Setting eggs July 6th. Need some hatching buddies. Lets have some fun!

[Stephanie739]

Not that I am aware of. Increasing the humidity causes the egg to lose moisture less quickly, causing the air cell to grow more slowly. You have to find the right humidity so the egg loses moisture at about the right rate. If the egg loses too much moisture the chick may not be able to hatch out. If the eggs loses too little moisture, the chick may drown when it tries to hatch. There's a lot of wiggle room, all things considered, but too much exposure to either extreme (too little or too much humidity) can be a disaster for the little guys.

Amy

Thanks Amy...I am just really curious what caused such a terrible spike on day 16. I haven't had any spikes like that, and the only difference was the intentional increase in humidity. I had been at 35-40% until day 15 and I have been bringing it up since...45, 50, 55, 60...and then late yesterday afternoon - bam - my temp shot up.

 

[DraigAthar]

Thanks Amy...I am just really curious what caused such a terrible spike on day 16. I haven't had any spikes like that, and the only difference was the intentional increase in humidity. I had been at 35-40% until day 15 and I have been bringing it up since...45, 50, 55, 60...and then late yesterday afternoon - bam - my temp shot up.

That is odd, I see why you are wondering. When you added water to increase the humidity, was the water cold or warm? What kind of incubator are you using? One thing that does happen is that as the chicks inside the eggs get larger, they actually start producing enough body heat to affect the temp inside the incubator. Does your incubator have a thermostat, or do you have to adjust temp manually all the time? And is there much fluctuation in the room temp where the incubator is located? Maybe we can trouble shoot this for you!

Amy

 

[Stephanie739]

I am using a homemade styrofoam cooler incubator, no fan. I have several thermometers, but none seem to be accurate. I am relying on the humidity/thermometer that hangs on the wall, up towards the top of the incubator. I aim for 101-102 on that thermometer.

My others are fish tank thermometers and have ranged from 90-110. Day 16, one of those read 110 (the highest ever) The others were high, but not that much. I was most concerned because the wall thermometer was at 104-105 (the spike I am worried about)

I do recall the babies generating more heat beginning on around day 12 or 13 on my last hatch, but I had many more eggs in the incubator (28) This time I only have 15. Perhaps with fewer eggs it took more days to show the heat increase from growing babies.

I am also using a different light bulb than I did on most of my first hatch. I switched to the lower watt on day 17 last time. This time I have been using the lower watt bulb the entire time. Its been much easier. I had many spikes on my first hatch, but I was watching the eggs very very closely and caught the increases quickly, cooling the space by opening vents, etc....this time everything has been so smooth, and the spike caught me very much unaware.

I am going to candle tonight and see who is still thriving. Before my spike, all 15 seemed well. I saw movement in 13 on day 13.

 

[Stephanie739]

Oh I used hot water, on a pad.

 

[DraigAthar]

I am using a homemade styrofoam cooler incubator, no fan. I have several thermometers, but none seem to be accurate. I am relying on the humidity/thermometer that hangs on the wall, up towards the top of the incubator. I aim for 101-102 on that thermometer.

My others are fish tank thermometers and have ranged from 90-110. Day 16, one of those read 110 (the highest ever) The others were high, but not that much. I was most concerned because the wall thermometer was at 104-105 (the spike I am worried about)

I do recall the babies generating more heat beginning on around day 12 or 13 on my last hatch, but I had many more eggs in the incubator (28) This time I only have 15. Perhaps with fewer eggs it took more days to show the heat increase from growing babies.

I am also using a different light bulb than I did on most of my first hatch. I switched to the lower watt on day 17 last time. This time I have been using the lower watt bulb the entire time. Its been much easier. I had many spikes on my first hatch, but I was watching the eggs very very closely and caught the increases quickly, cooling the space by opening vents, etc....this time everything has been so smooth, and the spike caught me very much unaware.

I am going to candle tonight and see who is still thriving. Before my spike, all 15 seemed well. I saw movement in 13 on day 13.

Wow, that does sound like a lot of work. Could you possibly set your system up with a thermostat, so you don't have to do so much manual fiddling with your temperature? You can buy thermostats that can be wired into whatever else you want to use them with. I guess I am spoiled, my incubator has its own thermostat so aside from checking to make sure everything is still running smoothly about once a day, I don't have to pay much attention to it otherwise.

But yes, I imagine your spike could have been due to the growing babies!

Amy

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

Well, that was a gross discovery. Summer had shuffled a half crushed egg in front of her. It was rotten through and through. Thankfully the membrane hadn't ruptured so it didn't start leaking until after I got it out of the coop. I wanted to see if there had been a chick in it but all I found was noxious mustard yellow goo. Bleck. I am candling tonight to weed out any more.

 

[paridisefarm2009]

I candled all mine tonight had to remove 5 , so I have 25 left in there all looking Good I hope. they are EE and a few Polish . hope for the best

 

[Stephanie739]

Wow, that does sound like a lot of work. Could you possibly set your system up with a thermostat, so you don't have to do so much manual fiddling with your temperature? You can buy thermostats that can be wired into whatever else you want to use them with. I guess I am spoiled, my incubator has its own thermostat so aside from checking to make sure everything is still running smoothly about once a day, I don't have to pay much attention to it otherwise.

But yes, I imagine your spike could have been due to the growing babies!

Amy

Yes, I'm not in the privileged incubating crowd lol work work work! Tis okay, I have learned a lot! I'm planning on building a cabinet style incubator in the not too distant future...I'll have a better set up then.

Anyway, I candled all 15 tonight (lockdown tomorrow) saw definite movement in 5, others not so sure...and a few were just so dark I couldn't see anything beyond the air sac.

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

Soooo disappointed right now. Every egg was rotten. Now to find local hatching eggs...

 

[Stephanie739]

Soooo disappointed right now. Every egg was rotten. Now to find local hatching eggs...

oh! That's terrible!!! I'm so sorry...better luck with the next batch