Incubation worries

[Christebby]

Hi. I'm very disappointed with my hatch. Got 1 keet out of 14 eggs. Today is day 33. So I decided to break the eggs. 8 have dead keets, the others are rotten. Maintained a T of 37.2 C and humidity around 55% during intubation. What went wrong?

 

[Rose Quartz]

Hi. I'm very disappointed with my hatch. Got 1 keet out of 14 eggs. Today is day 33. So I decided to break the eggs. 8 have dead keets, the others are rotten. Maintained a T of 37.2 C and humidity around 55% during intubation. What went wrong?

I'm wondering where abouts you live. I'm on the coast (High ambient humidity) and just put my chicken eggs into lock down. Day 1 - 18 I ran with 10% humidity, and my aircells are barely big enough. I can't seem to find a chart for guinea egg air cell sizes for incubation though.

 

[R2elk]

Hi. I'm very disappointed with my hatch. Got 1 keet out of 14 eggs. Today is day 33. So I decided to break the eggs. 8 have dead keets, the others are rotten. Maintained a T of 37.2 C and humidity around 55% during incubation. What went wrong?

I incubate with the humidity between 30% to 35%. Too high of humidity during incubation can prevent the air cells from increasing in size like they need to. I raise the humidity to 60% to 70% at lockdown.

 

[R2elk]

I'm wondering where abouts you live. I'm on the coast (High ambient humidity) and just put my chicken eggs into lock down. Day 1 - 18 I ran with 10% humidity, and my aircells are barely big enough. I can't seem to find a chart for guinea egg air cell sizes for incubation though.

Have you checked the humidity with a separate, calibrated hygrometer? It sounds to me like you are seeing a false humidity reading. If you live in an area where the ambient humidity is 60% in the room the incubator is in, it is impossible for the incubator humidity to get down to 10% humidity unless you are using a dehumidifier in the room.

 

[Rose Quartz]

Have you checked the humidity with a separate, calibrated hygrometer? It sounds to me like you are seeing a false humidity reading. If you live in an area where the ambient humidity is 60% in the room the incubator is in, it is impossible for the incubator humidity to get down to 10% humidity unless you are using a dehumidifier in the room.

Ambient outside is usually around 90. The hygrometer has been calibrated. It's currently winter and super dry in my house this time of year it's around 30% in the house. I dont add water at all until lockdown.

 

[R2elk]

Ambient outside is usually around 90. The hygrometer has been calibrated. It's currently winter and super dry in my house this time of year it's around 30% in the house. I don't add water at all until lockdown.

Only the ambient humidity in the room where the incubator is located matters.

If it is only 30% humidity in the house, your humidity may be accurate or it may not be accurate. Make sure that you know what the lower limit is for your humidity gauge since many of them have a lower limit of 20% humidity. Once they reach their lower limit, they cannot accurately measure a humidity that is lower.

My wintertime humidity in the house is lower than 10% humidity and I do have to add water to get the humidity up to 30%.

 

[Rose Quartz]

Only the ambient humidity in the room where the incubator is located matters.

If it is only 30% humidity in the house, your humidity may be accurate or it may not be accurate. Make sure that you know what the lower limit is for your humidity gauge since many of them have a lower limit of 20% humidity. Once they reach their lower limit, they cannot accurately measure a humidity that is lower.

My wintertime humidity in the house is lower than 10% humidity and I do have to add water to get the humidity up to 30%.

huh, didn't know that about hygrometers. Either way, I run my incu without added water, and I track the aircell sizes through out incubation to make sure it's working the way it needs to be.