I put eggs in the incubator! For the last two days I have been struggling to keep the humidity up in the bator and try as I might it kept crashing down to 15-25%. I just candled for the first time and the air cell seems very large (over 1/4 or more of the egg) for this stage of the egg.

On the positive side, the eggs have 100% fertility and look like otherwise they are developing nicely.

The incubator is an Octagon 10 and I have both water channels full and I just repositioned the eggs so I could fit a wet wash cloth. This brought the humidity up over 50% but am wondering if this is too little too late. Do you think there is decent chance of any hatching successfully?

Thanks!!!

 

[Chicken Woman]

Hang in there as they make it despite us ! Don't give up on them. I keep my Hum. at about 30 to 35 untill day 18 and then up to 60

 

[swtangel321]

Yes I think they still have a chance !! Try keeping you hum 35%-40% I think over 50% is getting a little to high, JMO.

You can try adding a wet sponge or sock (new) to get the hum up !!

Good luck !!

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Get the humidity up by using a soaked sponge.

 

[onthespot]

maybe you can run a humidifier in the area right next to/under the incubator?

 

[NightHeronFarm]

Thanks everyone for the feedback! I am learning a lot about my new incubator and I think I am getting into the groove on how to better manage the temp and humidity. Although I got a small incubator (max 12 bantam eggs) to limit my addiction, I discovered that the downside is there is less room to put the other handy things, ie sponges, extra thermometers, hygrometers etc...

I finally have the humidity stabilized but I think I may have lost the hatch, when candling I see what I think might be blood rings. I did crack one particularly dead looking one open (ie less veins, and blood ring) and found that it didn't seem to develop past about day 4. Shall I give the remaining eggs a few more days to be super sure or post some pics?

 

[swtangel321]

Yes, dont give up on them now !! Your hum wasnt that high !!

re-candle on day 12 and see if you see anything !! But dont toss any till then !!

 

[NightHeronFarm]

I cheated this evening and candled again because I was worried... I saw movement so fingers crossed!!! Now I won't touch them again for several more days. Promise.

Stay tuned...

 

[swtangel321]

Quote:
You promise ??

LOL !!!!

I'm glad you saw movement, IMO eggs are more hardy than we think they are !! Little things wont hurt them like we think they will !!!!

Well, heres to a GREAT hatch

 

[NightHeronFarm]

Houston, we have pip!!!

Well, it looks like all was not lost. Despite the loss of humidity by the Santa Ana winds they kept developing and I have my first pip!