Please answer a dumb question....

[meriruka]

I've been reading everyone's incubator /hatching stories trying to learn everything I can before I try this myself. For the last two days of the hatch, everyone increases the humidity in their 'bators.
So, if a hen is hatching her own chicks, how could she increase the humidity to help her chicks hatch or isn't it necessary?

 

[mario2girls]

i dont , i think it isnt as complicated as some make it seem to be,,,i have good hatches and i dont change anything,,,sometimes i even forget to move the eggs from the turner before hatch,,,i have woken many mornings to find a chick sitting on the turner,,,,lol

 

[sara]

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I don't think I would encourage that, I've read to many stories of chicks getting smashed in the turners.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

I don't know. I could explain it for a duck, but not for a chicken.

 

[mario2girls]

oh, i dont recommend that,,,by the way..
i am just adding my name to the dumb incubator mistakes story list....

 

[ibpboo]

Once I took care of some eggs in an incubator for a couple days while people were out of town. All I was instructed to do was turn the eggs once a day. They had x on one side and o on the other side so you knew which ones to turn. And when I went back, there were baby chicks hatching. I have no idea what the temp or humidity was.

 

[meriruka]

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How do ducks do it?

 

[MissPrissy]

We raise the humidity on day 18 and stop turning.

If you have watched a hen when she is brooding she gets up and moves around and eats and drinks and rolls her eggs around. When she gets to the end of a hatch she doesn't. She sticks to those eggs. Often she has plucked chest feathers and the warm skin underneath her adds more humidty to the eggs the longer she sits. That is why broody hens loose weight. They aren't getting up to eat and drink in those last few days.

 

[meriruka]

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Would it be helpful to put food & water right next to her , or would she just ignore it?

 

[MissPrissy]

You can offer food and water right at her. You can't always make her eat it but I would keep it there beside her if she wants it. When the babies hatch make sure there is always chick starter there were they can eat and lots of clean water. She will teach them to eat and drink.