INCUBATING w/FRIENDS! w/Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs No problem!

[venymae]

On as a totally uniformed person reading a ton to get ready for my first attempt with the New Years hatch any advice?
Second, I gather it is bad, but I haven't found anywhere here why you can't help a pipped chick that seems to not finish hatching. So is it attachment related?

Well, you can, but you have to make ABSOLUTLY sure it actually needs it. Most people help too soon, and you can kill the chick. Also the ones that you do help are often weak and sometimes die anyway. There is an assisted hatching guide you should look at on this site by Sally sunshine. It explains things very well.

 

[Saris]

I am going to be picking up the Incubator from someone I work with so I can tell you about it soon.
I have read the importance of calibration, but II didn't know about having two. The more I have read the more I am unsure of, and the more complicated what I thought would be a fun project has become.

It does feel that way but if you do all the calibration and set up before you get eggs it's much less stressful and is still super fun.

Get yourself 2 thermometers and calibrate them. If you want to do the ice bath method and the thermometers can't get wet you can put them in a zip lock bag and then swirl them in ice water for a minute or so they shold hit 32°F. Make yourself a checklist and a shopping list to help you.
A reptile Hygrometer should work fine for the bator.
Run the bator with no water in it for a few hours to get an idea of your base humidity and then at water to reach a target of about 35%.
Let it run for a day or two with no eggs in it to see how steady it hold temp and humidity.

 

[canadachickens]

Hello all just set my first duck eggs on Friday and have read different things about humidity on just about every website. I need some expert advice. So here I am  The paper they threw in with the eggs from the hatchery said to keep the humidity up to 86% and 94% at hatch! That seems super high to me.(My guess is this is for the commercial hatcheries?). I have looked and looked through the threads but it is hard for me to know just what a duck needs. (this is my first duck hatch and I'm a wreak already) haha. I will second guess my every move, that's just my nature. So from what I gather so far is 45-50% is ideal until hatch and hatch is 70ish? ?? Whats the expert advice here?

I have had good success at 40-50 until lockdown, and then 70 for the lockdown and hatch, but I have not done duck eggs regularly. Perhaps Ravyn or MC can chime in on this, they are currently hatching ducks.

 

[venymae]

I am going to be picking up the Incubator from someone I work with so I can tell you about it soon.
I have read the importance of calibration, but II didn't know about having two. The more I have read the more I am unsure of, and the more complicated what I thought would be a fun project has become.

You will be fine! If you want you can also join the new years day hatch a long, so that you can compare your eggs to others on the same timeframe. Chicken eggs get sat the 11th for that one. Lots of good advice on these threads! To start I would sterilize your incubator with diluted bleach water or something similar, get yourself a thermometer and hydrometer. Get help calibrating them. Turn your 'bator on and give it a couple days test run to see where your temperature and humidity are. Ask lots of questions along the way!

 

[Phage]

Pics as promised. Please excuse the nose prints on the bator windows.

Congratulations, CC!!! What's wrong with nose prints on the bator window? Don't all bators have nose prints on them when chicks start hatching??? 

I thought all bators came with nose prints so that you know where to place yours - just like the carpet just in front of your bator comes with imprints to indicate where to put your "hatching stool"

 

[chicknlove]

I thought all bators came with nose prints so that you know where to place yours - just like the carpet just in front of your bator comes with imprints to indicate where to put your "hatching stool"

it needs to come with a tray you put all your tools on, like in the ER

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

I don't know how that happens! I clean my bator very well after each use, but just can't get rid of the nose prints!

Must be the special nose oil that get impregnated into the plastic. Just a hunch...

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

I thought all bators came with nose prints so that you know where to place yours - just like the carpet just in front of your bator comes with imprints to indicate where to put your "hatching stool"

Holy cow, I have to get one of those. I get annoyed at the noise of my stool scraping across the linoleum... and it never seems to go back to the right spot. The constant adjustment is taking away from my viewing time!!!

 

[daxigait]

@Sally Sunshineit is a brower. What do I need to get to measure humidity? It comes with a stick thermometer. Do you just put a second one in to check?

 

[daxigait]

You will be fine! If you want you can also join the new years day hatch a long, so that you can compare your eggs to others on the same timeframe. Chicken eggs get sat the 11th for that one. Lots of good advice on these threads! To start I would sterilize your incubator with diluted bleach water or something similar, get yourself a thermometer and hydrometer. Get help calibrating them. Turn your 'bator on and give it a couple days test run to see where your temperature and humidity are. Ask lots of questions along the way!

I joined. That is what I have been trying to learn and get ready for.