Ventilation is the key not humidity!

[hungryhensfarm]

Hey rebelcowboysnb, I followed a link to your page and viewed many of your farm photos. I

was wondering if you would share with me what you used to make those interesting

roosts/nest boxes. I have been looking for a reasonably inexpensive way to house my

chickens at my new home. If you are willing to share the specs I believe this could solve my

problem. Right now I'm traveling several miles daily to care for my chickens and collect eggs.

I really need to move them soon. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[spookychick]

This seems to be correct in my observations. I'm running 40-45% humidity in my Sportsman (using a humidifier to get 50% RH outside the bator), vents open, upping to 60% the last three days, and my hatches are beautiful now. Fluffy little chicks with excellent hatch rates. I started doing this after someone in one of my online clubs described the high oxygen needs during incubation and hatch, and how opening up the vents is the key to a successful hatch.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

CANDLE98 Yes the air sack is what you look at. But if the air sack is to small I would add more ventilation.

hungryhensfarm PMed you.

 

[greathorse]

There was a post some time ago about managing the shrink (dehydration) as eggs develop. The poster indicated that manging the air sac was the primary element for successful hatches. I beleive there was even a chart spread sheet developed for weighing eggs and recording the weight loss.

That article indicated that next to temperature managing the air sac size which certainly corresponds with humidity was of ultimate importance.

I think you are right Rebel many of us have focused on the wrong aspect of this. I am hatching right now with a huge pan of water and vents quite open and the sac on my eggs looks much like what one would see in the graphs. I will know in about three days how succesful I am. The ambient humidty here is quite low. Very low in fact. so it takes a lot of water if we want ventilation. I will have put over 5 gallons of water through my pan by the time this hatch is complete. I am incubating and hatching in a 1202 sportsman

Thanks for the refreshing way of looking at this.

I think I am going to begin looking at this in a different way. I will largely manage RH by area of exposed water surface while keeping generous venilation. I think we have all done that to some extent with adding sponges or wet mats, but it helps to think of it differently. Or it does for me anyway.

 

[BeardedChick]

Greathorse, are you in Colorado?

 

[greathorse]

Yes I am but I am in the witness protection program and cannot reveal my whereabouts LOL. I am north of Denver. Is it ever going to rain or snow?? Wow dry dry dry

 

[dancingbear]

You know, I was wondering something along these lines since reading the thread/novel about humidity. Now I'm wondering is there's an inexpensive oxygen/CO2 monitor gauge that could be added to a 'bator? I bet that could solve all kinds of problems.

Thanks so much for this useful post.

 

[greathorse]

Dancing I have seriously considered adding a bit of o2 into my incubator. I have not really looked into it. I am not sure but one may need some kind of permit or perscription for oxygen??

 

[BeardedChick]

Are you hatching shipped eggs, GH? I'm really interested to know how your hatch turns out. I've not had much luck with shipped eggs.

O2 is not very safe - flammable/explosive around an ignition source. Most thermostats do create a small spark as they cycle on and off, so there's your ignition source.

I am in the S. part of the state. I'd tell you where, but then you know what I'd have to do.

 

[Akane]

You can measure o2 but it will cost you a few $100. http://www.wildco.com/vw_prdct_mdl.asp?prdct_mdl_cd=4105D20 I think I saw one for $120 as the cheapest that would also measure o2 in the air. It's cheaper to get ones that only measure in liquids. Carbon dioxide would probably be a bit cheaper to measure.

Is it really useful though? That's not telling you how much air is going in or out. It's only telling you how much the chicks are using compared to what's going in and out. If you have 3 eggs you could have high o2, low co2 and still not have much air exchange therefore, according to this thread so far, requiring a lower humidity. If you had 42 standard eggs (the most a common tabletop styrofoam bator holds) and had the same o2/co2 numbers you'd have to be moving a much greater amount of air and as a result drying things out more. Since we have no established numbers for the best o2 levels, co2 levels, and ratios it really would be pointless.

Just adding straight oxygen can be dangerous. Breathing straight oxygen is not actually a good thing. Co2 also is a trigger for hatching. When the co2 level in the egg builds it starts the muscle contractions in the "hatching muscle" in the neck which leads to pecking and pipping the egg. Blasting the thing with oxygen could cause problems beyond being an actual health issue and having all the dangers inherent in compressed gas. You'd be better off building a chamber to humidify the air before putting it into the bator and then pumping that normal air with a bit of extra moisture through the bator instead of going for highly concentrated o2.