So I've been very frustrated hatching out LS eggs. Been trying to fine tune it and I tried dry hatch this time and it really seems to be making the difference. I have 12 LS eggs in the hatcher right now. 1 out and 4 more pips and they're about half a day early. So my first LS hatch was a big fat 0! Thought I was doing everything right I wanted them so bad. They were some eggs off of ebay and I didn't know their history so maybe it was OK but at the time it really sucked!
For my first hatches I had humidity in the 40's to low 50's and upper 60's for hatch time. Thought this was perfect! They grew and developed just great but at hatch time one or 2 would hatch fine and then the others would zip and clear fluid would ooze out and the few I could get to hatch were wet and sticky and would get stuck! I'd have to help some here and there. Very frustrating!! I thought too low of humidity at hatch time since they were getting stuck. But now my thoughts are that humidity DURING incubation is almost as important if not more so. This time I did the dry hatch method. Most of the time believe it or not my humidity was just over 20! I would add just a Tbsp or 2 of water every couple of days and then the humidity would jump to 40-50 or so for a few hours and I'd let it go back down to 20-25 for a day or 2. I wanted to try to get it to hold in the 30's but it was 20's or 40's so I kinda split the difference. I paid really close attention to the air sac this time as I think before it wasn't big enough and I had been drowning the poor things!! This time the air sac seems to be quite sizeable. During lockdown I have had humidity at pretty steady 64 only now the first chick has tipped it over and I can't read it anymore! But the first chick hatched no problem!! Came out clean and dry and is already fully fluffed out!! I'll post as things progress. I'm really hopeful that after so many disasters I might finally be on the right track!
For my first hatches I had humidity in the 40's to low 50's and upper 60's for hatch time. Thought this was perfect! They grew and developed just great but at hatch time one or 2 would hatch fine and then the others would zip and clear fluid would ooze out and the few I could get to hatch were wet and sticky and would get stuck! I'd have to help some here and there. Very frustrating!! I thought too low of humidity at hatch time since they were getting stuck. But now my thoughts are that humidity DURING incubation is almost as important if not more so. This time I did the dry hatch method. Most of the time believe it or not my humidity was just over 20! I would add just a Tbsp or 2 of water every couple of days and then the humidity would jump to 40-50 or so for a few hours and I'd let it go back down to 20-25 for a day or 2. I wanted to try to get it to hold in the 30's but it was 20's or 40's so I kinda split the difference. I paid really close attention to the air sac this time as I think before it wasn't big enough and I had been drowning the poor things!! This time the air sac seems to be quite sizeable. During lockdown I have had humidity at pretty steady 64 only now the first chick has tipped it over and I can't read it anymore! But the first chick hatched no problem!! Came out clean and dry and is already fully fluffed out!! I'll post as things progress. I'm really hopeful that after so many disasters I might finally be on the right track!
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