new hatchings for novice

[dddCT]

Hi we are new to hatching and raising chickens. We placed our first 9 Rhode Islands Reds eggs in the incubator and my husband has been obsessively watching the temperature and humidity. He was even talking to the thermometer and swearing at it that it was screwing him on purpose. Quite funny to observe. But the temp is finally holding at 99.6 with a humidity about 47%. Does that sound about right???

We welcome any advise and I personally would like some pointers on how to keep "Mr Impatience" from turning me into a loony bird. 21 days seems like an eternity

 

[hatchcrazzzy]

temperture is fine humidity is a little low about 55 % is good dont forget to quit turning after day 18 and increase humidity to 65%humidity

 

[dddCT]

How do I get the humidity up do I just add more water?

 

[perfectly_polish]

Quote:
Add a very little bit of water to the tray and just watch the hydrometer, if it goes up too high, you can take the vent plugs out, or let it go down on it's own.


And

are you from CT?

 

[dddCT]

Thanks for your help yes durham CT.

 

[perfectly_polish]

Quote:
Nice to see more people from CT joining! We may be having another CT chickenstock this fall. Hope to see you there!

 

[dddCT]

would love to attend CT chicken stock. I grew up in Salem and had a friend in East Lyme that raised show birds when we were in HS 20 yrs ago This is my first try at it.

Hubby isnt going to sleep for 21 days I can see it now. He's pacing the room and watching the gages. And they women are nuts LOL Thanks for the info
Diane and Dan

 

[perfectly_polish]

Quote:
We live right down the street from salem, actually we shop at Salem Feed and Grain, and we use to live in East Lyme but are now in Montville.

Tell your DH that the first 18 days are easy, it's the last 3 days that really kill ya

 

[Featherland]

I try to keep my humidity around 40% - 45% the first 18 days.

 

[Akane]

There's lots of opinions on humidity including a movement toward dry incubation where you don't add any water. My first hatch I kept it around 50-55%. I found the air cells were rather small on day 18 and I only got 2 chicks to hatch. Small air cells can be caused by higher humidity and too much water being left in the egg. Eggs have to lose so much moisture to make room for the chick and the air cell for it to pip into. That's why this hatch I'm keeping it below 50%. We'll see what happens but so far I have 10 eggs out of 14 shipped developping.

There's a pic online of how big the air cell should be on average at different stages:
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/contents/04-05UMissCareIncubation1.gif

Also I don't know what incubator your using but make sure you are measuring the temp on top of the eggs. Particularly for a still air. My still air can be 6-8degrees different from top to bottom. You need around 100F at the eggs. Not some other random location in the incubator.