The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club > Housing, Health & Hatching
IDEAL humidity for lockdown
greeneggsandham:
--- Quote from: Christie Rhae ---I am far from a pro compared to the veterans on this board but.... I have hatched a fair amount of eggs. I only use the styro incubators so far. Can\'t wait to justify buying one of those big daddy incubators!
Anyhooo.. I add nearly no water at all the first 18 days. I just let the incubator run. Those eggs need to lose weight. If I see the humidity at 10% for a day or so I will add a teaspoon of water. Then when it gets close to hatch day I put water in the channels (styro incubator) and add a jar of water with a sponge half immersed. This gets the humidity up to about 65%.
With this method I have never had a chick die in the shell. All eggs that start to develop will hatch. The only ones that do not hatch are eggs that never started to develop for one reason or another.
Shipped eggs of course have dismal hatch rates just because they never even start developing. Eggs from my own pens have near perfect hatch rates.
--- End quote ---
Well, this has been informative. I have the styrofoam incubators as well. I also seem to have too many die in the shell or drown. I usually just fill one channel during the first 18 days and if the temp/humidity reader is right, it shows about 48% to 50% humidity. And then I fill another channel for the last three days. I may try your method on what I\'m incubating now (I\'m on day 5 now) and see how that works for me. I don\'t think feed would be my issue because I use the 28% protein feed during breeding, although it is not animal based protein. I don\'t have many choices for feed around here. There are a few places but all seem to carry the same low protein, plant based stuff.
Anyway, I\'d like to know before trying your method whether you have a still air, or circulated air incubator. Mine are circulated air so I\'m wondering if I can still try your methods.
vanalpaca:
My \'bator is from www.customincubator.com. It is a small desktop size incubator not as big as the sportmans. I think they should have made it a bit taller for the hatching drawer and 3 shelf units because I find that eggs set on the top rack are right under the light bulbs get too hot and the ones set right under the fans are too cool and don\'t hatch. I try to just set 20 eggs per shelf and in the middle area. The middle shelf also seemed to have the most \'rockers\'. So half my problems may just be this bator. It holds temps and humidity really well.
I cracked open the eggs today and many didn\'t develop and others were in the 11-18 day range. My feed is only 16-20% layer crumbles, so I will try upping it to a gamebird breeder formula.
Christie Rhae:
--- Quote from: greeneggs&ham ---
Well, this has been informative. I have the styrofoam incubators as well. I also seem to have too many die in the shell or drown. I usually just fill one channel during the first 18 days and if the temp/humidity reader is right, it shows about 48% to 50% humidity. And then I fill another channel for the last three days. I may try your method on what I\'m incubating now (I\'m on day 5 now) and see how that works for me. I don\'t think feed would be my issue because I use the 28% protein feed during breeding, although it is not animal based protein. I don\'t have many choices for feed around here. There are a few places but all seem to carry the same low protein, plant based stuff.
Anyway, I\'d like to know before trying your method whether you have a still air, or circulated air incubator. Mine are circulated air so I\'m wondering if I can still try your methods.
--- End quote ---
While I cannot take credit for the Dry Incubation method I am a fan so happy to share my experience. I know there are many methods and I have tried a few but this works best for me in my climate. An average humidity in the room I incubate is 45%.
I use a Hovabator 1588 circulated air with egg turners.
I admit when I saw that humidity gauge going lower and lower it was scary at first. I check in on it once a day. If it reads 10% or lower I add a teaspoon of water. Usually it is about 25% humidity.
I hatch in a little giant with a fan. I fill up all the channels and put a jar of water with a clean sponge half immersed in water at the 18th day. With all the plugs in the humidity stays pretty steady at 65%. I also use cut down paper egg cartons to hatch in. So the egg is pretty much always large end up. The chicks have no problem at all hatching out of the egg that way. Since I started incubating and hatching this way I have never had a chick die in the shell. Again I have not hatched near the number of chicks that the pros here have hatched but I have probably incubated 20 or 30 sets of eggs and this seems to work.
Maybe give it a try with eggs that are not precious and see how it works.
Christie Rhae:
--- Quote from: vanalpaca ---My \'bator is from www.customincubator.com. It is a small desktop size incubator not as big as the sportmans. I think they should have made it a bit taller for the hatching drawer and 3 shelf units because I find that eggs set on the top rack are right under the light bulbs get too hot and the ones set right under the fans are too cool and don\'t hatch. I try to just set 20 eggs per shelf and in the middle area. The middle shelf also seemed to have the most \'rockers\'. So half my problems may just be this bator. It holds temps and humidity really well.
I cracked open the eggs today and many didn\'t develop and others were in the 11-18 day range. My feed is only 16-20% layer crumbles, so I will try upping it to a gamebird breeder formula.
--- End quote ---
Oh my gosh I love those incubators! I have been wanting more than my hovabator and thought of getting another but seems like so much money for just some styrofoam. I just cannot justify spending 700.00 plus shipping for one of those big guys yet.
Just last week I wrote on another message board \"I want an incubator that holds about 100 eggs for about 300.00. Wish come true! lol
Ok but you think the top shelf is too hot? Which model do you have exactly? How many eggs does your hold? There seems to be some variety of sizes and shapes.
greeneggsandham:
I have the same incubators, Hovabator and Little Giants, all circulated air. How in the world do you get a jar of water in the Little giant? I usually lay a sponge on the floor beneath the screen and use a straw through the hole to wet it down during the 3 day lockdown. I would think the only jar that could possible fit would be a baby food jar, but then that would be a small sponge!
That is very interesting that you don\'t lay the eggs down on the screen the last few days. I\'ve never heard of setting them on egg cartons before. So the hatched chicks don\'t manage to knock any of those eggs over during the hatch?
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