question about when to lockdown and increase humidity

[brijay2]

I am on day 19 and I am trying to follow the sticky on humidity and lockdown in this forum. It instructs you to wait until you see an internal pip before you stop turning and then once you see external pips you increase the humidity and keep the bator closed. Now I have had successful hatches before by following the rule of turning until 18 and then lockdown but I have always had one or two that are fully formed and yet don't hatch. Has anybody else tried this method?? What is your feedback? My eggs are all still viable and moving and the air cell has started to dip on one side but no internal pips yet any advice????

 

[OkChickens]

Quite a few chicks will Die in the Shell. This is just a natural cycle that happens. my humidity stays around 20% during incubation and i bump it up to about 50% during hatching. out of 6 dozen eggs usually I have 4 or so dead in the shell fully developed. I stop turning my eggs on day 19. at this point 1-2 eggs have pipped and are starting to zip. Then I put them in the hatcher at 99.5-100 and then wait 3-4 days to see how sucessful the hatch was.

Nate

 

[cmom]

Looks like you are doing good. I run my incubator around 35% during incubation and when the egg go into the hatcher I up it to 65% to 75%. My last hatch was 100% The hatch before that 1 didn't hatch but it was an early quitter and wasn't fully formed

 

[Gypsy07]

I think the thread about not increasing humidity till you see an external pip is all to do with eggs that have been slow to lose moisture and haven't yet lost enough by day 18. You hold off raising humidity to give them the chance to lose a bit more moisture and a better chance of hatching out. But if you think your eggs have lost enough moisture by day 18, there's no real point in holding off on lockdown.

I weigh my eggs to ensure correct moisture loss by day 18, so I always lock down and raise humidity on day 18, or depending on the time of day etc, sometimes I do it early on day 19. With my own eggs, this usually gives me near enough a 100% hatch rate. From my own hatching experiences and various experiments, I think that the problem of fully formed chicks that die just before hatch is more about hygiene and bacteria, as once I started washing all my hatching eggs in a dilute bleach solution, it pretty much stopped happening. I may be wrong though...

 

[chevgrl]

Quote:
At what humidity does the air sac start taking on water? And how can you tell if the chick has pipped internally? I have 3 eggs on day 22 while 2 of them hatched on the 20th. I know if the humidity is too high the air sac can be filled with water. I candled the 3 late eggs and their sirsacs are clear nothing dark in them.. but is there anyway to tell if there is water in them? I know that after the second chick hatched the humidity was up to 80% and I don't know for how long but there was quite a bit of condensation of the windows

 

[cmom]

Quote:
Usually the problem with water in the air sack occurs during incubation. Many people do dry incubation and do not have this problem. Most do not really need to add water during the incubation period unless the humidity is down to around 20% then it is a good idea to bring it up a little. The eggs need to loose a certain amount of moisture during incubation and if the humidity is to high then the chicks will drown when they pip an air sack with water in it.

 

[chevgrl]

Quote:
Usually the problem with water in the air sack occurs during incubation. Many people do dry incubation and do not have this problem. Most do not really need to add water during the incubation period unless the humidity is down to around 20% then it is a good idea to bring it up a little. The eggs need to loose a certain amount of moisture during incubation and if the humidity is to high then the chicks will drown when they pip an air sack with water in it.

I do dry incubation and swear by it! So is there a chance that if it was up 80% for a couple hour it might have condensation in the air sac?

 

[brijay2]

So I candled again last night and could see shadows in the air cell in at least 3 of the 7. I stopped turning but did not increase the humidity. Today one pipped and started to zip and I quickly filled the wells in my incubator and am officially on lockdown!!! Hoping to see some babies soon-today is day 20.

How do you dry incubate? can it be done with a mini eco by Brinsea?

 

[OkChickens]

Quote:
During the spring is it quite humid here and I do not have any water in my incubator. the humidity is around 25-30% during incubation and during hatching i raise it to 50-60%. I guess this dry incubation when you dont add any water?

Nate

 

[GrannysRoost]

Quote:
Congrats on the starting to zip!!! Where we are in AZ, it is so dry I need to add water and watch closely. I just checked this morning and was evaporated and down to 16% (happens quickly often), now up to 43%. Another BYC'er down here told me she has had the best luck with 40% to 50% the first 18, then up it during lockdown and my hatch rate has gone up.