Incubating peafowl - what did I do wrong?

[Lisa-Kama]

I lost 4 peafowl eggs just before they should have pipped this week. Two stopped developing a few days before. But the other two were moving right up to the 27th day. I had read that the humidity should be higher for peafowl. I think it was 40-60%. Too high? Did I open the incubator and candle them too much? I've had great luck with chickens, ducks, turkeys, and quail. I was so sad to lose my peachcicks. Any ideas?

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

I lost 4 peafowl eggs just before they should have pipped this week. Two stopped developing a few days before. But the other two were moving right up to the 27th day. I had read that the humidity should be higher for peafowl. I think it was 40-60%. Too high? Did I open the incubator and candle them too much? I've had great luck with chickens, ducks, turkeys, and quail. I was so sad to lose my peachcicks. Any ideas?

Opening the incubation a lot could be a reason sometimes specially in the last few days, but i think the main reason here is your humidity, 40% is too low for peafowl, 60% is good but for the last 3 days it should 70% or a little higher.
I set my humidity between 67%-73% during all the incubation period and everything is going fine.

 

[casportpony]

FWIW, I had my humidity set to 47% last season and four that I lost were lost because that was too high, but four hatched just fine. When I opened the eggs, liquid, not yolk, came pouring out and I've been told that it was because my humidity was too high. Have pictures if you're interested.

-Kathy

Disclaimer: I am a total novice when it come to incubating eggs!

Edited to add: Please consult with the more experienced pea hatchers here, ignore me, lol, but check back in about a month 'cause I'm going to try this next bunch with the humidity lower. Bator used is an RCOM 20 Max. Forced air, auto turner digital temp and humidity, I think.

 

[DylansMom]

I've been reading thru a lot of threads on incubation and hatching and while most are about chicken eggs I would think a lot of the same things would apply. Humidity seems to be very much affected by the humidity of the local climate. So one person may do well with the humidity around 25-30% and another does just as well with it at 50-60%. For myself I had it at 50-60% last year and they did very well with no excess fluid inside. It seems a lot has to do with finding what works for you individually, and that unfortunately means trial & error, which is not much fun.

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

I agree, anyone should try and look what works best for him. Local climate is something hard to understand, once my room temperature goes higher than 86 and all my eggs mess up, and after talking with another breeder he told his temperature is always higher than 86 and everything is going well with his eggs!

When i bought my new incubator the brinsea Ova-Easy 190 Advance (which i believe its one of the best), i told the seller man i want it for peafowl eggs, so he adjust the humidity at 70% i told that many peafowl breeders told me they set their humidity between 55 and 60%, so i'm not sure if its right to set humidity at 70% since the first day, but he said: don't worry i'm hatching peafowls and turkey eggs since 18 years and i'm sure this the right humidity. So i trust him and he was right, first hatch was muscovy eggs, out of 15 eggs 14 chicks hatched, only one egg didn't hatch because it wasn't fertile. Second hatch was turkey eggs, out of 9 eggs 8 hatched and just one chick didn't made it.
Now i'm using it for peafowl eggs and everything is going well until now.

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

FWIW, I had my humidity set to 47% last season and four that I lost were lost because that was too high, but four hatched just fine. When I opened the eggs, liquid, not yolk, came pouring out and I've been told that it was because my humidity was too high. Have pictures if you're interested.

-Kathy

Disclaimer: I am a total novice when it come to incubating eggs!

Edited to add: Please consult with the more experienced pea hatchers here, ignore me, lol, but check back in about a month 'cause I'm going to try this next bunch with the humidity lower. Bator used is an RCOM 20 Max. Forced air, auto turner digital temp and humidity, I think.

Thats weird, 47% sounds low for me, sometimes you will just have good luck when hatching in lower humidity, i remember when i tried to hatch muscovy duck eggs for the first time i set my humidity at 47% and 7 hatched out of ten. After this hatch i tried again and again to hatch muscovy eggs but they never hatched again in this humidity. After that i read the humidity should be 60% or higher and they start to hatch again. Maybe it was just my good luck at the first time. I don't have much experience with incubators but yours seems good, by the way once i read that incubator with fans are better, i'm not sure if this right but my incubator has four small fans and its doing great.

 

[casportpony]

I've been experimenting with mine using duck eggs, so we'll see how the next batch goes. Dry, dry, dry here lately, 15% humidity, I think, makes my skin hurt it's so dry, lol.

-Kathy

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

LOL good luck with your eggs, sorry i'm a little confused do you mean you will set your humidity at 15%?! i can't imagine duck eggs hatching in this humidity

 

[casportpony]

LOL good luck with your eggs, sorry i'm a little confused do you mean you will set your humidity at 15%?! i can't imagine duck eggs hatching in this humidity 

Humidity *outside* is 15% and FWIW, I found a duck egg outside that looked viable, so I tossed it I the bator, but had no idea how far along it was. Humidity inside the bator was between 10% and 20%, depending on what hygrometer you believe. That duck egg was in there for a few days like that, and it hatched all on it's own, so go figure, lol. Not saying anyone should try this, but I will say that everyone should eggtopsy their eggs and try to figure out how to tweak their settings for better hatch rates.

-Kathy

 

[frenchblackcopper]

q8peafowl, the only way you will know is to weigh the eggs before you start incubating them.,I too had a Brinsea 190 but had to sell because it wasn't large enough but in the owners manual it reads eggs should lose between 11-13% of their weight by the 24?th day. 70% in your arid climate maybe okay but others it may be a bit much for all 26-28 days