PLEASE HELP IMMEDIATELY

[Specter]

Hi guys!

Today is three days before hatch day of my 5 bantam eggs.

I hear chirping.

Should I put them in lock down today?????

 

[Marthab1953]

Yes you need to right away if you hear chirping. Bantams tend to hatch earlier than bigger breeds of chickens. at least the ones I have hatched.

 

[Specter]

Will this harm the other eggs that might not be close to hatching? Or in the off chance that I hallucinated the chirping?

 

[Specter]

At least one of the eggs is chirping for sure so I just put them on lock down. I felt a peck in the shell and heard the chirp as I was I moving them to the box while I removed the turner.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

You have done the right thing putting them on lockdown now. I hatch polish bantams and they always start hatching on day 20 and have usually finished by the end of day 21. It will not harm any eggs that are not quite as far along as the chirping egg. Usually when the first one hatches it encourages the other eggs to start hatching. Good luck

 

[Specter]

Thanks!

I have the Brinsea Mini Advanced.

I spiked the humidity up by filling both reservoirs ALL the way to the brim. I also spilled some on the paper towels. No eggs have started to pip yet and the incubator has condensation half way up the sides all the way around.

Will this be an issue? If not is there anything that I can/should do?

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

I would maybe take a little water out you need high humidity but not so your incubator is wet through. What is the humidity reading? Brinsea are very good for holding humidity. I have octagon 20 advance and have found 65% ideal for hatching

 

[Specter]

I wiped the condensation off really quickly and now I think it is more ideal. I took the humidity gauge out. My guess is 75% or so. The Brinsea manual says 65% or more.

My concern is that I have been having to re add water ever 48 hour or so. If some start to pip but do not hatch before Wednesday or Thursday, it could run dry and I will not be able to open it up to add more.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

I would have left the gauge in so that you know. If you have to add water add water the Brinsea gets humidity back up quite quickly. But once you have eggs hatching the wet chicks make the humidity go up too untill they dry off.

 

[Specter]

Well never-mind!

4 out 5 of the chicks hatched perfectly healthy. The 5th egg has yet to pip and may not be fertile. I don't tend to candle eggs unless I have reason for concern. If still no pip by tomorrow, I will candle it.

For anyone who might be interested, I will provide some information on the hatch below.

- Incubator used Brinsea Mini Advanced

- 4 of the 5 eggs all hatched on day 19 within roughly 8 hours of each others.

- Incubation temperature 99.5 degrees.

- Did NOT set automatic cool down feature.

- Turn angle 8 (100 - 120 degree average rotation)

- Turn time ever 45 minutes.

- Average humidity during incubation estimated 57% (low 50% high 63%)

- Estimated humidity during hatch 75%- 80%

I know everyone thinks 57% is too high. This being my first time incubating I did ample research relying on .edu sources. These would be university agriculture and biology department sources. Being an academic scientist for a major university, I tend to rely upon such sources out of habit. All stated ideal humidity during incubation was 55% - 65%. Some of the non .edu sources cited lower ideal humidity but I relied on the .edu sources. The hatch went great and there were NO ill effects. My gut feeling tells me that as long as humidity remains in the mid to mid/high range, hatches will be fine.