June Hatch a Long

[mrsguardian88]

Is there any water (or wet objects!) in your incubator? I'm still learning but my understanding of humidity is it's not critical to be precise every day, more of an average over days 1-18. Rainy days it'll be higher, sunny days it'll be lower. As long as you're not too humid (like 50+) every day. You just want to see that the air cells are growing (showing evaporation) when you candle later on (or weight loss if you weigh).

No there is nothing wet and the humidity is 45% in the incubator. I don't want to raise the humidity if the eggs will suffer from a combination of the outside humidity and inside humidity.

 

[Wrightsx4]

I wouldn't worry then. You're already dry incubating - just using the humidity in the air and what's coming from the eggs. Was your hygrometer calibrated? It may just be reading high, but even if it really is 45 that's okay. Mine was 40 the whole last hatch until day 18 and I never added water. All but one hatched just fine, and that one had other problems.

 

[mrsguardian88]

I wouldn't worry then. You're already dry incubating - just using the humidity in the air and what's coming from the eggs. Was your hygrometer calibrated? It may just be reading high, but even if it really is 45 that's okay. Mine was 40 the whole last hatch until day 18 and I never added water. All but one hatched just fine, and that one had other problems.

I did calibrate my hygrometer and it read exactly 75% with the salt + water in ziplock bag method. Does it matter that i used water in the first two days and the humidity has gone from 55% the first two days- to 45% today? What do I do to keep it regulated? Is it better to keep the humidity low or high? What do I do during lockdown then?

 

[Wrightsx4]

I've never heard of combining the inside and outside humidity to adjust for different climates, but it really makes sense. I'd love to learn more about that! Some say dry incubation doesn't work for them but maybe it's because we're all trying to accomplish the same number when really there's a little more to it.

 

[Wrightsx4]

Only my opinion based very little experience but I like it to be low (25-40) then add water just for lock down so it gets to 60-70. That worked well for me. Plus by not adding water the temp stayed more stable.

 

[mrsguardian88]

,

Only my opinion based very little experience but I like it to be low (25-40) then add water just for lock down so it gets to 60-70. That worked well for me. Plus by not adding water the temp stayed more stable.

Thank you so much for your help! And from now on ill try to keep it as close to 40% as possible. Hopefully being at 55% in the beginning didn't ruin them. Do you use mist spray during the pipping process or just add some water to reservoirs?

 

[Wrightsx4]

Many people hatch all the time at 50-55% so I really doubt a couple days would harm them Low really works well for me though, it's like my incubator "wanted" to run steady at 40 so I didn't use any water until the end. Avoided fighting between humidity and temp that way. On day 18 I filled my first reservoir with warm water and hit 65 after about 2 hours. I never filled the second one. I'm in Michigan so I think our climates would be similar.

 

[Alaskan]

Is there any water (or wet objects!) in your incubator? I'm still learning but my understanding of humidity is it's not critical to be precise every day, more of an average over days 1-18. Rainy days it'll be higher, sunny days it'll be lower. As long as you're not too humid every day. You just want to see that the air cells are growing (showing evaporation) when you candle later on (or weight loss if you weigh).

AH! For some reason I had missed that option..... I think I have a scale sensitive enough too.....

THANK YOU! Because, even though I haven't candled yet, some of these Marans eggs are just so dark, I GREATLY doubt I will be able to see anything.

First: I think a child must have messed with the temps after or when I put in the glass beads...I waited over a day, and the temps didn't come back up....so I adjusted until I got back to proper temps, put in my eggs. It didn't take too long after I put in the eggs for it to return to the proper temp.

I checked FOUR times throughout the night. Just had to! But the incubator has been holding PERFECTLY steady.

I am however not sure if the egg turner is really turning....gonna have to watch that.

But I am super excited, I put in 22 eggs! Two very pretty Olive Eggers, one gorgeous perfect blue egg that will hatch an Olive Egger, and 19 English Black Copper Marans! Most of the eggs are SUPER dark, and her birds look show quality! They were GORGEOUS!

AND SHE SOLD THEM TO ME FOR ONE DOLLAR EACH!

I am so super tickled! She was gonna sell them for only two something (still a bargain) but she said that at the last hatch only 2/3 were fertile, so that is why she discounted.

So, I set the eggs late yesterday afternoon!

OK.....*someone* is overly excited.

 

[Wrightsx4]

Yay! I hope you have a great hatch! I had DARK marans eggs last hatch. One from a black tailed buff maran was almost black. I wasnt able to see veins but on day 15 I could see very slight shadows of movement against the aircell - nowhere else! Of my eggs that went to lockdown, my marans (wheaten, BTB, golden cuckoo, blue copper) took FOREVER to zip and get out, compared to my other breeds. They pipped and waited a day then zipped...and waited half another day...Anyone else have that happen with marans?

 

[Alaskan]

Ooh, did you loose any that had pipped?