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<< Go Back To Articles Directory Humidity is easy enough to control when incubation hatching in an incubator that does not use forced air. If you have such an incubator, all you need to do is to place a pan of water in the incubator to maintain levels of humidity. Check the humidity regularly, and increase the size of the pan if humidity is too low. Remember that it's that size of the surface area of the water body exposed to the air that controls the humidity and increasing or decreasing this surface area will also increase or decrease the relative humidity. In the final stages of the incubation hatching process, you might have to increase the levels of humidity inside the incubator. This can be done quite easily by adding a second container of water to the incubator, or even by putting in a sponge soaked in water. A second factor that you must address when you incubate eggs for hatching is ventilation. Of course the little embryos inside the eggs are living things, and require oxygen, and that's exactly where ventilation comes in. The embryo inside the egg breathes through the pores in the egg shell, and exchanges carbon dioxide for oxygen in just the same way that you do. At first, the embryo is small, and needs little oxygen, but as it grows rapidly it requires far more oxygen. You need to ensure that there are sufficiently open vents to supply this need. The vents on the incubator must be gradually opened wider during the incubation process to supply ever more oxygen to the growing chicks within the eggs. One of the biggest disasters that can occur during the incubation process is a power failure, and a controlled reaction is what's needed if and when this happens.
The ideal thing is to place the incubator well beforehand. For example, if you place your incubator in a room that has a natural ambient temperature of about seventy five degrees or so, and which has abundant ventilation, your eggs will be that much more likely to survive a power failure. This is why it's so crucial to place the incubator carefully, and choose the location so that it is entirely optimal. If the power is down, you need to ensure that your eggs do not overheat or suffocate. This is usually done by releasing the door that seals the incubator, to ensure maximum ventilation and to maximize the oxygen supply. This can prevent such an incubation hatching disaster from resulting in the loss of your whole brood. |
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