Over the years I have hatched eggs in prob 20 diff styles and types of incubators. Everything fron the little chickubators that look like a mini spaceship, to home made versions made out of mini refrigerators, or picnic coolers, to built from scratch, to several styles of styro type incubators. For the present I am using forced air styro bators. Something that I am observing that I would love opinions on from others is the following. Forced air incubators do a fine job of getting the developing chicks to the point of lockdown. Lockdown seems to be where the probs seem to occur. I don't recall having issues in lockdown with still air incubators. What seems to be happening is that even tho the humidity is at high levels, often 80% or more, once the chicks pipp the membrane dries and you get a stuck chick that sometimes needs help, or left without help dies in the shell without ever zipping. I think this is happening because even tho the air is humid, the air movement seems to dry the membrane and sometimes the chick. After the hatch that I am currently going thru, I will not be setting more eggs for a while. I have desided to install a fan kill switch in my bator and when they go into lockdown, im killing the fan and adjusting the temp as if it was a still air bator. I am not certain of the outcome, this will be an experiment but its worth a try. Have any of you tried what I am proposing, if so please let us all know what your results have been. Thanks in advance for any and all comments.
