Teacher needing some help!

[mrstimberlake0512]

Hi everyone! So excited to find this site. I’m a teacher doing my first hatching project with my students! I’ve been researching, I’ve got good homes lined up, and we have been working hard to prepare for these eggs and chicks. I’m being guided by my local 4H rep and I’m starting to wonder about some things based upon my own research. I was told 60-80% humidity is the target, but I’m wondering if that’s too high? We have a Little Giant 9300 incubator and the water evaporates soooo quickly. This has me concerned about the upcoming lockdown period because I don’t want to open it to add water. Any tips on these topics or tips in general are welcome! Thank you!

 

[The Moonshiner]

Ohh I hate saying anything about humidity because it seems different levels work for different people/locations.
I would never go that high myself. I do about 35% give or take then raise it to around 70% for lock down.
When I want to add water and not open it I use a straw attached to a syringe. Poke it through a vent hole on top.
I use hovabator so not sure what top vents you have to work with.

 

[treslilbirds]

Hi and welcome!

Google “dry incubation”, I can’t link right now, but there are a lot of good articles on it, especially here on BYC. I tried “following the book” at first and almost drowned my first hatch. A lot of the recommendations you see from universities online are geared more towards high capacity industrial incubators (100s and 100s of chicks hatching at a time). Us hobby farmers can usually get away with the dry incubation method.

I’m still fairly new, so any seasoned BYCers feel free to correct me on anything, but that’s been my personal experience.

 

[mrstimberlake0512]

Ohh I hate saying anything about humidity because it seems different levels work for different people/locations.
I would never go that high myself. I do about 35% give or take then raise it to around 70% for lock down.
When I want to add water and not open it I use a straw attached to a syringe. Poke it through a vent hole on top.
I use hovabator so not sure what top vents you have to work with.

I have two vent holes. I was also thinking sponges maybe during hatch time?

 

[mrstimberlake0512]

Hi and welcome!

Google “dry incubation”, I can’t link right now, but there are a lot of good articles on it, especially here on BYC. I tried “following the book” at first and almost drowned my first hatch. A lot of the recommendations you see from universities online are geared more towards high capacity industrial incubators (100s and 100s of chicks hatching at a time). Us hobby farmers can usually get away with the dry incubation method.

I’m still fairly new, so any seasoned BYCers feel free to correct me on anything, but that’s been my personal experience.

I will look into that! Thanks for the welcome and recommendation.