Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Your incubator comes with an instruction manual explaining how to manage humid-
ity within the incubator by adding a certain amount of water. The challenge then, comes
with the humidity that's far more difficult to control — the local humidity.
Old-fashioned cabinet incubators made from redwood are the best for managing hu-
midity. It's much more difficult to control the internal humidity during the incubation
process when using modern devices made of plastic or press-board. You'll often discov-
er too much humidity, with water condensing on the walls of the machine, or no damp-
ness inside whatsoever, only dry air.
Although inexpensive and readily available, small Styrofoam incubators cause the
beginning poultry raiser the most stress. The instruction manuals usually indicate that
you should add water every day during the entire process. I grew up in the arid West
where these instructions are appropriate. Later in life, I followed the same procedure
here in the humid Midwest and had horrible results: sticky, unhealthy chicks, turkey
chicks that survived all the way to the end of incubation but ended up being stuck in the
shell. Hatches were dismal at best. I finally learned not to add any water at all to the
incubator until the final few days before hatching, when I stopped turning the eggs.
As you gain some experience you will be able to candle the eggs to determine from
the size of the air sac how the humidity level is being maintained.
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