THE MOTHER'S DAY HATCH-A-LONG!!!! The last day to join in and set eggs with us is April 28th.

[Toxic Chicken]

Ok never mind. I am suffering from first time incubating anxiety.
I've been messing with the bator so much since I started "lock down"
Repositioning the eggs, layed them down, then put in cartons, then changed my mind
and took them out of cartons. Added sham wow, removed sham wow.
At some point I didn't sit the top on correctly.

My humidity is 61% and rising. I am walking away from the bator.
I will not touch the bator till after chicks hatch (if they do after all my fussing)

I will not touch the bator
I will not touch the bator
I will not touch the bator

 

[BBAcres]

Ok never mind. I am suffering from first time incubating anxiety.
I've been messing with the bator so much since I started "lock down"
Repositioning the eggs, layed them down, then put in cartons, then changed my mind
and took them out of cartons. Added sham wow, removed sham wow.
At some point I didn't sit the top on correctly.
My humidity is 61% and rising. I am walking away from the bator.
I will not touch the bator till after chicks hatch (if they do after all my fussing)
I will not touch the bator
I will not touch the bator
I will not touch the bator

Oh man I know it's hard but you really shouldn't open it once your in lock down.

 

[mstricer]

Quote: That is your problem, you shouldn't open it to add any water. Every time you open it, you are starting over, by letting out the humidity. What I would suggest is using a syringe and straw and add water a little at time through the vent holes. Don't do what I did and keep on adding because it's not going up, believe me it will and before you know it, it is 90% humidity. Hope this helps

 

[Bigfamily4me]

high humidity at hatch is only bad if the vents are closed off too much and the temp is still at incubation temp (99.5 for forced air)
the reason being is that hot humid air doesn't hold as much oxygen as cool humid air.. so it sounds like.. if all the chicks have nice large air cells .. that they are dieing it's due to carbon dioxide poisoning and not the humidity..

remember.. hot air holds less oxygen than cool air
humid air holds less oxygen than dry air
hatching chicks need oxygen
hot humid air can = dead chicks

the way to counter that is to have all vents / plugs OPEN at hatch.. and drop the hatch temp down 1 degree.. so if you are incubating at 99.5.. then when you raise the humidity at hatch lower the temp to 98.5 degrees


I also make sure there is good air flow in the room where the bator is located.. (not necessarily fans.. but no stagnant "dead" air) since that can also affect large hatches of chicks

if you only have a few eggs in a large bator it's not as bad.. since there is more oxygen to go around...  but the more chicks you have that are hatching means you will need more oxygen

Seriously?! I have people tell me to tape the seams of the incubator, and make sure plugs are in (or taped over). I just lost all those ducks and it was actually MY FAULT?! Ok, this really sucks @ss. What kind of chicken/duck mom poisons her unborn children? This one apparently...

I guess that would also explain why my Brinsea works better for me. It still has air flow! But it's so small so I don't use it all that often.

Well... Now I know what to do differently for our first silkies coming up. My children want them so bad and I was really afraid I'd not get any hatch. I'll just hope and pray and try it the Yinepu way!

 

[mstricer]

Well came home from work to a Wheaten Ameraucana hatching

there's still hope. So I don't hover over the hova-bator

get it. I
went outside to play with my baby turkeys, man are they fun .

After that I went to check on momma and her babies, and here is what I found one the gate

Momma and babies were scratching around so I thought I would share my first generation Olive Eggers

they are nice chicks I was kinda surprised at the nice feathering and now I think I know whose chick it is, well maybe, I have bad Marans rooster (he came from a dark egg) but would be on any Marans breeders cull list. Bad chest, very little feet feathering, and oh yeah white tale feathers, well he's over my EE's. I choose the bluest eggs and bam here they are a week old today.

Now I must go hover over my hova-bator

 

[mstricer]

Quote: Done it also

Now I don't even know where the plugs are.

 

[yinepu]

My eggs are due to hatch Monday. So I'm just sitting around and waiting and waiting and waiting. I have a brinsea 20 Eco and I'm now worried about the fan issue. I'm having trouble getting The humidity up too. I have the bottom filled with water and two wash cloths the water was actually dripping out the bottom onto my table I had it so full. My humidity won't go over 58%
Seems very weird. No condensation or steamed up windows so I guess my hygrometer is
working. My house is at 46% RH so I don't understand. When I first got it I tested it filled one
Resivior with water put the top on and the humidity shot up to 50 something and the windows steamed up. Arg. Ooh lemme remove the sham wow cloths maybe try regular wash cloth. Maybe sham wow is messing me up.
Ok put in a regular wash cloth. The water in the reservoir was cool. WTH
Oh and when I had the cover off I checked the fan, it blows straight down onto where my eggs are. Why did they do that?

if you go back a few pages I already replied to you about the humidity issue ... I guess you missed it

 

[sheherazae]

I am so much like you. I had 18 days without touching it--then realized my husband was running the humidity high all that time and I haven't stopped touching it since I was supposed to lock it down. I also accidentally bumped it and the eggs rolled (there are only three in there) . Anyway they were all alive on day 17 and I'm sure my motherly love has since killed them! I've also put sponges in and taken sponges out. It's crazy!

 

[ChestnutRidge]

The incubation tips on this thread have been awesome. Yinepu -

. I've actually copied and pasted some of your advice into Word documents to save and refer to.

I've set up a voting page for the Chicks 'N Kids or Kids 'N Chicks (I can't keep it straight) contest over in the Family Life area since it's pictures of children and such. Here's the link to the voting page. The voting page contains a link to the contest page with all of the pictures. Voting will run through midnight on Monday (I forget which time zone they use), and you can vote for up to three pictures. Voting is open to all BYCers.

I'm looking forward to all of the chick pictures that will be coming (*hint, hint*) and have enjoyed those posted.

I don't have any eggs that I want hatched, and I am done selling chicks for the year.... but I have a pretty serious broody out there. I'm thinking about caving and setting her up with some eggs. It is Mother's Day, after all.

 

[yinepu]

Seriously?! I have people tell me to tape the seams of the incubator, and make sure plugs are in (or taped over). I just lost all those ducks and it was actually MY FAULT?! Ok, this really sucks @ss. What kind of chicken/duck mom poisons her unborn children? This one apparently...
I guess that would also explain why my Brinsea works better for me. It still has air flow! But it's so small so I don't use it all that often.
Well... Now I know what to do differently for our first silkies coming up. My children want them so bad and I was really afraid I'd not get any hatch. I'll just hope and pray and try it the Yinepu way!

seriously.. making vents than can be closed and plugs to go into air holes is the dumbest thing incubator manufacturers ever came up with... well.. that and the brainiacs who decided to direct the fans so they will blow onto the eggs instead of just circulating the air.....

I have seen a ton of people get chicks all the way to hatch then wonder why they never pip or if they pip they die..and their air cells are perfect.. one of the reasons is because chicks can't live on carbon dioxide and not enough oxygen...

and if you worry about not having enough humidity.. remember.. MOST hygrometers are inaccurate.. they have to be calibrated before every single hatch because they CAN vary from hatch to hatch.. the heat from the incubators affects them and will throw them off.. the better quality ones can go several hatches .. but you're better off going by the air cells or the weights of the eggs anyway for monitoring the humidity since the porosity of shells will vary as well as the humidity in the location of the incubator.. so why not go by the eggs since that's what really counts?