Little Giant Incubator Tricks

[Arielle]

Is there not someone close to you that you can get the eggs from? Shipped eggs are so hit and miss. My last hatch (8 of 9 that I helped retrieve from their nests) were squirming in their eggs at lockdown so I am not sure what happened to the one. I like the idea of taping it closed though!

My good hatch I fixed a bottle cap to the temp adjuster, changed where I housed the bator so that there was less temp/air flow/humidity changes and did not use the egg turner so that lockdown went better. My hatches have been 1 of 7, 10 of 23, and 8 of 9. Of course the first two were large fowl and the last was bantam so maybe that has something to do with it? I also picked a thermometer and stuck with it rather than having 3 different therms and trying to figure out which to believe!!!

Am I understanding this correctly--all eggs were not shipped? If so and because you got such a good rate on the bantams, I would look at the humidity; it is probably running too high. Did you eggtopsy the eggs that did not hatch in the first 2 batches?

 

[SunnySkies]

No, nobody local has Swedish Flower Hens. I can get other eggs locally and I might go pick up Silkie eggs from breeders in PA or VA if my kids want to raise them. Otherwise what we have is it for them. But oncei I get a decent number of SFH, I'll hatch my own eggs and not bother with shipping (but it is fun!).

I will give it another few days just to be sure, and then maybe check out a couple and see what was wrong.

 

[cmom]

I don't worry about the temperature and humidity being exact. As long as the humidity is around 35% (dry hatch/incubation) during incubation and 75% during lockdown all is well. Also as long as the temperature is around 99 degrees to 100 degrees +/- a little bit, won't hurt either. If the temp runs a little low then the chicks can take a little longer to hatch and if the temp runs a little high they may hatch a little early. Since I have been doing my incubation like this my hatches all have been around 100%. The eggs need to loose some moisture when incubating and if the humidity is too high the eggs can't loose enough moisture. I originally ran my incubation humidity around 50% and my lockdown humidity around 65% to 70%. My hatches were from 60% to 80%. Now they are all 95% to 100%.

 

[Avonshire]

Am I understanding this correctly--all eggs were not shipped? If so and because you got such a good rate on the bantams, I would look at the humidity; it is probably running too high. Did you eggtopsy the eggs that did not hatch in the first 2 batches?

OH I also forgot that the first time I did not monitor humidity(I was a newbie, what can I say?!). The 2nd and 3rd time I dry hatched but my humidity has been around 16% for both of those hatches before lockdown. I just leave it alone. I did not eggtopsy--I am not sure I can handle those images!!! Now at lockdown my humidity was 65-75%. I tried to keep it between 65 and 70%. Oh and yes my eggs were not shipped--no shipped eggs! The bantams were my freshest eggs though--I helped retrieve them from the nest and then I went home and set the next day. The other eggs were a few days old.

 

[cmom]

Am I understanding this correctly--all eggs were not shipped? If so and because you got such a good rate on the bantams, I would look at the humidity; it is probably running too high. Did you eggtopsy the eggs that did not hatch in the first 2 batches?

OH I also forgot that the first time I did not monitor humidity(I was a newbie, what can I say?!). The 2nd and 3rd time I dry hatched but my humidity has been around 16% for both of those hatches before lockdown. I just leave it alone. I did not eggtopsy--I am not sure I can handle those images!!! Now at lockdown my humidity was 65-75%. I tried to keep it between 65 and 70%. Oh and yes my eggs were not shipped--no shipped eggs! The bantams were my freshest eggs though--I helped retrieve them from the nest and then I went home and set the next day. The other eggs were a few days old.

16% on the humidity is to low. The minimum (my opinion) should be around 30% ideally around 35%. Mine has dropped way down below 20% before but I brought it back up to around 35%. I think if the humidity is too low the eggs will loose to much moisture to fast.

 

[chiques chicks]

No, nobody local has Swedish Flower Hens.

There is a Swedish flower hen breeder in PA, Claysburg. He sells a lot on ebay. Seems rather good to work with. I had 50% and it was my first time hatching.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I see CMOM rang in on this too,

16% is too low. Too dry or too moist = no chicks. I started with using a diagram when candling to be sure I'm on the mark for days 7, 14 and 18. As I became more experienced, I could work without the diagram. Small eggs dry too fast and large eggs may not dry enough by day 21 for chickens.

You need to learn the % RH that will work for your ambient RH and your incubator. I use an LG but I have more holes punched into to hold the fan; the fan also effects the drying rate as mine is under a plug and I can shoot moist air out, or close the plug and keep more out. I will still lose moist air out the second plug if it is open.

For me I am running at 25-35 %, each day it moves with the local weather pattern. So tracking the aircell development is KEY.

You can do a search for a diagram on the www using keywords: aircell, days 7, 14, 18

 

[cmom]

Am I understanding this correctly--all eggs were not shipped? If so and because you got such a good rate on the bantams, I would look at the humidity; it is probably running too high. Did you eggtopsy the eggs that did not hatch in the first 2 batches?

OH I also forgot that the first time I did not monitor humidity(I was a newbie, what can I say?!). The 2nd and 3rd time I dry hatched but my humidity has been around 16% for both of those hatches before lockdown. I just leave it alone. I did not eggtopsy--I am not sure I can handle those images!!! Now at lockdown my humidity was 65-75%. I tried to keep it between 65 and 70%. Oh and yes my eggs were not shipped--no shipped eggs! The bantams were my freshest eggs though--I helped retrieve them from the nest and then I went home and set the next day. The other eggs were a few days old.

I see CMOM rang in on this too,

16% is too low. Too dry or too moist = no chicks. I started with using a diagram when candling to be sure I'm on the mark for days 7, 14 and 18. As I became more experienced, I could work without the diagram. Small eggs dry too fast and large eggs may not dry enough by day 21 for chickens.

You need to learn the % RH that will work for your ambient RH and your incubator. I use an LG but I have more holes punched into to hold the fan; the fan also effects the drying rate as mine is under a plug and I can shoot moist air out, or close the plug and keep more out. I will still lose moist air out the second plug if it is open.

For me I am running at 25-35 %, each day it moves with the local weather pattern. So tracking the aircell development is KEY.

You can do a search for a diagram on the www using keywords: aircell, days 7, 14, 18

 

[Avonshire]

2nd hatch was the first time I did a dry hatch. I had the ~16% rh and I drew the air cells on my eggs--I handled them quite a bit. Several of these eggs were not viable and several did not progress to the 2nd week. From what I put into lock down I think 3 did not hatch of the 13. Now I have not calibrated my hygrometer so it could be off. I follow a BYC's dry hatch instructions. It seems to work for me--esp with bantam eggs since 8 of 9 hatched. The lady who gave me the eggs does not do dry hatch and she was nervous but it worked just fine! I do have both holes in my bator open the whole time too. For now I won't be incubating any eggs in the near future unless something gets my current chicks(lots of predator stories going around right now!

 

[Arielle]

Iusually dry hatch but I do kep track of the RH. Lately the humidity has been high due to the weather, so I moved in a dehumidifier and that helped bring down the humidity from 40-something down to low 30's. When the RH drops lower the machine shuts off. THe last few days have been in the mid 20's.

THe actual RH measure is not as important as the development of the aircells.

THanks Cmom for posting the diagram. THere are many on the web and I picked one that was easy to print out. THough the one above looks like it will print out nicely.