After Hatching

R

rockgoblin

New member
Joined
Jan 31, 2013
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Hi All

I have made a home made incubator in which i have started to incubate eggs,when the chicks hopefully hatch do i have to change the humidity and Temperature in the incubator?

Cheers
 
Yes Rockgoblin. At day 18 the temperature drops to 37 degrees to compensate for embryo activity (which raises the egg temperature). At the same time the humidity raises from 50% to 80%. This is to keep the membrane soft so they don't stick to it as they pip.

When they have hatched and dried (within 24 hours) they move to a brooder, as the humidity and temperature are too high for them but need to be maintained for the other hatchlings. Start with 35 degrees in the brooder -humidity not important so ambient.
 
Thank you very much for your reply i have read the books and googled information but first hand experience i think is the best>
regards
Rockgoblin
 
I have found any humidity over 60% at hatching drastically reduces the hatch rate. It seems that the chicks 'drown' if the humidity is too high. On many incubators the air vents need to be opened at least partially to allow the chicks in shell to have access to fresher air too.
 
Think a lot depends on the ambient humidity. It was very dry here when we started incubation so I ran one water bowl. But it changed halfway through and the second lot of eggs didn't develop the air sac properly. We lost two as a result. The hatcher (days18 -21) was a broken auto Suro unit in which we disregarded the humidity readings and ran two water bowls. Rest hatched fine, but the ambient air was dry again so it was needed. Our house in the UK was old and damp so the Suro (when it worked) used almost no water at all.

I think too much attention can be paid to humidity. Important not to open the unit as they are hatching as they will stick to the membrane.

Agree with Chuck on opening the air vents a bit -they have to breathe.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top