january hatch-a-long

[muddy75]

First time incubating here. I'm trying to keep my humidity at 40-45% for my quail eggs. My Harris Farms 1602 is a polystyrene incubator with 3 water troughs in the bottom. I filled the middle one and it was not enough. So I half filled the outer trough (there's three layered square shaped troughs), and the humidity was holding perfect at 45% and then went to 42%. This morning it was suddenly at 26%. I added some water and it went to 52% (I waited a few hours to read it again to get an accurate reading). Is the fluctuation of humidity terrible for my eggs/embryos? Any body have a way to help keep it steady at 40-45%?

did you calibrate hygrometer using salt test? @WVduckchick has a great link regarding humidity and calibration at the bottom of her posts.
I personally shoot for around 30% for my area and have had overall good hatch rates. I add water when it drops below 20%. for my incubator that translates to 1/8-1/4c about every 2days.
you can weigh your eggs for weight loss or monitor air cell at candling to get an idea of best humidity. there’s lots of experience here in this thread and also in other hatch a long threads.

 

[WVduckchick]

did you calibrate hygrometer using salt test? @WVduckchick has a great link regarding humidity and calibration at the bottom of her posts.
I personally shoot for around 30% for my area and have had overall good hatch rates. I add water when it drops below 20%. for my incubator that translates to 1/8-1/4c about every 2days.
you can weigh your eggs for weight loss or monitor air cell at candling to get an idea of best humidity. there’s lots of experience here in this thread and also in other hatch a long threads.

Thanks muddy!
Red link below. (If on mobile, turn your phone sideways)

 

[BReeder!]

I remember reading somewhere that the exact number is not as important as making sure the eggs lose the correct amount of moisture... something about it being a little high one day and a little low the next can balance out over the incubation period...
ok my paraphrase isn't exact...... try the hands on hatching thread or educational incubation and hatching..... some of the ladies/gents there really know how to explain things...
I know humility is still the thing I struggle with the most. I run a brinsea ovation ex 56 with humidity pump and this time for my turkey and chicken eggs I set it at 35% so far the hatching is going well so I think it worked ok.....
The one thing to remember about humidity is that what works for me in my environment and elevation may not work as well at yours.

A Brinsea Ovation 56 EX... that is a cool incubator. It's about 8 times the price of my incubator though. I will dream of it just. I wonder if I could add a humidity pump without breaking the bank. I will be doing some research on that now that I know it's a thing.
Thanks for the helpful information.

 

[BReeder!]

did you calibrate hygrometer using salt test? @WVduckchick has a great link regarding humidity and calibration at the bottom of her posts.
I personally shoot for around 30% for my area and have had overall good hatch rates. I add water when it drops below 20%. for my incubator that translates to 1/8-1/4c about every 2days.
you can weigh your eggs for weight loss or monitor air cell at candling to get an idea of best humidity. there’s lots of experience here in this thread and also in other hatch a long threads.

I'm not overly worried about the hygrometer calibration. already figured that out. thank you for checking though. I am more concerned with maintaining the humidity over time.
monitor air cell at candling... I'm not certain how easy that will be with quail eggs. small egg equates to small air cell. The marbling on the egg doesn't make things easy either when it comes to candling. I haven't tried weighing, but might pic a few in different areas of the incubator (and mark them to remember which ones) and weigh them at each candling. I didn't weigh eggs before they went in so I will not be able to tell until I weigh them twice.

 

[BuffOrps32]

Did you find some egg's so that you can join this yet? If you are near me, I have some extra's.

None yet, where are you?

 

[Kiki]

I'm not overly worried about the hygrometer calibration. already figured that out. thank you for checking though. I am more concerned with maintaining the humidity over time.
monitor air cell at candling... I'm not certain how easy that will be with quail eggs. small egg equates to small air cell. The marbling on the egg doesn't make things easy either when it comes to candling. I haven't tried weighing, but might pic a few in different areas of the incubator (and mark them to remember which ones) and weigh them at each candling. I didn't weigh eggs before they went in so I will not be able to tell until I weigh them twice.

Did you calibrate it?

 

[BReeder!]

Did you calibrate it?

yes. already did that bit.

 

[Kiki]

yes. already did that bit.

Ok great.
Sorry,I was confused thinking that you meant you had not.

 

[ChristieB]

Congrats on the hatches guys! I got impatient and just candled on day 5, I set 12 and all 12 have veins and black blobs! So freaking exciting. I’m so glad since on day 2 my incubator got turned off (I think one of the kids tripped it accidentally) and it was at 29degrees (celcius) when I saw it. I figured being so early it wasn’t a huge deal but I’m still relieved to see those spiders! Now to find another incubator because I’ve got another dozen or so sitting there that I just can’t bring myself to eat, though I have no need for them what so ever!

 

[ChristieB]

To answer humidity Qs mine sits around 40-50% but I only top up if it goes under 30% I have a cheap eBay hydrometer inside and one outside to monitor they aren’t accurate, but it gives me an idea of where it’s at.

I’ve also dropped an egg, my stomach jumped into my throat! It was first candle, Egg cracked but didn’t break. I searched this forum for precedent and decided to use sticky tape to cover the crack, it continued right up to lock down when I dropped it again, it quit after that...