Uh oh... found an egg today! ... - A journal of sorts, from finding eggs to hatching them... Update

[PeepsCA]

LOL duckie, what will your neighbors say!?!?!

I try to maintain 45%-50% for incubation, 70%-75% for lock-down/hatching. Let us know what you get from ebay!

 

[daylily]

Quote: Okay Perchie girl, That is an awesome idea! Only you do not need the submersible tank heater in a bottle just put it on the bottom and put water over it esp. if you are going to be putting wire over the bottom anyway. I have mine in a styrofoam cooler and to get the temp down just open the lid for a few min. I also have a mini fan in mine that I can switch on. Only had to do it twice, mostly on hot days in the house. My problem is not being able to get the humidity up high enough for the lock down this weekend! Help I need answers. I have a wet sponge in there, a shallow tray of water, but it is not going over 40%! How do I get it higher? It looks like there maybe 4 to 5 now that are developed enough to hatch this coming week. Lockdown is on Sunday. Any suggestions?

 

[PeepsCA]

The bigger the surface area of the exposed water, the higher the humidity will be so maybe try a larger tray of water? Also the wetter the sponge or sponges the more humidity too. I use rubberized shelf liner over the wire on my hatcher floor, and when I put my eggs into lock down I'll soak the shelf liner in hot water, lightly wring it out and then put the eggs on top of that, which helps too. You can also lightly mist the air in the hatcher, just try not to soak the eggs, especially after they pip because you can drown the keets.

 

[perchie.girl]

The bigger the surface area of the exposed water, the higher the humidity will be so maybe try a larger tray of water? Also the wetter the sponge or sponges the more humidity too. I use rubberized shelf liner over the wire on my hatcher floor, and when I put my eggs into lock down I'll soak the shelf liner in hot water, lightly wring it out and then put the eggs on top of that, which helps too. You can also lightly mist the air in the hatcher, just try not to soak the eggs, especially after they pip because you can drown the keets.

x2

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: Okay Perchie girl, That is an awesome idea! Only you do not need the submersible tank heater in a bottle just put it on the bottom and put water over it esp. if you are going to be putting wire over the bottom anyway. I have mine in a styrofoam cooler and to get the temp down just open the lid for a few min. I also have a mini fan in mine that I can switch on. Only had to do it twice, mostly on hot days in the house. My problem is not being able to get the humidity up high enough for the lock down this weekend! Help I need answers. I have a wet sponge in there, a shallow tray of water, but it is not going over 40%! How do I get it higher? It looks like there maybe 4 to 5 now that are developed enough to hatch this coming week. Lockdown is on Sunday. Any suggestions?
Humidity is also a function of temperature. So if you have doubled your surface area using additional trays of water and sponges and the humidity wont go above 40 percent..... Is your hygrometer reading correctly? Maybe bringing the temperature up a couple of degrees to cause more evaporation. The air above the water has to come to the same temperature too.

deb

 

[daylily]

Thanks guys for the suggestions. I'm trying the larger tray and wetter sponge. The top is completely closed and the temp is about as high as it will get. 100.4 to 99.4. The other hygrometer I was using read 20% at least this one does fluctuate due to the amount of water. I'll report back in a while and see what works.

 

[daylily]

Okay it is up to 65% . I'm trying to send a pic of my set up. but my printer is not taking my photos off the memory card. I have to work on that next. Thank you guys.

 

[PeepsCA]

Hmmm... I'm not exactly sure of your set up (so the pics will help a lot) but I have a couple concerns for your eggs...

Do you have any ventilation holes that can draw air in (from the bottom) and let out air and gasses (at the top)? That may help circulate/distribute the humidity better. The little fan you mentioned should have been running all the time (not blowing directly on the eggs tho) to circulate the air, heat and humidity more evenly if you have been keeping the temp in the 99.4-100.4 range, otherwise you've needed to run the temp a little higher (in the 101.5-102 range) because without the fan you're basically still air incubating the eggs... and without the air being circulated, warm air rises so the temp will be lower at the bottom of the egg, not maintaining 99.5 at the center of the egg where the yolk and developing keet are located.

I know you've already been stressing about this hatch as it is and I don't mean to stress you out any more, but if this is the situation with your temp and air circulation... then your hatch will probably be late and you may have keets with hatching and leg issues

Did you candle the eggs and look for the air cells starting to get larger and slanted? That usually helps me determine the lock-down day better than the calender does.

 

[Zootopia]

Oh dear eBay! I see you have guinea eggs..! Steven misses his guineas!

Since I have an R-Com, I can set the setting any way I wish to, what should the humidity be at for incubation and lockdown?

Oh dear indeed! I thought I had this all figured out, a little stacking here and there. Then an ebay order shipped 9 days early !!!

DH remembered a guy who buys hatching eggs from us (he's soo smart, I think I'll keep him) I now have a borrowed Sportsman for the chickens, the guineas can stay in the RP and I can sleep thru the Holiday! (except when I get up to pee and turn the guinea eggs)
Everyone Stay Safe this Holiday weekend !

 

[JLeigh]

daylily, here is what my physics genius husband explained to me about humidity. It may help you get your humidity up fast. My apologies if you know this already, but here goes:

You can have 2 cups of water in a an average tea glass, and have less humidity than if you have 2 cups of water spread over the surface of a cookie sheet (humor me on the cookie sheet - we were in the kitchen during the lesson). The idea is that it's the amount of water exposed, surface to the air, that makes the difference. So the more spread out the water is, the more humidity you're going to have. He didn't address sponges (but he will tonight! LOL) Sponges have a LOT of surface area. So if you want to up the humidity fast, up the surface area exposed to air.

Again, I apologize if you know this already. It was an eye-opener for me when he explained that, but then I'm "challenged" in more ways than one. Keep me posted, please. Good luck!! I'm thinking about you!