Very first hatch...nervous chicky mommy!

[ChickenChik]

I just set my eggs and I am very excitted but also very nervous. When I put the eggs in my temp.and humidity went kind crazy. I was told to leave it alone and it would regulate. Is this correct?

 

[ducklover101202]

Yes this is correct. When you first put the eggs in the incubator they are colder than the temp in the incubator so it is normal for the temperature to go down. It may take a couple of hours for it to go back to the right temp. and get the eggs warm but it is fine that the temp went down. If the temp went up then that would be weird but I am guessing that it went down,right? And that is fine. Also if the humidity went down too it is because you opened the incubator. When ever you open the incubator the humidity goes down,when ever you turn the eggs but when you close the incubator it should go back up.

 

[grammy of David]

I was a newbie last summer...and it is so fun. The temps and humidity bounce around some when you set the eggs...has to adjust to the space the eggs take up.

 

[ChickenChik]

Yes it dropped several degrees and the humidity went kinda wacky.

 

[ChickenChik]

So how long do I need to wait to make any adjustments (if any are to be made)?

 

[teddiliza]

Give it at least 2 hours and then very faintly start tweaking, and wait 2 hrs between tweaking the temp- unless it's too hot then only wait 15 to 30 minutes. When I first started I didn't realize how darned sensitive that knob is! Seriously, you've got to move it no more than 2mm at a time! Once I'd had a few good hatches, I used a sharpy and marked my knob on one of it's ridges and marked a spot on the top of the incubator with a sharpy to line it up with. That way I'd be able to tell if I'd tweaked too far from baseline, my baseline being a happy 101F. It's better to start off slowly tweaking up from a cooler temp (in my opinion) than to burn up your embryos. I only had 4 of 10 of my very first hatch turn out, and found out it is SOOOO addictive! Good luck!

 

[ChickenChik]

Is it normal for the humidity to jump up?