Incubator questions

[Flyinbolts]

1) There are about 30 different answers on the internet. Trusted sources that don't corroborate. etc...
- I've been staying around 50% humidity and 99*F for primary, 70% and 98*F for lockdown. Is this roughly correct? I have analog thermostat so I can't keep it exact without redoing that. Humidity I can really only go from 48-52% to 70% ish - the tray used doesn't really allow for an inbetween

2) When should eggs start moving on their own as a general rule of thumb?

 

[casportpony]

Does your incubator have a fan?

 

[Flyinbolts]

Does your incubator have a fan?

Yup. And it works pretty well to keep it consistent inside.

 

[casportpony]

Do you have secondary, calibrated sensors?

 

[Flyinbolts]

Do you have secondary, calibrated sensors?

I've verified that two match between a mercury thermometer & hydrometer

 

[4littleducklings]

My temperature stayed between 99.3-99.6 throughout the whole incubation process! Also I noticed they started to move about 1-2 before hatching. Also the day before hatching you should be able to hear their little chirps inside their eggs! So so fun!!

 

[casportpony]

hydrometer

Did you calibrate it?

 

[Flyinbolts]

Did you calibrate it?

If you're going to poke at equipment that's fine. I understand I don't have the best incubator on the planet. #1) good stuff wasn't available #2) I followed the setup instructions #3) I verified the equipment that I got with equipment I had. I'm not even saying they aren't both off the same amount but it seems unlikely.
Looked it up - *hygrometer not hydrometer. It's been a minute since I cared what it was called aside from measuring humidity.

Either way this has nothing to do with my question of what is the ideal range for both incubation & hatching. The swings in temp/humidity are due to the thermostat & the inability to really adjust the humidity. I'd love to get my hands on a fogger for the incubator to keep them at exactly X humidty.
Truth is I'm getting silkies soon so I'm just going to give the eggs to them soon enough. Just want this one batch to come through as close to 100% as possible.

 

[casportpony]

I am trying to help you get the best possible hatch rate, which is why I am asking so many questions. It's been my experience that the #1 cause of hatch failures is too high a humidity, so I highly recommend that you have a properly calibrated hygrometer.

If you have calibrated sensors, I would recommend a humidity no higher than 45% and a temp of 99.5 f with a forced air incubator.

 

[casportpony]