Ventilation is the key not humidity!

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Bearded now you have gone all scientific and techy on us. I would much rather live in oblivious ignorance. Seriously the more I think about it I think your point about atmospheric pressure is valid.

But still as air circulates around in the incubator and has very littel fresh air coming in from the outside, when vents are nearly closed doesnt the O2 get used up? I have no idea. When we open a window for fresh air in our homes so we feel better is it oxygen or just fresh air whatever that means?

That is what I think these eggs need is fresh breathable air.

I have also beleived that air pressure changes in the density of the egg shell effect available oxygen. That pinhole might just be a decent idea. Or maybe buffing the large end of the egg?

Geeze Bearded when do you sleep.
 
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The O2 could definitely drop depending on your 'bator design. Embryos do consume oxygen so if it's too closed up, the O2 level could drop. My cabinet style bator has about 8 holes (always open) and my hatcher also has several. So I am not worried about it regarding my specific 'bator.

If I wanted to test it, I could put a hose into the box, breath through it, and watch my own oxygen level (I have a pulse ox which would measure my blood oxygen level). I have no doubt there would be plenty of air for me to breath, so the eggs should have plenty, too.

I can try buffing and/or a pinhole tomorrow - some shipped eggs are going into the hatcher over the next two days.

I have the hatcher setup with lower humidity than I've been using, so it will be interesting (65%). I mostly incubated these at about 70%.

Also have some duck eggs going in soon, and I just set some locally produced eggs for comparison.

It will be interesting, though I'm not expecting any miracles.
 
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Exactly - that's why I waited until they were late for hatch. I was afraid of creating dry membranes.

I really don't know what the answer is. Just have a couple of my crack pot theories to test out.
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ok greathorse you asked for this so here I go. Temp. humidity and ventilation all work together. Number one I loved reading this thread for the reason that only people that care would think so much. The ones that have what they call pretty good hatches I would say you can have great hatches and that is what we all want. I have three different bators a 1502 sportsman a hova bator fan forced and lg still air. My room is maintained a small room where my bators are. They have a humidifier always kept at 50% I adjust my heat and air vents to keep it at 70 degrees. I never close a vent hole in my two small bators thus maximumventilation . ON the sportsman close bottom vents and leave the two side vents on top open and use my pan and a sponge is in there if needed which only in winter have I ever had to wet the sponge. I have over 200 eggs in incubating at any given time and I run from 95 to 100% hatch rate. I run a average of 90% hatch rate on shipped eggs. I believe the biggest prob with shipped eggs is the post office and the pressure in flying. If you get shipped eggs let them settle for no less then 24 hours. There is a good chance you will have floating air sacs. YOU can hatch these maybe not everyone but the trick is let them settle for 24 hours and do not hatch them laying on there sides. Hatch all shipped eggs in egg cartons keeps the airsac where it belongs and you stand a better chance of the hatching without drowning. The big hatcheries that are located at higher elevation thus thinner air all have oxygen blown in the incubating and hatching room. This is needed as the embryos the further developed they are the more oxygen they need. But this does not mean that the humidity is not just as important. Blow all the oxygen you want but if you dont keep the membrane soft so the chick can zip, then what have you accomplished. The ones that get high hatch rates are the ones that have found the happy medium. I do have a question though that maybe someone can answer. A hen sitting on eggs creates humidity by her heat and the moisture caused by the heat so where is the ventilation coming from. They only get off the nest for a few minutes a day then right back on so how are the eggs getting the ventilation then when they are hatching she doesnt get off until they are done how does a lot of ventilation get in there then.
 
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I doing both right now - my own eggs produced here in high altitude, and some local goose eggs as well, and I have shipped eggs (both duck and goose). I just got the shipped eggs in a few days ago so I don't know how those will fare.

Last year I did just as well with shipped chicks and ducks. I didn't have any of my own eggs last year, but they were hard to hatch breeds, cochins and calls. I had like a 50% with the calls and like 70% with the cochins, I lost a bunch on the fist day though because they got too hot under the heat lamp.
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To clarify my thoughts about increasing oxygen by increasing air pressure (for high altitudes): Simply running a fan does not increase pressure or oxygen. Air blowing into a room, via a vent or duct of some sort, with outlets from the room much smaller than the inflow vent, will increase pressure, squishing molecules closer together.

You can try this experiment: Get a plastic bag, such as a twist-tie type sandwich bag. Gather the opening end together so that you can blow up the bag. Air pressure increased, or the bag would not have inflated. Now, cut a small hole in the other end, perhaps trim off a tiny bit of corner. Make sure the hole is very small. Blow into the bag again. As long as you continue to blow into the bag, it has higher air pressure than the air outside the bag. This shows because the bag inflates. When you stop blowing, the bag collapses, as pressure equalizes.

The same thing will work with a room, as long as the air is not able to escape as fast as it is being blown in.

If a person with breathing problems lives at high altitude can pressurize the house and blow in air they will be able to breathe better. Just adding a fan is not pressurizing. That's just moving air. But regardless of that, most people don't want to have to stay in the house at all times and never be able to open a window. Besides, when you're talking about pressurizing an entire house, that would be pretty expensive.

I was suggesting mild pressurization of a small room, to keep the 'bator in. And since the eggs do use up the oxygen available in the air inside the 'bator, then increasing air flow would increase available oxygen. Fewer oxygen molecules means you need more air flow, because the oxygen would be used up faster, since there's less of it.

DuckyBoys, I have a good friend who lives in Leadville, CO. He doesn't call it Leadville. He calls it Cloud City, Gateway to Mars. He's at a higher altitude than Denver, but I don't remember what it is exactly. Since he moved there, he started getting nose bleeds from the cold, dry air. I send him an herbal balm I make, it keeps his nose from bleeding.
 
I can't decipher your first post very well. Must be the early morning "ehs??".

Let's say you have an incubator made out of wood (with a fan) that is 19 1/2" x 14" and 11" tall. How many vent holes would you stick in that, and where?
 
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