Update on Not Disappointed

[williamsl77]

I think I kept humidity too high for last couple weeks of incubation. Eggs did not loose enough weight by day 18 and today is Day 21. No movement, no pipping. Temps are dropping slightly in the incubator... I have to keep nudging it up to keep it at 99-100. I'm thinking I'm loosing them. Of course, I'll keep the eggs in for another couple of days, but I'm not feeling like it's going well. These are bantam eggs, too, which most people say tend to hatch earlier rather than later. Bummer. I have another batch in and I'm keeping humidity lower for them.

Thoughts?

 

[williamsl77]

Bumping for thoughts....

 

[Ridgerunner]

Humidity is something that works differently for each of us. What works for me might not work for you. It sounds like you are doing it right, trying something, paying attention, and then make necessary adjustments in later hatches.

Different things can affect when eggs hatch. The big one is average incubating temperature, but there are several others. Other than slightly low temperatures, two things that can cause a late hatch are heredity and high humidity. Low humidity can cause a slightly earlier hatch. They seem to know if they have lost enough moisture or not, but they can only wait so long.

My thoughts are that if you have been weighing them or candling and measuring the size of the air sac so you know your humidity was too high, that is not a good thing but don't give up yet. Sometimes those eggs are a lot tougher than you would expect.

Good luck!!!

 

[williamsl77]

I was watching the air cells and the did get bigger and dip down. But how exactly do you measure? What are you measuring?

Thanks for your response, by the way.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You can search the internet for a better chart, but maybe this will help. It shows what they should look like at a few specific times.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/livestocksystems/di0631.html

 

[georgiagail]

Hold off tossing for a few more days.

I was incubating some bantam eggs and had to take the top of my Turn-X incubator apart when a screw accidentally fell into the top as I was holding it upside down (stupid!). In the process of repairing it I misplaced the thermometer and "estimated" resetting the wafer thermostat.

When I was able to get another thermometer I learned the temps were actually in the low 90's (better, I suppose, then frying them) and I figured I lost them. However, I still was able to get 7 bantam eggs to hatch; however, they hatched on day 22 - 23 instead of the usual day 19-20.

Gail

 

[williamsl77]

That's a good point... if anything, I have kept the temperatures a smidge on the low wide (as I was more worried about high temps). I was going to give it a few more days anyway, but maybe I'll keep my fingers crossed a little longer.


Thanks for the moral support!

 

[Gypsy07]

Quote:
Yeah, I know what you mean. Even after a few years of hatching, I still don't trust my own ability to check humidity by getting a visual of the aircell size. It can be hard to tell, especially with shipped eggs that have wonky aircells. For future hatches, you may like to consider weighing your eggs. it gives great peace of mind to KNOW your humidiy is spot on rather than thinking 'Hmm, I guess my aircells look okay...'

A healthy developing egg should lose 13% of its starting weight by day 18-19. Actually, anything in between 11-15% is okay but the nearer you can get to 13% is probably better. Any cheap digital kitchen scale that measures in grams is good enough, then you just weigh when you're candling and gauge progress and whether you need to adjust your humidity up or down a bit. After a couple of hatches, you'll likely have a figure for humidity that will work for all your incubations. After some fiddling about a couple of years ago, I now go with 45% for the first 18 days, and that usually works just fine for me.

As for your late eggs, I'd give them a couple more days. If your aircells got bigger then they've obviously lost some moisture in there, so I wouldn't despair just yet. They can be a lot tougher than you think and people have successfully hatched chicks from much worse incubator conditions than what you're describing. Also, are you sure you're counting your days correctly? A very common mistake is to count the day you put them in as day 1, so that come 'day 21' you're actually expecting them to hatch a day early. Just a thought...

 

[williamsl77]

Well, maybe that is a good point... I set them at 4am on Dec 8. Would that make today Day 20 or 21?

 

[nurse_turtle]

I highly recommend using a dry incubation method where no water at all is added until lockdown. I have great success with it and it eliminates a lot of concerns/stress trying to deal with humidity during the first 18 days. I ONLY use dry incubation now.