Incubators Anonymous

[Arielle]

THanks for sharing your methods K-- This is my bad hatch year. I need to get on the ball and figure out the problems. They get to lockdown and die. ugh. Oddly, they are hatching foe everyone else, so I know it is my cureent method. I"m formulating a plan to check over my current method . . .

 

[Keggen]

personally, since I've got a pretty good system...   for upping humidity quick, I have the floor lined with paper towels, and use a squeeze bottle (like for ketchup/mustard/etc) with HOT water in it. when I open up, to remove chicks or whatever, then I squirt a bunch of water onto the paper towels. also, I use the paper cartons rather than foam or plastic, so I can also fill one of the empty egg slots with water too, and the egg crate soaks up the water increasing humidity right at the eggs.

usually on day 19 i'll candle everyone quickly, to make sure I didn't miss any obvious quitters (not moving the eggs, just looking in the top) and to see who's internally pipped, moving, and such.
on day 21, usually in the afternoon, i'll take out any that have hatched already, water the floor and let the humidity recover. then do a quick run thru of candling again, and any that haven't at least internally pipped I check for bottom pips. if I have one it gets laid on the side on the paper at the front of the 'bator. I leave a 4" or so gap at the front for chicks to move around and to soak with water when needed. touch up the water if needed and let it set again.  if I have any that look like they're starting to dry out too much i'll move them around a central empty slot and fill it. water the floor and i'm out. 

when I open it, it's usually only open for a few seconds at a time to pull chicks. maybe 15 seconds to candle or move eggs around, and even less if i'm just adding water.

the trick is using hot water tho. only as hot as the tap will get, not boiling.  cooler water pulls the temp down while it's warming up. hotter water evaporates faster as well putting humidity up rapidly.

Thanks for the tips! I've been hearing one making noise most of the day but I have no idea which one it is and I don't see any pips yet. I'm going to get hot water ready to spray and try a quick candling. Fingers crossed!

 

[Keggen]

Phew! Done. I figured out which one it is because it does have a pip! But I also candled others and was really surprised by some of the air cells! What is considered normal at day 21? I did a low/dry incubation but didn't candle past day 18 last time so I'm surprised by how big many of the air cells are!

 

[Arielle]

Phew! Done. I figured out which one it is because it does have a pip! But I also candled others and was really surprised by some of the air cells! What is considered normal at day 21? I did a low/dry incubation but didn't candle past day 18 last time so I'm surprised by how big many of the air cells are!

Have you a diagram on the air cell size? I have seen two different diagrams where the size of the air cell on day 21 are not the same in each picture. If one is better than the other , I don't know. I on the other hand have not been getting the air cells as large as they shold be despite the low RH. Has me baffled, so I have opened up the air vents more in hopes of larger air cells by day 18.

 

[ki4got]

Phew! Done. I figured out which one it is because it does have a pip! But I also candled others and was really surprised by some of the air cells! What is considered normal at day 21? I did a low/dry incubation but didn't candle past day 18 last time so I'm surprised by how big many of the air cells are!

that's normal. it's called drawdown. the chick ends up taking up most of the air cell, so the membrane separates further down the shell as he moves around.

if you compared an infertile egg that's lost the same amount of fluid weight, the air cell would look drastically different. but because the chick isn't liquid, he takes up space in the air cell and displaces some of the air down the sides.

 

[ki4got]

Quote: you can't go by size alone... it's going to vary even a little bit depending on overall egg size and shape. there is no 'standard' to it... but if you weigh the eggs, they should lose a set percentage of the total by day 18...

Pete's (pete55) guide is probably the best I've read... https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/577310/a-guide-to-humidity-weighing-and-lockdown
yeah he deals with geese more than others, but the principals are the same for chickens duck geese quail or parrots...

 

[Arielle]

Quote: you can't go by size alone... it's going to vary even a little bit depending on overall egg size and shape. there is no 'standard' to it... but if you weigh the eggs, they should lose a set percentage of the total by day 18...

Pete's (pete55) guide is probably the best I've read... https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/577310/a-guide-to-humidity-weighing-and-lockdown
yeah he deals with geese more than others, but the principals are the same for chickens duck geese quail or parrots...
I enjoy reading Pete's material-- he should have been a professor giving a lecture. Great stuff.

 

[ki4got]

Quote: you can't go by size alone... it's going to vary even a little bit depending on overall egg size and shape. there is no 'standard' to it... but if you weigh the eggs, they should lose a set percentage of the total by day 18...

Pete's (pete55) guide is probably the best I've read... https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/577310/a-guide-to-humidity-weighing-and-lockdown
yeah he deals with geese more than others, but the principals are the same for chickens duck geese quail or parrots...
I enjoy reading Pete's material-- he should have been a professor giving a lecture. Great stuff.
if he was a professor he would have confused everyone with too many details. LOL but agreed, he's a great writer and very knowledgeable when it comes to incubation and hatching issues.

 

[Tammy N]

Im a Hatch addict I am also wondering if i am a Candle addict too because with in 1 day of Placing eggs i want to start candling them

 

[Arielle]

Im a Hatch addict I am also wondering if i am a Candle addict too because with in 1 day of Placing eggs i want to start candling them

Around here that qualifies as NORMAL.