on pins n needles day 20!

[cgjsmith]

Yes this is my second hatch in a week but the first ones wer nice enough to come out on day 19 so ther wasn't any worry involved. Now I keep asking myself did I do something wrong, did I somehow kill them...ahh its driving me crazy LOL these are mrs. Jaynie's blue sizzles and Salmon favarillas possibly mixed

So far no pipping or peeping. Alls quite in the hatcher tonight. Can humidity get too high? Crystal

 

[cgjsmith]

Ok so far on day 22 I have 5 chickies out of 24. I had 7 but two died after zipping half way. Is that normal? I'm leaving the other eggs in the hatcher for a wee bit and hope to be suprisedbut am kinda doubting it. Am I doing something wrong? should I get one of those forced air fans? I kept humidity where it was suppose to be all the time. temp dipped a few times but nothing serious. I'm getting more eggs in this week so I want to get my bugs worked out before I statr again. Thanks Crystal

 

[samara]

I am not the expert---at all! But, from the posts I've read your humidity can definitely be too high. They can pip and then drown in the shell. Do a search on pipping and humidity in this sight, you'll pull up a ton of other peoples experiences. From what I remember, humidity around 70 or 80 is ok for hatching, but you'll want to confirm that, hope that helps!

Samara

 

[jimnjay]

Crystal, usually humidity during the first 18 days can be to high. They can drown during the internal pip. That is when they break thru the internal membrane prior to pipping the shell. I doubt you had humidity that was to high during the last few days. I have had it so the window steamed up but still had chicks hatch. I had one unzip halfway and die last time too. It looked like it got its head stuck under the leg and could not get out of that position. I wish I knew the answer for you. With the type of incubators we are using with cool spots and such it is very hard to get 100 % hatch. At least we can't blame the post office on these as I know I drove carefully and I bet you did too.

Did you rotate the position of the eggs in the incubator during the first couple of weeks? That can help offset the hot or cool spots that occur in still air incubators.

Each hatch will provide you more experience and you will be able to troubleshoot your hatches. I wish I could remember the site for trouble shooting. I have a good one in my incubator instruction. I think it is University of Texas Ag that I googled and it was very helpful.

 

[cgjsmith]

the humidity got up to 85 during the hatch. I kept it at 50% during the incubation. I didn't know about moving the eggs around other then turning them. I got three beautiful blue sizzles and two Salmon favellas (are they suppose to have a black spot on their wing? under the fuzz) I'm going to leave the eggs in there till tomorrow but they are already starting to stink It has a real ammonia smell to it this time. Crystal

 

[jimnjay]

Yes the Faverolles have a dark patch on the wing tip and as the feathers come in the male's feathers will be distinctly darker.

As to the rotation, many people who have still air incubators switch the position of the eggs in the incubator to compensate for any hot spots, ( right under the heat element or cool spots, ( smack dab in the middle) I can't say it helps a whole lot as I have not done that now that I have a forced air unit, but it makes sense to me and can't hurt.