June Hatch A Long

[Kris5902]

Almost wishing I had bought still air incubators... are they less affected by huge swings in environmental humidity than circulating air ones?

 

[LilyD]

@LilyD i just checked in on your babies and saw some shaking!

Are you playing music for them?!?

They are dancing to their own tunes. Ready to be out of the eggs and test of their tap shoes.

 

[jolenesdad]

Due to the environmental humidity, it actually spikes for me when I open the incubator. My last hatch over 60% drowned in the last day, so I am being very cautious, I will let the humidity stabilize and increase it very slowly and carefully through the vent hole with a straw if needed. I can’t go through another repeat of fully formed DIS chicks again.

I’m at close to 50% humidity running completely “dry” with both vent plugs open, if I fill the wells it goes up over 80% very quickly, I might need to fill one... I will check when I return home. They share the building with a heavily used laundry, shower, and dishwashing facility in the very damp Pacific North West. I’ve had the humidity spike to 70-85% with rainy days, and we have rain forecast.

I want to share cute chick pics, not eggtopsies again. Staying positive I don’t open the incubator to add water I use a straw through the handy vent hole.

A couple of thoughts, that may be incorrect.

If the humidity is higher in the room, should you close the vents, or at least one?

Also, could you cut a small sponge? Like an inch square? Put it directly under the vent to water with a straw? A saturated one inch sponge may get you to 60, with no other water....


Also, I follow a few Instagram colored egg breeders and I was shocked to see a few people running their Brinsea ovations in north Texas (way less humidity than you) dry through the entire hatch. Like no added anything through lockdown or pips.

If you’re at 50, and have had spikes above that, my thought is that you may not want ANY water extra once those shells pop open?

I wonder if @Texas Kiki may have thoughts in a humid environment or know someone who does? (Sorry to tag you out of the blue...)

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Due to the environmental humidity, it actually spikes for me when I open the incubator. My last hatch over 60% drowned in the last day, so I am being very cautious, I will let the humidity stabilize and increase it very slowly and carefully through the vent hole with a straw if needed. I can’t go through another repeat of fully formed DIS chicks again.

I’m at close to 50% humidity running completely “dry” with both vent plugs open, if I fill the wells it goes up over 80% very quickly, I might need to fill one... I will check when I return home. They share the building with a heavily used laundry, shower, and dishwashing facility in the very damp Pacific North West. I’ve had the humidity spike to 70-85% with rainy days, and we have rain forecast.

I want to share cute chick pics, not eggtopsies again. Staying positive I don’t open the incubator to add water I use a straw through the handy vent hole.

Almost wishing I had bought still air incubators... are they less affected by huge swings in environmental humidity than circulating air ones?

I'm sorry it's proving to be such a trial for you with the humidity!
I have 4 incubators running in my chicken room right now, 3 forced air and 1 still air. The forced air units are definitely my personal preference but I am familiar with a very different method that I've seen people do here in the humidity of Georgia that involves the cheaper styrofoam still air Incubators and they actually put extra vent holes to allow more humidity in and hatch in their garages or other outdoor areas with adding little to no water for the entire incubation so I know it's possible but I've never done it because I liked the control of hatching in a consistent environment.
The biggest difference I see with my forced air vs still air is how quickly it will return to temp/humidity after the lid has been opened and overall the temperature throughout the incubator is more consistent with the forced air. Less chance of cold spots.
What does the hygrometer show when your incubator is open? I'm trying to get an idea of how humid your room is. For example, the ambient room temp and humidity in my room when I keep the door closed is 75F and 45% humidity. When running my incubators dry in that room the humidity in my still air is about 25% and my forced air units are more like 20% this may be due to them being plastic though because they won't retain moisture. (I have extra thermometers and hygrometers all over the place in here, lol).
If your Incubator really spikes that much on a rainy day without opening it and you're expecting rain, I wouldn't add any water...

 

[Kiki]

A couple of thoughts, that may be incorrect.

If the humidity is higher in the room, should you close the vents, or at least one?

Also, could you cut a small sponge? Like an inch square? Put it directly under the vent to water with a straw? A saturated one inch sponge may get you to 60, with no other water....


Also, I follow a few Instagram colored egg breeders and I was shocked to see a few people running their Brinsea ovations in north Texas (way less humidity than you) dry through the entire hatch. Like no added anything through lockdown or pips.

If you’re at 50, and have had spikes above that, my thought is that you may not want ANY water extra once those shells pop open?

I wonder if @Texas Kiki may have thoughts in a humid environment or know someone who does? (Sorry to tag you out of the blue...)

I don't add any water until I see an external pip and then I barely add any.
Let me catch up. Bbs

 

[jolenesdad]

I don't add any water until I see an external pip and then I barely add any.
Let me catch up. Bbs

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I don't add any water until I see an external pip and then I barely add any.
Let me catch up. Bbs

Oh the chicken God's have sent master Kiki to save the day! Lol

 

[Kris5902]

I’ve basically run dry at 48-52% humidity most of my hatch so far. Last night when I took the lid off to remove the eggs from the turner it jumped to 58% when I closed it up, I wasn’t watching what the open lid was reading while moving the eggs, it was fairly late and I needed to get my newest rescue up to my barn, so I didn’t hang around to wait for it to drop. I honestly stopped checking the eggs completely on rainy days because the humidity readings would scare me too much. It leveled out after my last candling at 48% from 56% 2 or 3 hours after I closed it back up. I can’t check it until 4:30/5pm PST today as I’m picking up my bags of chick starter in town today

 

[LilyD]

I’ve basically run dry at 48-52% humidity most of my hatch so far. Last night when I took the lid off to remove the eggs from the turner it jumped to 58% when I closed it up, I wasn’t watching what the open lid was reading while moving the eggs, it was fairly late and I needed to get my newest rescue up to my barn, so I didn’t hang around to wait for it to drop. I honestly stopped checking the eggs completely on rainy days because the humidity readings would scare me too much. It leveled out after my last candling at 48% from 56% 2 or 3 hours after I closed it back up. I can’t check it until 4:30/5pm PST today as I’m picking up my bags of chick starter in town today

I am right with you. Pretty much the whole last 33 days I have had eggs in the incubator I have run between 45 and 58% humidity and it has rained all but maybe 6 days out of the total 33 and been high humidity even on the days it wasn't raining. I didn't do anything with the humidity to make it higher cause I figured it didn't need it. Now we are on lock down with the Muscovies and 6 are already internally pipped the others still looked like they needed a bit more time. I am not sure if they were incubated before I showed up to pick them up or not because I took the Mama ducks and the eggs together. So I could be further along than I think.

 

[Tatuana]

Final count in! Five babies in total out of the dozen I set. Last two were a bit finicky to hatch. I had to put them in a VERY temporary setup. As in "my heating pad died and all I have is the one I was about to throw out from my last batch of chickens crap". I ran to the store and got them a proper setup, but you can see them sleeping.

the last two went weird due to my fault. I had a bad panic attack yesterday and ended up taking one of my pills for it. The meds wiped me out and I was out all afternoon until about 1am. During my dead time I was supposed to refill the water. I didn't. So the eggs dried out a bit. Baby One I was able to help out of the egg quickly (He was nearly out, he was just stuck in the membrane a bit). Baby Two was the problem. She couldn't hatch at all. There was a hole in the egg from the other baby pecking at it I think. I could clearly see the membrane stuck to her. When I pulled it off she kicked and tried to get out, and I was able to see more membrane stuck but not accessible. After a while I could tell there was no way she'd get out on her own, so I hoped her out quickly. She came out with the membrane stuck to her eye/face and wing. I cleaned it off and set her back in the incubator to dry off. She spent 90 percent of the time like this.

Yup, she's on her back, legs up. I would roll her over, and she'd flop back. So I shrugged and let her be since she was otherwise fine. If she wants to sleep on her back, go ahead. She dried out so I transferred her to the brooder to continue resting (It's much more sanitary there anyway)


So I have five babies, and two store bought. All ended up being fine in the end! Drama baby is still being dramatic, but she gets a pass due to trauma.