Ventilation is the key not humidity!

[rebelcowboysnb]

lol hyperbolic-bator.... The question then would be how do you transfer them out of the incubator in to the natural atmosphere without giving the chicks the bends? lol

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Commercial broiler hatcheries poke a hole in the top of the egg 3 days before hatch to administer meds. Have you thought about poking a hole in to the air sack prier to putting them in the incubator to see if that helps air exchange?

 

[BeardedChick]

I have tried it the day after the hatch date should have been (I think it was too late, though, and the embryos were already goners). I've been a little afraid to try it before.

Might give it a shot on the next batch. Do they just poke a hole in the shell or go all the way into the membrane?

I don't know how I'd poke a tiny hole and be able to see if it actually opened the membrane or not. Could you do it on the side where the pip usually starts?

 

[spookychick]

I was also told to use sandpaper to rough up the large end of the egg, especially on the dark shells, because it allows more oxygen to enter. This is my first time incubating the very dark BC Marans, but I did carefully scuff the shells as instructed to see if I notice a difference in the hatch.

 

[BeardedChick]

Quote:
That's interesting - something I could easily try on a few eggs.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Here's a video of it.
http://www.tvlesson.com/video/25740_how-hatchery-chicks-are-made--.html

 

[greathorse]

My next step is going to be to build a pre warming and and pre humidification chamber. I will have a box? of sorts that attaches to the inlet vent of the bator. I am thinking a 150 watt element and a wafer therm that is set for about 95 degrees. I will also have a pan of water or a drip system to add humidity to the air coming in. I could of course humdify my room and keep my rood at high temp but dont want to waste energy doing that.

I would then be able to keep vents quite open and hopefully more air exchange.

 

[tinners204]

Quote:
Ok, my first hatch is complete in my new Dickeys incubator and I got 94% hatch rate. Not bad. I do think the ventilation is the key, combined with the right humidity which mine was running 45% and temp which was 99.5. I now have 90 eggs starting to hatch today and I had to many eggs for the hatcher so I had to put some in the 1602 Hovabator. This time I'm not going to put water in the tray to raise the humidity. I'm just going to mist them 3 times a day and have both vents wide open on the top. It sure did work in the Dickeys. That way you don't have the smell and mess to clean up at the end of the hatch in the Hovabator. I'll report back in a couple of days to post the results.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Quote:
Interesting...

 

[SpunkyChicken]

Quote:
I was actually going to ask something about this. 13 years ago we started hatching duck eggs; I was 8 years old at the time. After getting back into incubating again I suddenly remembered that my mother used to poke a hole at the top of the eggs with a very small needle at some point in the incubation process. I'm guessing it was day 18; obviously my 8-year-old brain didn't think to keep track of that information.

Anyway, I haven't read a lot here about poking a hole over the air sac, so I was wondering if that was a common pratice, or if it's only done if it is believed the chicks will need more air when they begin to pip.