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Help- How do I increase humidity during incubation

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Guest:
My first hatch came out of the incubator this past Sunday. Out of 5 eggs, I had 3 babies. The problem is that all 3 eggs pipped on Saturday. 1 of the babies pipped about 1/2 of the egg Sunday afternoon, pipped really fast for about 30 minutes but couldn\'t finish hatching. The other 2 eggs pipped, but I had to completely take them out of the egg. All three babies were almost dry by the time I hatched them out. All three babies are doing excellent and are healthy.
 
I have a GQF incubator and have an extra pan of water in addition to the one in the incubator. Is there a way to increase the humidity? I thought about using a spray bottle of water and spray the eggs each day, but I am not sure if this would work or not. I set 1 tray each week with whatever eggs that were laid the past week.
 
From your experience, is humidity my problem or is there something else going on?

Thanks-David

faith valley:
David,
Are you watching the air cell?  Is it getting too large at the end of incubation?  

To increase humidity you can add a room humidifier or you can mist the eggs daily with distilled water. If you coose to mist them, keep the mist bottle inside of your incubator so that the water will be the same temp as the eggs.

Waterfowl eggs are routinely misted if the air cells get too large toward the end of incubation. We have hatched out 5 settings so far this season and haven\'t had a humidity problem - I do have a Dickey incubator with auto humidity though, so perhaps that makes a difference.

Good lick with your hatches,
~Patty~

Guest:
Patty,

The air cell is really small. That is why I thought I may have a humidity problem.

Do you think I may have a different problem?

faith valley:
If the air cell is really small, then you have too much humidity and the chicks are drowning in the shell.  As the chick develops, the air cell increases in size to about 1/4  of the top portion of the egg. If your air cell is too small ~ the egg is not dehydrating enough, then when the chick internally pips, it will pip into a pocket of liquid and not a pocket of air. Essentially drowning in the shell. If your air cell is very small- I would definitely not mist the eggs.

A different option might be that the incubator is opened too often durning the hatch process and the membranes are getting dried out during the hatch. If the humidity drops durning the hatch, the chicks pips around partially but get glued to the shell and cant finish turning.  The membranes dry out and they get stuck into the one position.

Just some possible things to consider.

~Patty~

bantamhill:
I had the same problem for a couple years and literaly hundreds of eggs developing, but not hatching. Finally someone told me to try a hatch with no water except for the last three days . . . it did the trick. I watch the air sac size by candeling. I try to get it to 1/4 to 1/3 of the egg on day 18 and then add humidity for the last 3 days if necessary to keep it from getting too large. This is how I hatch chicken eggs, guinea eggs, and peafowl eggs. As Patty stated . . . waterfowl are an entirely different issue.

Michael

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