Pheasant hatching problems

[cypresslog]

hey, i just bought a dickies incubator and i am having problems with all of my pheasant being fully developed dead in the egg. I have called Macfarlane pheasants and they told me to put my temp at 99.5 and my humidity to 53% and the last 3 days turning my temp down to 98 and the humidity up to 65% and i had the same results, so then i called Mr. dickie and he said that in his incubators if i turn the temp down to 98 i'll never hatch any pheasants so i did what he said and put my temp at 99.5 and humidity to 55% and he told me for the last 3 days to mist the eggs with a squirt bottle and i tried that and still the same exact results. I bought 3 different thermometers and they read almost the same exact temp, so i am very confused. I live in Louisiana and it gets HOT, so i keep the incubator in a climate controlled room, could that have something to do with it?? I would really appreciate some help

 

[BHep]

I just hatched 12/18 Ringneck Pheasant eggs in my Dickey on June 26th. I hatched them along with chicken & Guinea eggs.
I run my incubator very dry.... 28-30% humidity, then at lockdown 50-60%. I have been have great hatches this way. This works for me.
Good Luck


ETA.... my temps are a steady 99.6

 

[cypresslog]

Ok thanks alot i will try that!!

 

[Oregon Blues]

If you are going to mist, be certain that the water is exactly the same temperature as the air in the incubator.

 

[cmom]

I don't have a Dickey but I do hatch Pheasants in my Sportsman. I keep the temperature around 99.8 at 50% humidity for the first 21 days then when I go into lock down I keep the temp around 99.8 and bump the humidity up to between 65% and 70%,
Here is a pic of my last hatch.

 

[Alexander]

cmom!

When will your 300 eggs hatch?

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
I would calibrate the hygrometer using the salt method and check the thermometer against a known good one

 

[cmom]

Quote:
They should start hatching on July 9th. I candled the egg before I put them in to look for cracks and won't candle them again until I set them for hatching.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I would calibrate the hygrometer using the salt method and check the thermometer against a known good one

I hear you. I live in Florida and it has been hot here too. I had my Sportsman in a room with AC. My temperature and humidity were fluctuating too much so I turned the AC off and I haven't had to adjust the incubator since. I don't know why the AC seemed to interfere with the temp and humidity but it did. I turned on the AC fan to circulate the air in the room.

Here is a great link on calibrating a hygrometer.
http://exoticpets.about.com/od/herpresources/ss/hygrometer.htm