Should I add water during lockdown?

[PhoebeD]

Ok, I know I should have bought a thing to read the humidity, but I was totally out of money after buying an incubator and all the eggs (we doing this with a preschool). Anyway, I have a Brinsea and filled the two sides of the pot on day 18 and started lockdown. Now I have three pips and lot of peeping. It's so exciting! But I also see that the water is getting low. Should I open it quickly and add warm water or leave it alone?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

When there are pips I don't open mine.

But I have a Brinsea Mini Advance and I open it quickly to add water even in lockdown EXCEPT when I have pips. If the water is actually gone though I'd add water for sure.

If there is some left I'd not open it with those pips.

I have only hatched a few times in the incubator though, so hopefully someone with more experience will also chime in.

 

[CluckyCharms]

If your eggs are pipped already, I wouldn't open the lid to add water. I found out the hard way that opening the lid even for 5 seconds can be fatal to chicks that have already pipped. A rush of room temperature air gets in there very quickly and dries out the membrane, making it extremely difficult for the chicks to get out. When I did that, the two that were pipped ended up having "dryer sheet" membranes...when they were hatching the two parts of the egg shell were separated with the chick in the middle, but the outer membrane clung to both sides of the shell like crazy - and as the chick hatched it was shredded by the claws on his toes. This left 'strings' everywhere of membrane stuck to both sides of the shell. It looked exactly like a dryer sheet (fabric softener sheet texture). Eventually, the chicks DID hatch that had this problem (I didn't help them). They just got lucky and their feet were flinging everywhere and their claws eventually got lucky and clipped off enough of the strings that they could barely eek out of there.

Sorry so long - but I wanted to include the story of what happened when I tried to add water with pipped eggs.

Now what I do is put a straw inside one of the air holes and add water via funnel so I don't open the lid.

 

[PhoebeD]

Thanks for your replies. I was so worried. I added a splash of hot water quickly because I saw that the pot was empty. And all five have hatched! I woke my four-year-old son up at 5:30 AM to watch and his mind was totally blown. A few kids were here this afternoon when the last one hatched. Now we're just praying they're hens...can't have roosters in Brooklyn. Thanks again for the support.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Thanks for your replies. I was so worried. I added a splash of hot water quickly because I saw that the pot was empty. And all five have hatched! I woke my four-year-old son up at 5:30 AM to watch and his mind was totally blown. A few kids were here this afternoon when the last one hatched. Now we're just praying they're hens...can't have roosters in Brooklyn. Thanks again for the support.

I am so glad they all made it!