May Hatch-a-Long!

[missnu01]

 
@Demidog
, while you need to up the humidity, you also need to make sure you don't have it too high, as you can drown the chicks inside their shells.  Also, as you raise the humidity, the temp needs to be just a hair on the low side, so falling a half a degree or so is fine. 

And while you set the eggs in May, they are due to hatch in June 
There's another thread for June hatches and is where everyone's at now, so come on over to the June Hatch-a-Long page and post all about this hatch there.  https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/885432/june-hatch-a-long/300

Oh maybe iv got too much water in then!! There is conflicting advice, it's confusing me! 


Yes, i realized i'd posted in the wrong month lol 




Edit:

Ok, I'm getting worried because i haven't seen them moving for a while and now im thinking i might drown them from too much humidity!  I just took some of the water out and very quickly candled one and i can see it moving inside, so it's still alive. 

This is a learning curve for me and i really want to have a sucsessful hatch, i feel for these eggs now and really want them to survive. 


I should probably add - my cupboard incubator is well ventalated because the door is wonkey and doesn't shut properly at the top, so plently of air gets in. And it's a big space inside so i'm assuming it needs a lot of water to get high enough humidity. I was reading this which is what said that still air incubators need at least 1/2 the floor area of surface water, and it also said that too much humidity is not a problem and that too little is what we should worry about. Which is why i had so many trays of water in there. 


I can't find the link to what i was reading about the humidity, but this other one said to raise the humidity AFTER the first eggs have piped.  See what i mean, conflicting advice!!! And i have no personal experiance to go by. http://www.howtoincubate.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56&Itemid=57

Ok, I have awesome hatches and have done it different ways with the humidity. Added water in the beginning keeping humidity around 40%. Kept it pretty close to 75-80% once eggs were hatching. All eggs hatched.
Another time added a little water early on, humidity stayed around 35-40% after 1st week water was gone, never added more. Once eggs started hatching humidity around 75-80% 1 chick was malpositioned and didn't hatch. One time no water added same at lock down as every other time..All eggs hatched
This time around no water early on...betting close to all eggs will hatch again... The most I've lost is one. One time. What ever makes it to lock down will hatch. I usually lose a few prior to lockdown, only lost one this time around my first early quitter around at 10. Have always gotten at least 3 blood rings with every hatch, early on though. As in within the first week I know they are bad...but not this time. The egg that died early had a meat spot, but when I opened it there was a whole tiny chick in there...huge eyes, tiny wings and feet..was weird looking. Anyway...early humidity isn't too big a deal unless it is too high. My ambient humidity is around 25-30% which is where it should be in the beginning I believe. So no reason to add water. Unless you live somewhere really really dry. You definitely don't want it too high though. And this makes sense, eggs lose moisture through their shell whether they are incubated or not, but subjecting them to heat definitely speeds up the process, well as the moisture is lost the air cell grows, and the chick takes the place that was once egg white. Too much moisture and the chick doesn't have enough room to grow or a large enough air cell. So less water is better in the beginning from my experience...but then again I've never tried higher than 40 something percent simply because no reason to try tweaking if you're already hatching at 100%

 

[Demidog]

Thank you, that's helpful.

I'v only had one saucer sized tray of water in there the whole time until lock down, so i was sort of doing the dry incubation method, but i'm just confused about how much water to add now at lock down, and when - day 18 or after they pip?

I started with 10 eggs and 3 of them weren't developing from early on. I cracked them open and one was infertile and the other two has tiny chick embryos which had died. The other 7 all made it to lockdown and were moving when i candled them last on day 18.

Anyway, i can hear some faint chirping this morning! Still no external pipping yet though, but i think the temp has been mostly on the low side so they might hatch later than 21 days.

My eggs were wobbling a lot at first when they went into lockdown and now i'm not seeing them move so much, is that normal? Can they drown at lockdown if there is too much humidity, or is that only if the humidity has been consistantly raised throughout incubation - which is what that thing i was reading was saying and it was from a university website so i assumed it was accurate.

I found that link. This is what i was reading:

"Rarely is the humidity too high in properly ventilated still-air incubators. The water pan area should be equivalent to one-half the floor surface area or more. Increased ventilation during the last few days of incubation and hatching may necessitate the addition of another pan of water or a wet sponge. Humidity is maintained by increasing the exposed water surface area."
http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/poultry_environment.html

 

[gander007]

Day 18 and eight out of my forty two egg's has peep holes on the side so, so much for the last candling being dune tonight as picked up my first egg to start the last candling and marking out the air sack I noticed a peep hole so I tapped the egg and could hear chirping from the egg so I put it back and looked at the rest of the egg's through the plastic window and counted eight egg's that had started to peep so I raised the humidity to 70% ....

 

[gander007]

Thank you, that's helpful.

I'v only had one saucer sized tray of water in there the whole time until lock down, so i was sort of doing the dry incubation method, but i'm just confused about how much water to add now at lock down, and when - day 18 or after they pip?

I started with 10 eggs and 3 of them weren't developing from early on. I cracked them open and one was infertile and the other two has tiny chick embryos which had died. The other 7 all made it to lockdown and were moving when i candled them last on day 18.

Anyway, i can hear some faint chirping this morning! Still no external pipping yet though, but i think the temp has been mostly on the low side so they might hatch later than 21 days.

My eggs were wobbling a lot at first when they went into lockdown and now i'm not seeing them move so much, is that normal? Can they drown at lockdown if there is too much humidity, or is that only if the humidity has been consistantly raised throughout incubation - which is what that thing i was reading was saying and it was from a university website so i assumed it was accurate.

I found that link. This is what i was reading:

"Rarely is the humidity too high in properly ventilated still-air incubators. The water pan area should be equivalent to one-half the floor surface area or more. Increased ventilation during the last few days of incubation and hatching may necessitate the addition of another pan of water or a wet sponge. Humidity is maintained by increasing the exposed water surface area."
http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/poultry_environment.html

How is your hatch going ?????

If you heard chirping you should be seeing something by now ...

Drowning from high humidity is in the early stages at the end of the incubation you need high humidity so the chicks can crack the shell because the humidity makes the shell brittle ....

 

[Demidog]

How is your hatch going ?????

If you heard chirping you should be seeing something by now ...

Drowning from high humidity is in the early stages at the end of the incubation you need high humidity so the chicks can crack the shell because the humidity makes the shell brittle ....

They are hatching! One is already out and the others are pipping!

I woke up this morning at about 5am and i checked them. I didn't notice any pipping but i could hear a lot of chirping. I went back to bed and within 10 minuets i heard a crack and went back to check and one had properly pipped and i could see it's beak tweeting through the hole and another 3 has cracked their shells. The first one started zipping pretty quickly and was out by 6:30. Now a second is zipping! There are two which haven't pipped yet, but i think they will soon.

Here's my very first baby chick! Say hello! I can't quite believe it lol

 

[gander007]

Quote:
They are just so cute and well in worth all the work ...

Congratulations on your hatch it is always a great feeling to see them when they first come out and you can say you did everything correctly ....

 

[Demidog]

They are just so cute and well in worth all the work ...

Congratulations on your hatch it is always a great feeling to see them when they first come out and you can say you did everything correctly ....

Thank you! I was really worried i'd kill them all, but evidently not!

 

[gander007]

Quote:

Wile sitting here earlier trying to catch up on my BYC e-mail I had a couple of my chicks hatch and now I have a total of seven more starting to peep and day 18 is just starting look's like the incubator is not going to have time to cool off this week ....

 

[Demidog]

Wile sitting here earlier trying to catch up on my BYC e-mail I had a couple of my chicks hatch and now I have a total of seven more starting to peep and day 18 is just starting look's like the incubator is not going to have time to cool off this week ....

That's fantastic! Pictures?

I'v got 3 out now and one more zipping!

 

[gander007]

Quote:

You can see the egg's on the bottom row starting to peep ....








First one out .....







And now another one is out ...




We are just waiting on the rest .....