[Chookiechook]

Hi again....

I have been cruising through a load of old posts, epecially ones regarding hatching eggs.

I have a polybox incubator, bought off of ebay..... very cheap and cheerful, but with a reasonable hatch rate for quail (which I believe to be a bit lower than chooks)?

But, the humidity is low... usually around 35% ... I think that this is too low for success.....

There are holes in several places in the bator, so should I block some up or would this cause more problems?

The last hatch I had was the best with 10 live babies out of 15 eggs.... but the one before that was not good.... 5 out of 16 eggs   The chicks just didnt seem to hatch well.... the membranes were stuck to the chicks and any effort to help them out resulted in them dying   That was nearly my last hatch to be honest, it was so upsetting

Anyway.... back to the original question..... how many ventilation holes do you need in a bator?

Thanks for your replies

[chickenlady]

Hello! i personally wouldnt close any vents as 35% sounds spot on for the 1st 15 days then once they start to pip you could do what i do and pop an egg cup with warm water in and a bit of tape half covering the top so no chicks can jump in and drown!
good luck
Debbie

[death of rats]

I am under the impression that humidity needs to be about 60% so I agree the 35% does seem to be low. What do others think?

[chickenlady]

I have had about 10 hatches this year (quail included) and always have the incubator set at 30%-40% then 60% once hatched! I was advised this on my very 1st go and have had excellent hatches the last was 9 out of 10 eggs! I actually run my incubators dry at thos time of year and get this humidity! if humidity is too high throughout the incubation when the chick comes to internally pip there can be water in the aircell and the chick can drown!
see this thread!
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=35871.0

Debbie

[Chookiechook]

I already have three little pots, each with a sponge and water in... in the incubator

But the humidity is still only 35% ish...... I covered over a couple of the vents last night and it shot up to 60%.... so I will uncover for now and wait till day 15 and I can raise it again easily

The lady I bought the incubator from said it didnt matter if you put water in or not as the hatch rates were always the same??  But it didnt sound right to me

Any other information greatfully received

Debbie... have just read your post... thanks   I will lower the humidity now and hope that I havent ruined the eggs   I dont think a few hours will be a problem though.... do you??? 

[chickenlady]

No it wont of caused a problem, it took me a couple of days to get my humidity right and had a fab hatch for my 1st attempt!
Good luck

Debbie

[Foxy]

35% is fine until they start to externally pip, this percentage will allow the eggs to lose moisture andthe embryo develop at the correct rate,if the rate os too high at this point the egg will not be able to lose enough moisture which is a common cause of "dead in shell" . I only raise humidity when I see the start of a hatch, at around 20 days, humidity needs to be higher to help the chicks hatch It sounds like all you will need to do is just pop water in plug a few holes until humidity is stable at around 60% for hatching, at that point you must leave them to it, any interference will mean humidity plummets and the membrane surrounding the chicks drys and looks kinda "shrink wrapped" making it impossible for the chick to break through. Good luck!!!

[Chookiechook]

Thanks Foxy....

Now for my next question!!! 

[Chookiechook]

No it wont of caused a problem, it took me a couple of days to get my humidity right and had a fab hatch for my 1st attempt!
Good luck

Debbie

Thanks to you too Debbie..... My first hatch was awful.... I let a broody hen have a go at quail eggs.... She was only a bantam and a very good broody, but we only ended up with 2 chicks out of 10 eggs

The next hatch was with an incubator that was homemade and we could not get a thermostat to run properly and at a good temp... it was either too high or too low.... as low as 85degrees and as high as 104    But we had a good hatch non the less..... I think it was about 60% of eggs!!!

This lot of eggs I have in now have been the only batch to have the bator all to themselves... the other batches have had things hatch around them.... and this is probably why the results have been erratic.  However the last batch I hatched was the most succesful with 12 out of 16 hatching (two did die after hatching but not sure why) and they were the most disturbed, with two other lots of eggs hatching around them and no regard to humidity    It really is trial and error isnt it