Incubators Anonymous

[ki4got]

Just had my first hatch of shipped eggs this weekend. All silkies shipped from TN to CA when it was very cold. Eight went into lockdown, four hatched, but five pipped. The fifth one was merrily zipping away and stopped very suddenly. I thought since it pipped and then zipped right away that it must be resting. But with no change by morning I checked it. It looks like it just dropped dead in its poor little tracks. Anyone ever see this before? Any ideas what would cause this? All it's yolk was absorbed and it looked perfect. Poor little cuckoo colored silkie! :-( The three that quit after lockdown - one had a giant saddle air cell, one had a cracked shell patched with beeswax, and one just quit I couldn't really see anything as to maybe why.

I incubated at about 32-38% humidity then upped it to 55-60% for lockdown and I live in a high desert and heat with wood. This was my first time moving the eggs from the bator to a hatcher. I was so nervous that it would be different enough somehow and ruin them.

Boy I feel almost depressed now that the hatch is over...Luckily I'm prepared and get to go lock down 11 more right now for Friday hatch! Yippeeee!

a lot of times, if the humidity is too high during incubation, the chick has to absorb the extra fluid that didn't evaporate. this effectively raises the chick's blood pressure. plus learning to breathe, that puts a strain on the circulatory and respiratory systems that has the potential to cause heart failure during hatching.

high humidity during incubation is the reason for a lot of late quitters, because of the reasons I just posted above...

 

[roostereggs]

Just had my first hatch of shipped eggs this weekend. All silkies shipped from TN to CA when it was very cold. Eight went into lockdown, four hatched, but five pipped. The fifth one was merrily zipping away and stopped very suddenly. I thought since it pipped and then zipped right away that it must be resting. But with no change by morning I checked it. It looks like it just dropped dead in its poor little tracks. Anyone ever see this before? Any ideas what would cause this? All it's yolk was absorbed and it looked perfect. Poor little cuckoo colored silkie! :-( The three that quit after lockdown - one had a giant saddle air cell, one had a cracked shell patched with beeswax, and one just quit I couldn't really see anything as to maybe why.

I incubated at about 32-38% humidity then upped it to 55-60% for lockdown and I live in a high desert and heat with wood. This was my first time moving the eggs from the bator to a hatcher. I was so nervous that it would be different enough somehow and ruin them.

Boy I feel almost depressed now that the hatch is over...Luckily I'm prepared and get to go lock down 11 more right now for Friday hatch! Yippeeee!

I had several that were zipping and stopped just like you describe. We waited and waited...and nothing.

I read so much about the importance of keeping the humidity up that I actually had it too high. I suspect what happened is that when five were hatching at once, it increased the humidity...which briefly read as high as 88-92% around that time frame (until we opened it to remove the chicks). If you think back to chemistry class...any lone O2 molecules are taken up into H2O molecules, decreasing the oxygen, causing suffocation. I am also in the desert, so it is really difficult to keep the humidity up...but now I know to open the bator just barely to let some out when it spikes.

 

[ozexpat]

I had several that were zipping and stopped just like you describe. We waited and waited...and nothing.

I read so much about the importance of keeping the humidity up that I actually had it too high. I suspect what happened is that when five were hatching at once, it increased the humidity...which briefly read as high as 88-92% around that time frame (until we opened it to remove the chicks). If you think back to chemistry class...any lone O2 molecules are taken up into H2O molecules, decreasing the oxygen, causing suffocation. I am also in the desert, so it is really difficult to keep the humidity up...but now I know to open the bator just barely to let some out when it spikes.

i am not convinced you can drown a chick be having humidity too high in lockdown

the evaporation of fluid from the egg after pipping is minimal. the egg is 100% humid when it pips. A humidity of 90% is not going to fill the egg with water.

its all abou aircell size at pip

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
It does make breathing harder.....I know it does for me.

 

[chickenpop2884]

Hi , this is my first time trying to hatch some fertile eggs with an incurbator that I bought a week ago with a Turner inside. I want to know if I'm doing everything right. I placed the about eight eggs on the six of febuary and the temperature is kept on 99.5f. I have also put a small cup of water inside to keep the inside of the incubator humid. Then on the 19th of February I placed six more eggs inside. There both dated for 21 days as told. I would like to know if I'm doing everything right? Please someone help me.

 

[ozexpat]

Hi , this is my first time trying to hatch some fertile eggs with an incurbator that I bought a week ago with a Turner inside. I want to know if I'm doing everything right. I placed the about eight eggs on the six of febuary and the temperature is kept on 99.5f. I have also put a small cup of water inside to keep the inside of the incubator humid. Then on the 19th of February I placed six more eggs inside. There both dated for 21 days as told. I would like to know if I'm doing everything right? Please someone help me.

There is a hatching 101 article link in the signature part of this post that will give you solid information.

adding eggs will create a staggered hatch will make it a little more complex.

temp of 99.5 is perfect if you have a fan in the incubator.

ditch the water, remove the plugs. you should dry incubate.

 

[gimmie birdies]

this is what I incubated! LOL

 

[chiqita]

Thank you thank you @DMRippy .... Can you dry hatch quail as well? I have quail in there with the chicken eggs.

shipped quail eggs can already be too dry, so be careful with that.

yes you can hatch quail that way

dry incubation is not a number - its a method

you need to study the air cells - you can adjust humidity if they are getting too large

the best wat to start is by weighing eggs. aim for an average of 3% loss each 5 days. on day 20 you should be 12 - 13%

if at day 15 you are already at 12% then bump up humidity to 60% to slow down evaporation.

I personally hatch in the tropics and use a dehumidifier to get my ambient humidity to 40%. inside the bator it would be 25-30% - i have not measured for a long time. As my humidity is high compared to most here, I dont go into lockdown until day 20 or first chirping from eggs. I add a little water to my hatcher thats in a naturally humid room and let the hatching eggs provide the rest,

On locally laid eggs set no older than 4 days i am getting an 80% hatch rate. I would hatch weekly but I dont have a cool location to store the eggs

That statement is the answer to EVERY single humidity question out there. Is it too wet? look at the air cells or weight. Is it too dry? what do the air cells say?

Should I aim for (x) humidity or (y) humidity? look at the air cells.

The only way to know YOUR humidity i and YOUR incubator is to be an egg whisperer by.. looking at the air cells! A lot of people don't need to do this anymore, because they know the set up they have and have used it for years. But really the story of incubation is keep the temp exact as you can, and keep the air cells on track. YMMV on how that is accomplished but I bet you NINTY NINE NINETY FIVE you can tell me what I am going to say about how to tell if you are on track...

That, and calibrate your thermometer! I feel like having that tatooed on my chicken signatures, lol.

I have to shift stuff around here. I cant use the same humidity on every type of egg or every time of year, I think because our heater here is.. INSANE. So I weigh and watch when we have seasonal changes or I have shipped eggs. It almost dosn't matter what I do to my own eggs if the temperatures are stable, but if they came through the mail, i eyeball the air cells.

 

[theresam22]

i am not convinced you can drown a chick be having humidity too high in lockdown

the evaporation of fluid from the egg after pipping is minimal. the egg is 100% humid when it pips. A humidity of 90% is not going to fill the egg with water.

its all abou aircell size at pip

I thought the air cells looked ok in that batch although two were noticeably smaller, but not SMALL small. I neglected to mark those two though.This chick was zipping at on odd angle, not directly around the shell, but more in an oval track, if that makes any sense. So my next batch is at 55% in lock down, should it be lower? None of the other chicks were sticky or anything, but one did need help, the last one to hatch. By then I had had to open the bator to add water, as the water was drying up in some of the slots (ancient turn-x bator I used for hatching). He pipped all the way around and the membrane was intact, though all the shell had broken away. So I tore the membrane for him, and he came out fine. The membrane had not stuck to him at all, it was just too rubbery for him to break through in parts and it was holding him in.

And the batch after this (back ups for my backup hatch) is at day 6 and I let the one trough run dry after adding water initially as it says in the instructions. That one trough with water makes for about 30-37% humidity. But I have to calibrate my new accurite hygrometer, maybe it's way off and reading low when the humidity is a lot higher? It takes about 3.5- 4 days to run dry in my Brinsea. I'm just trying to increase my hatch rate in these next two hatches.... And the one after that...And the one after THAT one....

Thanks for the input to all who posted in response!

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
it's not so much that the chick drowns, but they are right that more humid air holds less oxygen than cooler air can and is harder to breathe for chicks just learning...