ok give me instructions/ advice/ help

[sdshoars]

ok, bought a 1602N with egg turner. other than that i am pretty much clueless. i understand i should measure temp at the top of the eggs, but what should the temp be? i know not to put it by a window or door, it will be set up on a shelf in my big pantry, which gets no drafts. other than that, can you tell me anything you think could be useful to the cause of hatching my own fuzzy butts??? thanks!!!

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

temp should be 99.5F and humidity should be 30-40%

 

[sdshoars]

i have read in a couple of places now that the temp should be around 102 at the top of the egg in still air incubators... is that right? or is it 99.5?? thanks........

 

[Pumpkinpup]

For a still air I always set it at 100. If it's forced air, 99.5. Be careful not to get your humidity up past about 40% or you could cause your chicks to drown from inadequate evaporation.

 

[ChooksinIowa]

Wow, I'm a bit confused on the humidity. I've been hatching eggs, successfully, since August. My Brinsea manuals on both the Octagon 40 and the R-Com 20 said to keep humidity between 40 and 50% for incubation, and 60-65% for hatch.

I am always careful not to let it go below 40%.

Now I see here 30-40% and a warning not to let it go over 40%.

I did a google to see what I could find and most sites appear to be advocating the 40 to 50% range. Some sites said 50-55% for the incubation . All seemed to say turn up to 65% for the hatch.

I'm wondering why the discrepancy....and also whether I can afford to be less hyper about my humidity if I can let it go down to 35 or so once in a while.

 

[Katy]

Make sure you don't have to remove it from the shelf to check things. Moving it around once you get the eggs going is not good.

 

[swtangel321]

Quote:
Some people "dry incubate" it's when you add no water unless below 25% and keep it around 30%-35% day 1-18 uping it on day 18 to 65%

Some people swear by this, I do dry incubate and love it, have had great hatch rates this way, but everyone does it the way that works for them.

Read this for more info.... https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-DryIncubation.html

 

[ChooksinIowa]

Thanks! I didn't know about dry incubating! I had only read my manuals that came with my bators. Good to know!

 

[swtangel321]

Quote:
Welcome, There is a lot of great info on that page !! Do you have good hatch rates doing it the way you do it ??

 

[ChooksinIowa]

I have only tried hatching mailed eggs. About 60 or 70 so far. I have had what I thought were good hatch rates (about 80%) for mailed eggs (once I have removed any non-developers after day 6 candling) and often those are either infertile or scrambled contents. So I figured I was doing well for mailed eggs, but the Brinsea bators are good quality I think. I have an LG backup bator and it's not so good.

Maybe I'll try the dry method on my next attempts.