Ventilation is the key not humidity!

[greathorse]

Are you going to open the bator (oh horrors) or will do you mist through the vents. I am not certain that opening the incubator for a moment is as awful as many tell us, but certainly conventional wisdom tells us not to open for the last three days.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

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.

Thought it was a new idea.... Guess not lol.

 

[SpunkyChicken]

Quote:
I actually have an aquatic tube running from a vent at the top to the tray at the bottom that we pump water into via a syringe; that way we only have to open the bator to turn the eggs (so obviously it will stay closed the last 3 days). Do you suppose I will need to mist as well to keep the humidity adequate?

 

[Highaltitudechicks]

I am using an older hova-bator 1582 w/ fan and turner. I was able to keep my temps stable this batch, dont know about humidity. Should I put some 1/2 inch hole's in the side to increase airflow? I have 3 eggs still in it on day 22. I took out 8 this morning that were in different stages of developement but nowhere near where they should have been and all dead. Any thoughts?

 

[BeardedChick]

Quote:
Why not just drop an aquarium heater and air pump in a bottle of water? I'm just sayin... Or you could set a small aquarium next to your bator and use it as the heater chamber. That would be very easy. Throw in some algae or duckweed and it would be slightly oxygenated. Not sure if that will work with your bator, but if it does it's very easy.

And I'll copy 'ya if it works.

 

[greathorse]

Thats thinkin outside the box right there. I may just try that. My son had a ton of aquariums back in the day. I bet there is a 20 gallon tank hanging around here Might just try that. Not sure about the algae thing.

 

[BeardedChick]

Quote:
That's how a lot of mine turn out. It's really sad and frustrating.

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
Why not just drop an aquarium heater and air pump in a bottle of water? I'm just sayin... Or you could set a small aquarium next to your bator and use it as the heater chamber. That would be very easy. Throw in some algae or duckweed and it would be slightly oxygenated. Not sure if that will work with your bator, but if it does it's very easy.

And I'll copy 'ya if it works.

I think that's a great idea. You really wouldn't need an aquarium, you could use a cheap glass fish bowl, or any large glass bowl, gallon or half-gallon jar. I'd use glass to prevent problem with fumes or chemicals from plastic. Though you could probably use a stainless steel saucepan.

I think that pumping in air could, all by itself, raise air pressure in the 'bator slightly. I don't think a person would really need to use a pressure cooker or anything like that. Even a slight increase could make a lot of difference, to an egg.

You could probably have a fan blowing into a room, without any open windows or anything for air to blow out, and increase air pressure in that one room. You could do the same thing in a smaller area by setting up a box or a tent, something big enough to put the 'bator in, with some sort of duct, like a short piece of stovepipe or something, or a piece of tubing the right size to put small fan, like a muffin fan or some such (for example: http://www.sciplus.com/search.cfm/scategory/BLO/term/fan/srch.fp/1 ) blowing into the box or tent. As long as the air outlet is smaller than the inlet, air pressure would rise, at least a little. It wouldn't have to be a very strong fan.

I'm going to try a tray of water under my 'bator, and sponge donuts on top around the air vents, for when it's time to raise the humidity. I'll try it out before hand, to make sure it'll, work, then I'll have time to try other things if it doesn't. Tomorrow's day 10, so I have 9 days to figure it out.

 

[BeardedChick]

Yeah, a food grade plastic bucket with a lid would make it very easy to capture the warm moist water. I just thought about an aquarium because they are cheap and easy to come by on Craigslist. And I had this idea for building an uber aquarium/incubator that I should be

smacked for even thinking about...

Besides, I really don't have trouble keeping the humidity up in my 'bator and hatcher. I put the fan right over the water pan and it picks up *plenty* of moisture.

I hope GH proves me wrong but I don't think prehumidifying the air will make a tremendous difference.

It would be easy enough to test the air pressure - barometric pressure is about 5 inches of mercury higher at sea level. You could just put a barometer in the room, and one in the 'bator to see what the change in air pressure is.

If I can find a couple of cheap and easy barometers, I'm game to trying to figure out how easy it is to create positive pressure with a fan. I personally don't think it will be easy, but it would be interesting.

 

[greathorse]

YOu dont think prehumdifying the air would allow you to keep the bator vents open more fully thereby providing more fresh air and O2? hmmm?? You would think so.

My guess is that in commercial incubation systems the whole atmospheric situation is handled so that it is the same no matter where it is done. Those big fella's have done their research for sure. We are here grasping for common sense. I think we will all have better hatches at altitude by continuing to exchange ideas.

I will let you know on my nest hatch how my prehumdified air system works. I am getting shipped eggs middle of next week so it wont be long now. RIR and some BLRW..