Shrink wrap chick

[valley ranch]

What would you say is the optimum humidity? Day 1-17 and 18-21 ?

Richard

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
This will vary greatly on your climate. I live in a VERY dry climate and I shoot for 25-40% days 1-18 and 50-55% during lockdown. And it is sometimes very hard for me to reach those goals.

If you can maintain 30% days 1-18, I personally feel that is good level. 50-55% during lockdown is great. I am often left at 40% during lockdown and once had it go to 20% and it was not pretty.

 

[gitlost80]

I have rocks at the bottom of my incubator(home made styrofoam incubator) to help retain the heat when opening, and turning eggs.My humidity levels are holding steady, but Im curious... why not give the incubator a couple mists of water on days 20 or 21, just to put some extra moisture in the air-or mist them once you realize they are "shrink wrapping"? This will be my first hatch.

 

[valley ranch]

That sounds good. I live in a very dry climate also. I like the sound of both your day 1-17 18 and your lockdown humidity. Those are the temps I'll be shooting for.
I've read some numbers that sound like they are hatching ducks.

Richard

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
Mine hatch out pretty good! Once I remove the eggs that are not viable, I get 100% hatch.

 

[valley ranch]

Hatching up here in the mountains will be a challenge as where you are and the lady in Reno. Our place is near Lake Tahoe, at 6700 ft. There will also be some advantages over living in very humid areas. We built, for our daughters, a Frog Habitat, the humidity has, at times, been a tough one. We also heat with wood. If the humidity was 40-45 percent you could almost go to sleep until lockdown. Good hearing from you.

Richard

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
Yeah you suffer our conditions!!! Maxi pads, tubes, syringes have been helpful. I also use balled up paper towels....

 

[BerrytangleFarm]

I noticed that when I had to cover the incubator in a power outage last week that the humidity went way up (it's a still air with several open holes). Will that be a method to keep the humidity high in lockdown or should I leave all the holes uncovered and add sponges, etc. and extra water when needed through the holes??

 

[Lifesong Farm]

Well I as soon as my incubator gets here I will have a Hovabator 1602 with egg turner. He listened to me talking about if I got that one how I would need a fan. So he ordered one of those to! He said the Brinsea was to expensive this year.

I opened a big box with a little pice of paper and a rock in it yesterday. The a*%hole printed out a picture and put it into a big box and added weight so I wouldn't be able to figure anything out!

 

[dolfi]

There are no dumb questions on BYC.

Shrink wrap is a term that is used to describe what happens when there is too little humidity inside the bator once the chick has pipped.

Here is a pic of a shrink wrapped chick after I peeled in out:



Quite often, it is hard to save a shrink wrapped chick. I was lucky to catch this one in time. My hygrometer was WAY off and it was way too dry in there and I lost two others.

What happens in the membrane cannot stay moist enough without a good level of humidity during lockdown and that membrane dries out and shrinks around the chick. I can tell you it is near impossible to get off.

i think i have a shrink wrap chick and i have no idea how to help it