Tis Time for a March 2020 Hatch-a-long!

[LilyD]

I think that eggs are designed to create the environment that they need from beginning to end. I think us humans tend to take things and overthink them when we really don't have to. We are a species that overthinks everything. A chicken just sits on the egg and the egg does its own thing, the only thing it can't do is provide itself heat.

Do you have an overhead fan to circulate your heat in your incubator? Just wondering if that might be a problem in mine. Since my heat comes from the top of the incubator.

 

[FortCluck]

Do you have an overhead fan to circulate your heat in your incubator? Just wondering if that might be a problem in mine. Since my heat comes from the top of the incubator.

Mine is the farm innovator 4250. It has the heat and fan at the top.

I rotate my eggs too after day 7. I move all the eggs a row up every other day so that they all get to be in different parts of the incubator.

The hardest part about this hatch is I'm about 99% sure the small white eggs I put in from my flock are chicken eggs so I'm going to have to hand turn the duck eggs for a few days when those eggs go to lockdown.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I will have to try this I always worry about opening the hatcher if there is a problem since it will drop the humidity. If you do it this way you don't have to lockdown. I always wondered because I've seen my broodies stand up when their eggs are hatching to move the eggs a bit or do something and they never seem to have problems hatching anything lol.

Hen's don't have fans underneath them either, lol. I wouldn't do this in my Nurture Right or IncuView because the fans are cranking, though I might be more willing to try it in the still air Little Giant I used to have, or the Hovabator even with the fan maybe. The relative humidity when you don't have an actual heat element drying out the air is usually higher in general, plus the moisture coming off of the broody. We're basically just trying to imitate nature to the best of our ability with styrofoam, plastic, and aiming hatching vibes at the incubators. lol

 

[LilyD]

Hen's don't have fans underneath them either, lol. I wouldn't do this in my Nurture Right or IncuView because the fans are cranking, though I might be more willing to try it in the still air Little Giant I used to have, or the Hovabator even with the fan maybe. The relative humidity when you don't have an actual heat element drying out the air is usually higher in general, plus the moisture coming off of the broody. We're basically just trying to imitate nature to the best of our ability with styrofoam, plastic, and aiming hatching vibes at the incubators. lol

I have the Hovabator Genesis with the fan above the eggs blowing the heat down from the element. So I was wondering if that would affect hatching without humidity by drying the eggs out too much but I would definitely be willing to give it a try with some of my farm eggs. Who knows maybe we are making it way harder than it needs to be.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I pretty much always say when you find what works best for you in your incubator, don't question it, and just keep doing what works for you! lol

 

[FortCluck]

I have the Hovabator Genesis with the fan above the eggs blowing the heat down from the element. So I was wondering if that would affect hatching without humidity by drying the eggs out too much but I would definitely be willing to give it a try with some of my farm eggs. Who knows maybe we are making it way harder than it needs to be.

Mine has the same type of setup with the fan and heating element. What I do probably wouldn't work for anyone else, who knows... I just know I went from a really bad hatch rate to 6 really good ones going to dry hatching.

 

[FortCluck]

I pretty much always say when you find what works best for you in your incubator, don't question it, and just keep doing what works for you! lol

That's why I do what I do. When I added just a little water everything turned disastrous. To the point that I was in tears because 9 fully developed chicks died in the eggs. I never want to experience that ever again!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I have the Hovabator Genesis with the fan above the eggs blowing the heat down from the element. So I was wondering if that would affect hatching without humidity by drying the eggs out too much but I would definitely be willing to give it a try with some of my farm eggs. Who knows maybe we are making it way harder than it needs to be.

Give it a try! The Farm Innovators fan isn't as intense as some fans, Hovabators don't seem nearly as high as the Nurture Right or IncuView either so I think you should be ok, though I've never tried a dry lockdown in mine I definitely had great results with dry incubation in the styrofoam bators. You're really good at assisting too! So even if it doesn't work out flawlessly I'm sure you'll still be able to manage a good hatch. I've seen too high of humidity cause far worse issues than too low.

 

[LilyD]

Give it a try! The Farm Innovators fan isn't as intense as some fans, Hovabators don't seem nearly as high as the Nurture Right or IncuView either so I think you should be ok, though I've never tried a dry lockdown in mine I definitely had great results with dry incubation in the styrofoam bators. You're really good at assisting too! So even if it doesn't work out flawlessly I'm sure you'll still be able to manage a good hatch. I've seen too high of humidity cause far worse issues than too low.

I agree I think most of the times I've had issues it was because the humidity spikes up there versus getting too low. Causing all sorts of issues.

 

[FortCluck]

Give it a try! The Farm Innovators fan isn't as intense as some fans, Hovabators don't seem nearly as high as the Nurture Right or IncuView either so I think you should be ok, though I've never tried a dry lockdown in mine I definitely had great results with dry incubation in the styrofoam bators. You're really good at assisting too! So even if it doesn't work out flawlessly I'm sure you'll still be able to manage a good hatch. I've seen too high of humidity cause far worse issues than too low.

I got the farm innovator 4250 because it was randomly half off on Amazon one day when I was looking for an incubator. I couldn't pass up the deal.

I'm going to make an incubator out of a mini fridge. I just need to get to do it.