- Thread starter
- #11
Hmmm Im getting ready to hatch some of my own so I'll have to see. But thankyou SO much for the help!!
Is something wrong with my incubator? Hatching problems
- Thread starter SamuelMcF
- Start date
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If your chicks hadn't pipped internally, they hadn't yet started breathing air, so they absolutely 100% could not have suffocated due to high lockdown humidity.
Chicks 'drown' because there is too much moisture inside the egg, yes, but it's due to a too-high humidity days 1-18, not a too-high lockdown humidity. The problem is, because the chicks die during the lockdown period, people often make the mistake of blaming the lockdown humidity. Think logically about the biological process of incubation and embryo development to understand what the problem is. Chicken eggs need to lose moisture equal to approximately 13% of their starting weight by the time they go into lockdown. If your humidity has been appropriate for the first 18 days and your eggs have lost the correct amount of moisture, they will not regain any due to high lockdown humidity. Water will not re-enter the egg through the shell. So logically, you should then be able to run lockdowns with humidity as high as you like. Which I have done loads of times. I prefer to run my lockdowns at 75% or so, but if it goes higher, I don't worry. It often hovers above the 80% mark and one time it sat at 90% for a whole day and the chicks hatched fine. I've never had a drowned chick and I've never had a soggy chick.
If your dead chicks were very soggy, it's almost certainly not your lockdown humidity that's been the problem. It's your humidity days 1-18 that needs to be lowered. The suggestion about not enough oxygen is definitely worth thinking about too. Each hatch I do I always get one or two dead chicks quite like you describe - fully developed but not even internally pipped. I know my humidity is fine (I weigh my eggs to determine moisture loss) so I've been thinking it's maybe an oxygen problem. But I'm not sure...
Quote:
If your chicks hadn't pipped internally, they hadn't yet started breathing air, so they absolutely 100% could not have suffocated due to high lockdown humidity.
Chicks 'drown' because there is too much moisture inside the egg, yes, but it's due to a too-high humidity days 1-18, not a too-high lockdown humidity. The problem is, because the chicks die during the lockdown period, people often make the mistake of blaming the lockdown humidity. Think logically about the biological process of incubation and embryo development to understand what the problem is. Chicken eggs need to lose moisture equal to approximately 13% of their starting weight by the time they go into lockdown. If your humidity has been appropriate for the first 18 days and your eggs have lost the correct amount of moisture, they will not regain any due to high lockdown humidity. Water will not re-enter the egg through the shell. So logically, you should then be able to run lockdowns with humidity as high as you like. Which I have done loads of times. I prefer to run my lockdowns at 75% or so, but if it goes higher, I don't worry. It often hovers above the 80% mark and one time it sat at 90% for a whole day and the chicks hatched fine. I've never had a drowned chick and I've never had a soggy chick.
If your dead chicks were very soggy, it's almost certainly not your lockdown humidity that's been the problem. It's your humidity days 1-18 that needs to be lowered. The suggestion about not enough oxygen is definitely worth thinking about too. Each hatch I do I always get one or two dead chicks quite like you describe - fully developed but not even internally pipped. I know my humidity is fine (I weigh my eggs to determine moisture loss) so I've been thinking it's maybe an oxygen problem. But I'm not sure...
- Thread starter
- #13
Wow! That makes sense! So how far should I lower the humidity? I think I might add another hole in the top to try to solve any possible oxygen problems. Thankyou for your input!
Yeh that does make alot of since. Thank you..
Definitely correct on the humidity. My humidity in my hatcher runs between 70 to 80, actually fogs up window. The eggs seem to zip alot quicker too.
You said your humidity was 35 through day 18 and 58 at lock down? If I read that right that seems too low. I keep mine at 50 % until 18 and then up that to 65 at hatch and have been having 95-100% hatches on my eggs (not shipped though) I have read many posts on humidity and this is what was recommended to me years ago here on BYC so have been doing that since and have had great luck with it.
ETA: I thought I should add that I'm using a cabinet type sportsman 1502 and I know the smaller incubators are hard to get a good reading on humidity. At 65-70% I never had my windows fog up at all.
ETA: I thought I should add that I'm using a cabinet type sportsman 1502 and I know the smaller incubators are hard to get a good reading on humidity. At 65-70% I never had my windows fog up at all.
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I'm gonna have to agree with this, after reading over the posts again and missing the part about 35 percent from day 1-18 I'm thinking it's too low. I have mine at 50-55 than at lockdown it goes up to 60-65 sometimes we hit 70. I wonder if going to 35 than shooting up to 58 the drasctic change has an affect on the little guys. I still think oxygen plays a factor but I wouldn't count out the drastic change in the humidity..
I'm gonna have to agree with this, after reading over the posts again and missing the part about 35 percent from day 1-18 I'm thinking it's too low. I have mine at 50-55 than at lockdown it goes up to 60-65 sometimes we hit 70. I wonder if going to 35 than shooting up to 58 the drasctic change has an affect on the little guys. I still think oxygen plays a factor but I wouldn't count out the drastic change in the humidity..
Yes, the chicks making it all the way to lockdown then dying could also mean that the humidity days 1-18 was just that bit too low so that they were too dry to pip no matter what the lockdown humidity was. But the thing that makes me decide against that being what is happening is that Savannah said there seemed to be a lot of fluid when the dead eggs were opened up. if the humidity had been to low all the way through the incubation, you really wouldn't be expecting to see watery embryos.
People on here report great success with day 1-18 humidities varying from below 20% to above 60%, and with lockdown humidities varying from below 50% to above 80%. Humidity is not something you can tell other people what to do about it the same way as you can tell them what their temps should be.
Best way to figure out your ideal humidity is to weigh your eggs to determine their rate of moisture loss. That way, you can monitor them throughout the incubation and raise or lower your humidity as required to make sure that your eggs reach lockdown having lost the correct amount of moisture. I weigh mine at the start, then again on days 6 and 12 to check whether they are losing weight at the right rate, too fast, or too slow. Then I can adjust my humidity up or down as needed.
It's VERY accurate.
People on here report great success with day 1-18 humidities varying from below 20% to above 60%, and with lockdown humidities varying from below 50% to above 80%. Humidity is not something you can tell other people what to do about it the same way as you can tell them what their temps should be.
Best way to figure out your ideal humidity is to weigh your eggs to determine their rate of moisture loss. That way, you can monitor them throughout the incubation and raise or lower your humidity as required to make sure that your eggs reach lockdown having lost the correct amount of moisture. I weigh mine at the start, then again on days 6 and 12 to check whether they are losing weight at the right rate, too fast, or too slow. Then I can adjust my humidity up or down as needed.
It's VERY accurate.
- Thread starter
- #19
I've always considered doing that but I'm actually going to now. I just need to go buy a scale and hopefully we'll have a little more success! Thanks everybody for all the GREAT input!
Going back to a point you made earlier about the ventilation and oxygen levels. You said there was a hole in the top, and thought you would make a second hole. I'm not familiar with this machine so I can only ask, is there an inlet hole else where. I have and LG and it has 8 holes on the top AND 8 on the bottom, to pull fresh are in as warm air rises and leaves thru the hole in the top. Like I said, it's just a question/ I don't know your model.
Hope you can determine a solution and have better luck next time. Does the humidity change much thru the seasons were you live? Just a thought.
Hope you can determine a solution and have better luck next time. Does the humidity change much thru the seasons were you live? Just a thought.
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