Incubators Anonymous

[Jessshan8]

 


What is your humidity during incubation?  If it is on the high side, some chicks may grow too big to move into hatching position maybe even so large as to die before lockdown? 

 
It is my belief that you are maintaining your humidity levels way too high for the development stage. The humidity for the first 18 days needs to be between 45 and 55%. With a temp of 99.5. The reason for this is to have the humidity high enough to prevent the eggs from loosing too much moisture and secondly but most importantly it enables the air within the incubator to maintain the proper amount of oxygen for the developing embryo. If the humidity is too high it will displace the oxygen in the air as well as literally seal some of the pores in the egg shell preventing the absorption of oxygen through the egg shell. It is recommended during the last three days to raise the humidity during the last three days to 65 to 75% and well as increasing the amount of ventilation within the incubator. It is at this stage of development that the embryo starts building up large amounts of carbon dioxide and this triggers the hatching process and the embryo gets into position and internally pips and starts breathing on its own allowing it to exhaust the excessive amounts of carbon dioxide. it is at this point that the yolk starts to be absorbed thus the need for the increased humidity. This in fact prevents the inner membrane from drying onto the chick and allows it to turn around in the egg while externally piping. I hope this helps.

I keep my humidity on average at 25% for the first 19 days, I only increase the humidity for hatching.  However with that being said, when my humidity drops below 20% I do add water.  I have a humidity spike up to 50% for a couple of hours when I do.

Thank you for the advice, I will see if keeping a tighter control of my humidity helps.

The best advice I gan give is give it a go you might have to adjust a little and go through a few bad hatches to find what works best for you. i know we would all like to have perfect hatches but alas we cant.

 

[Jessshan8]

I have some eggs in my Hovabator right now and they have been running around 46 percent. It has been staying between 99percent and 102, most of the time at 100 percent. The last time I incubated eggs I got 5 out of 9. I didn't think that was to bad. My bator was at 40 percent humidity this morning and I thought that was to low. I think I need someone to tell me what's good, although I think my instruction manual said around 45 percent for humidity for the first 18 days. I'm waiting until sunday to candle my eggs. That will be a full week. I'm not sure if they will be any good. The eggs were dirty and I tried to clean them and spot clean so maybe they won't be good. I get really excited at candling time. Doesn't everyone?!

Every thing sounds good for you so far to me. Whishing you much success in your hatch. The humidity can and will vary from day to day and even hour by hour by several percent. Not a huge concernu nless you start getting to the extreem on either end of the scale. The one thing that needs special attention is temps more so than humidity. Temps should be maintained at 99.5 +- 1 deg f if it gets above this by a couple degrees you could cause fatalities, slightly higher can cause early hatches and weak chicks as slightly lower can cause late hatches or several deg too low can also cause fatalities or "DIS" dead in shell.
One thing I will caution is washing of eggs if you choose to do this just know that eggs have a natural coating from the hen that protects the eggs from bacteria called the "cuticle". That being said it may not be enough if the eggs were covered in large amounts of excrement though. Eggs can be cleaned and I am not encuraging doing or not doing it and some even say that they have increased hatches by doing it. I would recommend not setting eggs that are excessivly dirty do to the risk of egg infection and the possibility of loosing an entire incubator full of eggs due to an "eggplosion".

 

[FarmerWife]

What day are you on with them? Yes you can have it to high. Humidity should be higher the last 3 days.

Hello,
Guess I wasn't thinking, yes, you're correct. I'm only on day ten. On day eighteen I need to fill more chambers with water and remove the plug. Thank you for pointing that out.

Dianna

 

[PD-Riverman]

Also I'm using a hovabator for a hatcher, it maintains temp perfectly and if I keep the humidity at 70 or above I don't have problems with membranes drying out.

It is my belief that you are maintaining your humidity levels way too high for the development stage.

CashandTracy stated they were using it as a "Hatcher" not a incubator which is why they keep it around 70%-----you probably missed that!

 

[Jessshan8]

Quote: If that is the case I did and apologize. 70% is great for hatching. I would then ask what were/are the conditions in the incubator which were not addressed.

 

[Faraday40]

I built a nice cooler incubator that works great as an incubator. Backyard eggs get about 90% hatch rates in it. But on shipped eggs, I get deaths during the last few days. ie- My last hatch of shipped eggs, I had 8 out of 12 alive on day 18. Only 1 hatched. Most died before I did the eggtopsies on Day 24, but one died because of the eggtopsy. I felt horrible.

I do my best to increase the humidity, but perhaps the fan is drying them out. I'm considering using my old Hovabator as a hatcher. I added a computer fan to the Hovabator as well, but someone recommended turning it off as the chicks begin to hatch (so the chicks don't dry out.) Does anyone use a circulated air for incubating & still-air for hatching?

Any ideas on what I could modify?
Method I Use:
incubation = 99.5 - 100'F temp with 30-35% humidity (semi-dry hatch method) Use a manual see-saw turner 3xs daily
hatching- stop turning, add larger water container, sponges & rags to increase humidity to 70%
Here's where I may have my problem. About 36-48 hours later, the sponges & rags start to dry & drops to 50%. I must open to quickly swap out sponges. A few min later the humidity is back up to 70%. It does not seem to affect the backyard eggs, but the shipped eggs are more delicate with their detached air cells.

 

[Faraday40]

Note:
My best hatch rate on shipped eggs was 60% & my worst was 1 out of 12 (8%)
Under the same conditions, my backyard hatches have ranged from 96% to 83%.
I know hatching shipped eggs have more variables, but I'm just trying to get the overall best results possible.

 

[Jessshan8]

I built a nice cooler incubator that works great as an incubator. Backyard eggs get about 90% hatch rates in it. But on shipped eggs, I get deaths during the last few days. ie- My last hatch of shipped eggs, I had 8 out of 12 alive on day 18. Only 1 hatched. Most died before I did the eggtopsies on Day 24, but one died because of the eggtopsy. I felt horrible.

I do my best to increase the humidity, but perhaps the fan is drying them out. I'm considering using my old Hovabator as a hatcher. I added a computer fan to the Hovabator as well, but someone recommended turning it off as the chicks begin to hatch (so the chicks don't dry out.) Does anyone use a circulated air for incubating & still-air for hatching?

Any ideas on what I could modify?
Method I Use:
incubation = 99.5 - 100'F temp with 30-35% humidity (semi-dry hatch method) Use a manual see-saw turner 3xs daily
hatching- stop turning, add larger water container, sponges & rags to increase humidity to 70%
Here's where I may have my problem. About 36-48 hours later, the sponges & rags start to dry & drops to 50%. I must open to quickly swap out sponges. A few min later the humidity is back up to 70%. It does not seem to affect the backyard eggs, but the shipped eggs are more delicate with their detached air cells.

You might try using some small airline tubing through the side of the incubator that you could attach a funnel to to add water without opening the incubator.

 

[ChickyChickens]

Okay, i am on day 18/lockdown with 52 good eggs!!!

Alos just set 16 eggs...

 

[PD-Riverman]

Okay, i am on day 18/lockdown with 52 good eggs!!!

Alos just set 16 eggs...

Well I am Wishing You Some Very, Very good Luck---Hoping All 52 Hatch!!!!!