Incubator Humidity

cluckychick · **Posted:** Fri Mar 11, 2011 3:54 pm

I've just bought an incubator and set my first lot of eggs. I have the instructions that came with my incubator but its quite obvious they have been translated from another language and are no very clear in some areas.

The incubator is Janoel - just the basic fan, manual turn type. My question is humidity. Do I keep the water channels at the bottom filled all time time or only when I first put the eggs in? How do I know if they are getting too much/not enough?

Not expecting perfection on my firt try but would like to have some success! :-D

wehavechooks · **Joined:** Thu Mar 10, 2011 4:49 pm **Posts:** 3

Mine says to fill the reservoir when I set the eggs only not to top them up but if it get very low when the eggs are about to hatch I give them a mist spray with a trigger bottle

snailliz · **Joined:** Sat Mar 19, 2011 9:14 am **Posts:** 1

How much do you spray and how offten?

goodoo · **Posted:** Sat Mar 19, 2011 8:05 pm

I find the only time misting can help is when I have opened the incubator during a hatch. This will drop the humidity and it will take a while to get back up. During this time chicks which have pipped and are hatching can become stuck by the drying membrane. Misting the hatching eggs as you close the incubator will quickly raise the humidity again and will keep the membranes moist and prevent the chicks getting stuck.

All other times it is unnecessary.

cluckychick · **Posted:** Wed Mar 30, 2011 2:13 pm

Success! Out of 22 eggs I have had six chicks hatch so far and another is currently making its way out. Very excited

Not bad for my first ever incubator effort! :-D

andre · **Joined:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 5:21 pm **Posts:** 612

Buy a hygrometer from somewhere like Dick Smith electronics or even Bunnings. I like the digital ones for about $40 as it does temperature and humidity. Its also useful as a double check for temperature.

You want about 40% for setting and about 60% for the last three days before hatching.

JoeJoe · **Joined:** Sun Nov 21, 2010 10:32 am **Posts:** 10

Always a struggle to get the humidity right for me :-?

johs · **Posted:** Thu Mar 31, 2011 9:51 pm

Well done. My first attempt only produced 2 out of 21 eggs. A lot of the eggs were infertile though. They were freebies from a friend to use as a test run on the new incubator so it wasn't a surprise.

One of the chicks ended up with two crooked toes. It got worse as it got older and I hadn't noticed until it was too late to do anything.

Apparently high temperature in the last week can lead to crooked toes. I wish I had known what to look for. Never had anything like it with the broody hatched chicks.

Check out the picture of the crooked toe. These chicks are 7 week old leghorns.

Attachment:

Crooked toe.jpg [ 18.29 KiB | Viewed 4232 times ]

cluckychick · **Posted:** Thu Apr 14, 2011 12:06 pm

Well I ended up with seven hatching in total. I left the eggs for an extra couple of days to make sure. Hubby then cracked and checked the remaining 15 eggs while disposing of them - 2 had chicks that died sometime during incubation and the rest were infertile. I did expect that as I only have one silkie rooster in with 19 hens! Although a little disappointed with my Plymouth Rock trio - only 1 out of their six eggs hatched

All chicks are doing really well and growing fast - I already have homes for most of them too! Am going to try another lot of eggs in a few weeks :-D

johs · **Posted:** Thu Apr 14, 2011 9:40 pm

Well done cluckychick.

My two ended up being boys! I'm doing another test run in a few weeks too. :-D

Have to get the temperature right before I pay the big bucks for fertile eggs of my favourite breeds. Can't get any 'till july anyway.

Maybe your silky rooster has trouble with the big rocks and cencentrates his effort on the other girls. :-?

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