Temperature and humidity for hatching chickens

[Zayan]

Hello, I am hatching Silke chicken eggs and I am very confused on what the temperer and humidity should be for incubating them. I am keeping my temperature at 37.5 Celsius and humidity at 50 to 55. Whenever the humidity goes below 45 my incubator beeps. are these the right settings? On purinamills.com it says to keep it 50-55 and I have been trusting that as it is a reliable source. Many other sources said 58-60 and some oven said 40-50. It is already day 8 and I candled them yesterday and most were doing well and the embryo was developing. What should I do? Thanks.

 

[Ridgerunner]

On the heat, is it a still air (no fan) or is it a forced air with a fan? With a fan the temperature should be the same throughout the incubator, it doesn't matter where in the incubator you take the temperature. In those, the recommended temperature is 37.5 C (99.5 F). In a still air incubator warm air rises so you can get different temperatures based on elevation. Where you measure the temperature is important. The recommendation in a still air incubator is 38.6 C (101.5 F) taken at the top of the eggs.

Humidity is not as easy. Due to many different things the same humidity does not work for all of us. I'm not going to try to go into those factors because there are so many that I'll leave out a lot. I don't think it will help you to make a decision. Some people do better with a humidity around 30%, others do much better around 55 to 60%. The good news is that there is a fairly wide range of humidity that works, you don't have to get it exactly right. But you do want to try to find the humidity that works best for your conditions. One way I know to do that is trial and error.

My suggestion is to pick one and try it. Sounds like you have done that. Be as consistent as you can and see what results you get. Maybe break open unhatched eggs and see if you see something that tells you to change it. These troubleshooting links may help you with that.

Mississippi State Incubation Troubleshooting

http://extension.msstate.edu/content/trouble-shooting-failures-egg-incubation


Illinois Incubation troubleshooting

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/eggs/res24-00.html

It's too late for you this time, but some people weigh the eggs as they incubate to monitor moisture loss. They need to lose a certain amount of moisture throughout the incubation but you need to weigh them before you start so you know how much that is.

Some people look at the air cell as they candle to estimate moisture loss and adjust humidity during incubation to try to manage that. How they tell the difference in 11% versus 13% by looking is way above my pay grade but it gives them something to go by. Maybe someone that does that can help.

My first time I read the instructions that came with the incubator and tried that. They said 45%. Through trial and error I found that 40% worked better for me. The people at the commercial hatcheries that might hatch 1.000.00 chicks a week using incubators that might hold as many as 120,000 eggs each go through the same process. Moving one of these to a different spot in the same hatching room may mean tweaking the humidity.

 

[Zayan]

On the heat, is it a still air (no fan) or is it a forced air with a fan? With a fan the temperature should be the same throughout the incubator, it doesn't matter where in the incubator you take the temperature. In those, the recommended temperature is 37.5 C (99.5 F). In a still air incubator warm air rises so you can get different temperatures based on elevation. Where you measure the temperature is important. The recommendation in a still air incubator is 38.6 C (101.5 F) taken at the top of the eggs.

Humidity is not as easy. Due to many different things the same humidity does not work for all of us. I'm not going to try to go into those factors because there are so many that I'll leave out a lot. I don't think it will help you to make a decision. Some people do better with a humidity around 30%, others do much better around 55 to 60%. The good news is that there is a fairly wide range of humidity that works, you don't have to get it exactly right. But you do want to try to find the humidity that works best for your conditions. One way I know to do that is trial and error.

My suggestion is to pick one and try it. Sounds like you have done that. Be as consistent as you can and see what results you get. Maybe break open unhatched eggs and see if you see something that tells you to change it. These troubleshooting links may help you with that.

Mississippi State Incubation Troubleshooting

http://extension.msstate.edu/content/trouble-shooting-failures-egg-incubation


Illinois Incubation troubleshooting

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/eggs/res24-00.html

It's too late for you this time, but some people weigh the eggs as they incubate to monitor moisture loss. They need to lose a certain amount of moisture throughout the incubation but you need to weigh them before you start so you know how much that is.

Some people look at the air cell as they candle to estimate moisture loss and adjust humidity during incubation to try to manage that. How they tell the difference in 11% versus 13% by looking is way above my pay grade but it gives them something to go by. Maybe someone that does that can help.

My first time I read the instructions that came with the incubator and tried that. They said 45%. Through trial and error I found that 40% worked better for me. The people at the commercial hatcheries that might hatch 1.000.00 chicks a week using incubators that might hold as many as 120,000 eggs each go through the same process. Moving one of these to a different spot in the same hatching room may mean tweaking the humidity.

Thank You so much this helps a lot. Ill just stick with 50-55 for now. Thanks again! Take care