Sunday, April 26, 2015

Low Humidity Hatch Complete With Modest Results

Hatch #7 using the low humidity during incubation appeared to be successful.  I began with the 48 eggs, however when day 11 came I candled the eggs and had a lot of clears.  Not sure why so many clears from the variety of breeds I placed in the incubator.  On day 19 I had 22 eggs ready for hatching and 17 did complete the hatch giving me a 76% hatch rate.
Throughout this incubation I maintained a 45% humidity or lower.  I added 30 ml of water to begin with and this gave me a 45% humidity reading.  Whenever the humidity dropped to 10-12%, I added 15 ml of water using a syringe and this  raised the humidity to 45%.
 

During the 19th to 21st day I added 60 ml of water in the incubator for a 55-60 %  humidity at the beginning of the 19th day.  I had 4 eggs that appeared to be lacking enough humidity for the chicks to break through the shell after they had peeped the shell.  On the 21st day I ended up helping 3 of the chicks by cracking their eggshells so they could enjoy a new world.
 
Incubation #8 is underway using the Dry Humidity Incubation method.  I am not adding any water during the first 18 days.  Once the 19th day comes I will add water to have a 50-60% humidity level during the hatch.  I am on day 4 and the humidity is reading 15-18% most of the time and rising to 21% as the storms pass through.
 
 
 

No comments:

Post a Comment