May 15, 2025 • 41 mins
Join Carey and Jennifer in this lively episode of the Poultry Nerds Podcast as they crack open the secrets to successful summertime hatching! Discover essential tips on humidity control, preventing common incubator mistakes, and the hilarious realities of poultry parenting. From handling incubator maintenance (without breaking the bank) to navigating humidity spikes, this episode equips you with practical solutions to improve your hatch rates. Plus, enjoy some entertaining "egg-ventures" and cautionary tales from the world of poultry social media. Tune in for laughs, learning, and lots of poultry wisdom!
Keywords:
Summertime hatching, incubator humidity, poultry incubation tips, incubator cleaning, chick hatching humidity, poultry podcast, humidity control incubators, troubleshooting incubators, dry hatching, egg candling tips, hatch rates improvement, backyard poultry, incubator airflow, poultry care, beginner incubation tips
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carey (00:00):
We are back in the studio, just Jennifer and I, and
we are talking today aboutsummertime hatching.
I'm a huge fan of hatching inthe wintertime because it's
easier to regulate your humidityand stuff, and also because I
(00:20):
don't like to get hot and goingout in the barn in the
summertime's hot.
So there's that.
Jennifer (00:27):
And I just had cheer around.
Carey (00:30):
That has become a thing, I used to, would take a break
every couple months I would cutmy incubator off and pressure
wash it, disinfect it so I couldsay I could, until I this was on
the hatching time unit.
(00:50):
I.
I had the, the big fan that's inthe back of the CT series?
That's like stupid expensivewhen they go out.
So
Jennifer (00:57):
I haven't heard one yet.
Carey (01:00):
I, okay, so you probably blow yours out a little more
often than I did the first time.
Jennifer (01:05):
Of all the incubators I have, I've blown'em out one
time.
Carey (01:10):
We also have a separate hatcher.
Jennifer (01:13):
I do.
Okay.
So that does make a difference.
Carey (01:15):
Okay.
At the time I had this thingrunning, like I had something
hatching every weekend in it.
While other eggs were in itturning, and I mean it was going
for five or six months, maybe alittle longer, and it just
(01:38):
sounded like a jet engine onenight.
And my wife says, I don't knowwhat that is, but you gotta make
it stop.
Jennifer (01:46):
It does get a little cruddy.
Carey (01:48):
I say that because yeah, they get a little cruddy, one of
the big, most important thingsabout incubating, which I will
be the first to admit, when youlet Mother Nature do it, that is
the best because I don't knowwhy, but you let a broody hen
(02:09):
sit on some eggs and she's gonnahatch out 98% of'em no matter
what the weather does outside,no matter what the humidity
does.
But when you take control, it'sgotta be like a science and
airflow is very important.
Gotta blow those fans out everynow and then, or get a separate
(02:31):
hatcher.
Jennifer (02:33):
So I think I've had my separate hatcher, is it two
years now?
Maybe a year?
I don't know.
I think it's two years.
And I finally decided it.
I had nothing hatching in it fortwo days, and I was like, I
wanna clean this thing, it'snappy.
So I rolled it out into the mainpart of the barn with the big
(02:56):
doors open, and I used theblower to blow all the dust out
of it, and then looked at thefan and I was like, Ooh, ooh,
that's pretty bad.
Lemme tell you a little trick.
The fans on the back of thosethings, they come right off.
You don't have to unscrewanything.
So we learned that the hard way.
And messed up some rivets so youcan just pull it and it will
(03:19):
actually come right off and thenyou can clean it fairly easily.
But yeah, they need to becleaned a little bit every so
often because I think that wasthe first time I had been turned
off since I got it.
Carey (03:32):
Yeah.
I would highly recommend you doas we say, not as we do, because
I had to replace my fan and itwas about a hundred bucks.
So now I have a air compressorand I give it a little
Jennifer (03:48):
Yeah.
I have a raw ob.
Rechargeable blower would blowthe barn out, and I just
happened to use that and blowout the incubators in the
hatcher with it.
Carey (03:58):
That sounds like a really good idea.
Jennifer (04:00):
It's on wheels, everything's on wheels in my
barn.
So just roll it out to the door,blow it out.
Carey (04:06):
So when I got my Hatcher a few months ago.
Did I buy that for Christmas?
Jennifer (04:14):
Yep.
You did?
Carey (04:15):
Yeah, I bought that for me for Christmas.
Like it was really cool.
You take it outta the box andooh, there's wheels.
Jennifer (04:23):
I think Tamara got that for you for Christmas.
You better give her credit forthat.
Carey (04:27):
Yeah, that's right.
Jennifer (04:30):
Listen,
Carey (04:31):
I told her about it too.
Jennifer (04:32):
Yeah.
Carey (04:33):
But like having that on wheels, I.
Is really nice.
So one project that I've thoughtabout, I have several GQF 15 oh
twos, and what I thought aboutdoing is stacking them on top of
each other and getting one ofthose furniture dollies from
(04:54):
Harbor Freight and setting thebottom one on that so I can roll
them out too.
But them things, I swear youshould only incubate in them.
Hatching in'em is rough.
Jennifer (05:07):
It is.
We're not here to talk aboutcleaning incubator studies.
We're actually here.
We've done incubating showsbefore.
If you need, if you're new toincubating and need to better
understand it, there's abeginner one, and then there we
did the one later.
That was a little bit moreadvanced.
So this one we thought we woulddo transitioning from incubating
(05:34):
in wintertime versus spring andsummertime.
'cause there are prettysignificant differences.
Carey (05:43):
Humidity,
Jennifer (05:44):
big time on the humidity,
Carey (05:46):
especially anywhere in the southern spot, parts of the
US or
Jennifer (05:55):
I would think it would be anywhere.
Carey (05:56):
Yeah,
Jennifer (05:57):
because anywhere you're gonna turn your heat on,
you're gonna be sucking themoisture out of your air.
Carey (06:03):
Yeah, that's true.
Jennifer (06:04):
Because most people have their incubators in the
house.
Carey (06:08):
Like when I go up to my dad's in Missouri, even in the
summertime, it's not really thathumid.
Jennifer (06:14):
Really?
Carey (06:15):
Yeah,
Jennifer (06:15):
we're gonna get hate mail from all the people in
Missouri.
Carey (06:19):
This, it'd be my luck this year.
They'll have record highhumidity.
I don't know.
But my dad, that was one of hisfavorite things about being up
there is the lack of humidity.
'cause it he has COPD orsomething like that.
And this good old 80 pluspercent, six months out of the
year humidity in Alabama is akiller for him.
Jennifer (06:42):
I'm looking outside right now.
It's a hundred percent.
Carey (06:45):
Yeah, my, my phone went off earlier and it said
lightning detected in your area.
I was like, really?
It's been raining and thunderingfor the last 20 minutes.
You're on top of it today.
Jennifer (06:56):
Yep.
Okay, so when you're incubatingin the winter time.
You have your heat on and Yeah.
That sucks the moisture out ofyour space.
Yeah.
'cause it's cooking out, right?
So in the summertime it'sraining and the heat is cooking
(07:18):
it and the atmosphere and justhumidity is higher, I would say
in majority of places.
The humidity is going to behigher in the summertime, so
we're gonna exclude the peoplewho live in desert climates.
I would assume that would bedifferent, but I'm not a hundred
percent.
Carey (07:36):
Oh, and we'll also we can exclude people.
I.
Who have spouses that fullysupport their addiction or that
their addiction hasn't gottenout of control and they get to
incubate in the spare bedroom.
Because in your spare bedroom,the humidity and all is what it
is in your house.
(07:56):
And summertime you've got theair conditioning on.
Winter time you got the heat on.
It's great.
I.
Yeah, I got away with incubatingin my living room for a while.
Jennifer (08:07):
I started out incubating in this spare room
too.
Used to sit in there and candlethem like 47 times to see what
was going on.
But that's how you learn, right?
Carey (08:18):
Yeah.
People are like, have you candle'em yet, have you?
I'm like, no, I don't.
Yeah, I don't even have a, oh myGod, I need a Candler.
I don't have one.
So I get on Amazon and I'm like,which one do I get?
This one's rechargeable.
I like that I don't have to keepup with batteries.
Ooh, this one's double A.
And so there's so many differentoptions.
And I finally, I ordered one.
'cause I felt like I had to havea Candler and I didn't even know
(08:41):
what I was looking at first.
And I was like, okay, the thingglows.
This one glows too.
Whoa.
Wait, what the crap is this?
Jennifer (08:51):
There's
Carey (08:51):
like a, maybe this is one.
Maybe this is what they looklike when there's a chick in
them.
So I went to, I went to Googleand started Googling stuff and
to me, candling eggs and whatyou see when you do it is really
cool because like you see theveins, you see it forming, you
can see it move.
(09:13):
So it is like.
Like a sonogram, but it's likeright there in your hands and
you're not in a weird officewith odd things going on.
So it's neat.
Jennifer (09:26):
It is.
I remember distinctly the day Idecided not to candle anymore
though.
Carey (09:32):
See Me too.
Because it got really old andpeople were like, oh, you should
do, what is it?
And I'm looking, and now peopleare like, have you candle them?
What do you, how's it look?
How's your hatch looking?
I don't know where my Candleris.
Jennifer (09:51):
No, I have a really terrible story and I'm gonna
share it with you.
So I was candle and duck eggsand the duck hen was sitting in
the woods and she was fine whereshe was, but she was sitting in
the woods and.
But she had way too many eggsand so I needed to thin them
down a little bit, and so I wascandling them, but it wasn't
really dark outside and I threwone.
(10:15):
David was standing there and Ithrew one out that I thought was
a quitter and it wasn't.
It landed on a rock and therewas a baby duck inside and.
Then it was gasping and David'smad and it became a whole thing.
So I just, okay, I don't needcandle anymore, so I don't,
Carey (10:37):
yeah, like if I get an order for Baloo, then I will
find my Candler or just find aflashlight and I'll, run it up
under'em and take the ones andtoss it in the trash that are no
good.
And I'll handle'em real quick.
'cause.
PE people order those.
(10:59):
They don't want that surprise ofnot something being in there.
'cause it, smells worse thanwhat is supposed to be in there.
I don't even wanna go there.
Jennifer (11:08):
Okay, we're so off topic.
Get back to our outline here.
Carey (11:12):
Okay.
So in the summertime when you'recandling or when you're not
candling,'cause you don't havetime.
I would recommend you not doingit because the more you op, if
you have a dome style, the moreyou open it, the more you let
humidity in or out.
And when you take control ofwhat Mother nature can do
(11:34):
easily, you gotta be scientificand keep your, keep it steady.
And some people, they'll say,oh, you gotta have 55%, you
gotta have 70%.
Any of those answers can beright, but what's most important
is that you have steadyhumidity.
(11:56):
And steady temperature
Jennifer (11:58):
and not too high.
Carey (12:00):
Yeah.
Because, I was, I have a friendof mine up in Canada and we were
trying to troubleshoot someissues that he was having.
He has he bought.
Brin, I always mess up how yousay it.
I think it's Breia.
Is that right?
Okay.
So that's one of the betterquality, like tabletop clear
dome.
(12:20):
Incubators.
And he had, he bought one ofthose because he had that good
old solid NR 360 and.
Used it for a couple years andhad two of them and one died.
Somebody talked him into buyinga breia.
(12:41):
The Brennia had a highercapacity and all that, but now
he's having problems where thefeet are messed up.
The toes are crooked.
And when a mutual friend talkedto me about it, he was like,
more about incubating than I do,so this is what's going on.
I said I'm gonna tell you thatcan only be two things.
(13:02):
He said, oh I figured it'd bemore than that.
I said, Nope.
It's 95% of the time.
One or two things.
He said, what?
I said, either your genetics orgarbage.
Or your humidity is stupid high.
And he was like he's been usingthe same breeder birds for about
(13:25):
five years.
And I said what is he feedingthem?
He said the same thing becausehe makes, like he makes his own
feed.
I said, okay.
So it's a problem withincubator.
And we're talking and I see hesends me video and they have it
(13:47):
setting on one of those table,like foldable table chairs,
stand thingies that you use toeat supper in the living room.
Everybody has'em.
They might not use'em all thetime, but most people have'em.
But he had it sitting on that.
And in the video I could seethrough the bathroom.
Window raised up, and then I seelike their bed and another
(14:11):
window up and I'm like, okay, wegot a couple issues here.
He has a thermometer, hydrometercombo.
I'm like, okay, set that on thetable by the incubator and send
me a picture in 30 minutes afteryou set it there.
So he does, and it's reallyweird because they use.
(14:35):
Celsius for temperature, but Iguess humidity is the same
percentage all around the world.
So he sends me this picture andI'm like, 27.
What?
That's freaking cold.
Why?
They got the windows up.
And then I'm like, I see thesea.
And I'm like, oh that's onlylike 72 3.
Okay, that's not bad humidity.
(14:56):
That's not bad.
And so I ask him about the unit.
And the, it is, the instructionson those things are really
horrible.
They should be written by a birdperson.
Not by a junior scientist orsomething, but there's fill up
(15:18):
this until locked down and thenfeel this and this, and don't
touch it.
He was at day one of hislockdown and his humidity was
like 70%.
I said, dude, there's yourproblem.
He said, what do you mean it?
It's always been like 70% beforeI take him out.
(15:41):
I said, yes, but ideally it'llbe closer to 50 until they start
pipping 50 55 when the first onepops.
From then on, you're gonna seeit shoot up.
But if it's 70 before that firstone pops, man, there's gonna be
(16:03):
so much humidity in there that'swhy your toes are getting,
having problems.
And he was like, okay, I havethree more days.
How do I fix this?
And him being from Canada, hewasn't.
He wasn't as familiar withSouthern Engineering as I call
it.
(16:26):
And I was like, I said do youhave any straws?
He said, straw.
I said, yep.
Need two straws.
Three would be even better.
And so he goes and gets thoseand they have the vent that you
open in the top.
Jennifer (16:43):
I said,
Carey (16:43):
open the vent all the way.
Stick a straw in it, like squishit, whatever.
Stick it in there.
Boom.
Get that done.
Now I need you to slightly liftup the side and slide the straw
in and then slide the otherstraw in.
He's okay, why?
(17:05):
I said,'cause we need to getsome of that crap out.
And so I get him to blow airinto one of the straws that goes
into the side, and his wife isoh my God this is crazy.
This is crazy.
She's freaking out and thishappens.
And the humidity, I get intoblow on it a few times and then
(17:29):
pull those two straws, butleaves the one that's sticking
out the top.
And I told him to get.
Like a big blanket or towel orsomething and just wrap around
the dome, knowing where yourstraw's coming up.
And he said about two hourslater, the humidity was like 48
or 49.
I was like, all right, leave itthere.
(17:51):
And called me in a few days andlemme know how your hatch is.
I got a picture of this morningof a crap load of chicks in his
incubator.
And from what I could tell, noneof'em have crooked toes.
If that's one of your issuesthat you have in the summertime
because you live in an areawhere it's awkwardly humid.
Jennifer (18:10):
So let me just explain how the anatomy of the egg works
a little bit.
So if you imagine an eggstraight out of the chicken,
you've got the yolk and you'vegot the white, it's very
liquidy, it's very wet.
So as the chick grows that.
Moisture has to leave the egg inorder to end up with a dry,
(18:37):
fluffy chick.
21 days later.
Carey (18:41):
Gotta go somewhere
Jennifer (18:42):
17 or 28 days.
Whatever it is you'reincubating.
The eggshell itself is porous.
And the humidity needs toaccount for letting the moisture
out not too quickly, just right.
So that the progression of thechick growing.
(19:06):
And the moisture loss coincideto end up with a healthy, dry,
fluffy chick.
Now, I personally incubate at40% humidity.
I don't care what it is, buttonquail to turkeys, it's 40%
humidity.
And look,
Carey (19:25):
changing that incubator like.
When you change, you gotta,which button is it?
Do I Hold down?
Oh, okay.
Not that one.
Oh crap, I'm in French now, oh,here it is.
Now it's flashing and then yougotta change it.
Yeah.
Bump that.
I'm the same way.
40.
My, my incubators, they're on40.
(19:48):
My hatcher, it don't move.
Boom.
That's it.
Jennifer (19:52):
What's your Hatcher set at?
Carey (19:54):
60.
Jennifer (19:55):
Mine too.
Mine set at 60.
Now, assuming not everybody hasa hatching time incubator, which
we are not at this pointadvocating for hatching time
incubators, this just happens tobe what we have.
Carey (20:07):
Hey, I'm gonna tell you right now I have hatch and time.
I have more GQs than I have halftimes.
Jennifer (20:13):
If you have tabletops it, it doesn't matter what you
have.
But you need to keep it somewhatconsistent.
And in the summertime where thehumidity is higher in the
general atmosphere, it's verylikely that you do not have to
add any water.
So always start your incubatordry and see what the humidity
(20:38):
is.
You may come in at.
Anywhere between 35 and 45without adding any water.
And if so, then just leave it.
Don't add any water.
That's called dry hatchingbecause you didn't add water.
It's just dry.
I don't know what it's called,hatching.
That's stupid.
It should be dry incubating, butit is called dry hatching when
(21:02):
you don't.
But it's like parking on adriveway and driving on a
parkway.
It makes no sense, okay?
But then when you get to thelockdown portion, the last three
days, take the turnaround.
You do need to bump it.
Now, if you are running dry.
You're stable between 35 and 40,somewhere in there.
(21:25):
At lockdown.
All I used to do when I started,when I had tabletops.
Was I, there was no sciencebehind it.
I put a splash of water in thebottom of the incubator and I
closed it.
That was it.
I didn't do anything more.
If I had to guess right now forthose who need a precise amount
of liquid that I put in there, Iwould go with three tablespoons
(21:49):
maybe, and then I would justclose it.
Now, those incubators, thosewere the old.
I don't even, I think they dosell'em still, but I'm not sure
they're yellow and they're, theytell you to keep'em in the
styrofoam.
They're a box.
That's what I started.
Oh
Carey (22:05):
yeah.
Like the, there's a coupledifferent brands that make'em
Yeah.
They're yellow and they're blue.
The front.
Jennifer (22:12):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's what I started with, andso I just.
Put a splash of water in thebottom of it and close it, and
there's no vents on thosethings.
And after they were all hatched,which if you pop the top like
just a little at eye level, youcan look in there.
Okay.
Yeah.
They're mostly hatched.
And then I have little readerglasses laying all over the
(22:34):
house, and I would just stickthe earpiece of the reader
glasses in the corner.
To prop the lid a little bit tolet the humidity out.
So the dr the chicks can dry andfluff.
So now understanding where, howhumidity works with the egg,
hopefully that will help you outa little bit better moving into
(22:59):
the higher humidity.
Season to incubate?
Carey (23:04):
Like this time of year where it's more humid.
I've dry hatched.
Jennifer (23:10):
And
Carey (23:10):
They were a little wet.
They incubated dry.
I didn't put any water in therebecause.
I couldn't find the tube for thelittle water thingy, but I
wanted to incubate those eggs.
You gotta raise it at hatch,right?
So my wife has a water bottlethat she uses to spray her hair
(23:32):
with, pop the lid, squirtsquirt, put the lid back down.
Jennifer (23:38):
Nope.
Squirt bottle.
Carey (23:39):
I don't even know what I mean.
One of the, one of the ones thatI got.
That somebody sent, I can'tremember what company it was
about a year or so ago, it camewith a squirt bottle.
Jennifer (23:52):
Yeah.
Carey (23:53):
And I was like.
Jennifer (23:55):
And we did the interview with Ty not too long
ago about doing the ducks,remember?
And he said he sprays thoseducks till they're like dripping
wet.
Carey (24:03):
Yeah.
But so when I got a brand new inthe box incubator with a spray
bottle, that just validated myredneck ingenuity of using my
wife's squirt bottle.
And so I was amazed, but.
People, there are some peoplethat are diehard dry hatch.
You need to dry hatch and if youlive in a climate where you know
(24:29):
your, the room humidity is 40ish percent steadily.
Go for it.
Jennifer (24:39):
You don't need water.
Carey (24:41):
Yeah.
You don't.
Jennifer (24:42):
You just need a splash At the end is all you need
because when they pip, thatmeans they're coming through
that membrane and they'rebreathing the air in the air
cell.
That's why it's called an aircell, and they're fixing to come
out of the shell, and that'swhen your humidity will spike
and that's what you want.
That's what you want.
(25:02):
Now, if you've got it set at 70or in, its.
Bikes to 80 something I seepeople say, that's a rainforest.
So just think about it.
If you were in a sauna and youwere trying to dry off, it's a
moot point.
There's no way to dry off.
Carey (25:23):
I've never heard it explained that way, but that's
about the most accurate way.
'Cause if you get in a sauna,it's gonna be in the high
eighties to nineties.
On the humidity and yeah, that'swhat you're doing.
Jennifer (25:37):
It's trying to dry off in the rain basically.
You can't do it, so it's toohigh.
And the other problem here is,remember I was saying that the
humidity needs to leave, themoisture needs to leave the egg,
right?
So you've got to have thathumidity in the atmosphere just
slightly lower.
So that the, everything wants tobalance, right?
(25:59):
Yeah.
So the moisture wants to leavethe egg to go out into
atmosphere, so it'll balancewell.
If you've got it too high, thenall that moisture is being
trapped in the egg.
And what happens when you're ina closed off space full of
water?
You drown.
Carey (26:18):
I was gonna say, you don't go anywhere for long.
Jennifer (26:20):
Yeah.
You drown.
So that is why you want thehumidity.
Just you want things to balance.
Balance is key here.
Yeah.
You don't want the humidityspiking at 75, 85, 95.
You don't want it raining inyour incubator.
(26:42):
Open those vents.
Get that out of there.
You want it?
You wanna start around 60 andkinda let it spike up to about
70, and then you wanna startopening some vents and start
negotiating with it, but not tooquick because if it comes down
too far, then.
(27:03):
It's going to mess up thebalance even more for those who
haven't hatched yet, whichpeople refer to as shrink
wrapping.
Yeah.
That's like when I think atornado comes through and it
sucks all the air out of theroom.
Yeah.
Same concept you're wanting tobalance is the key thing here.
Now, I explained to a customerthe other day, he didn't
(27:27):
understand why.
He couldn't open the incubatorrepeatedly to pull the chicks
out as they were drying, and Iexplained it to him like this.
When a storm front comesthrough, the dog can tell, your
eardrums can tell.
Sometimes you will feel thatcold smack hit you in the face,
(27:48):
as the front comes across you.
If you're outside, it's the samething.
You open that incubator, you'vegot.
A, I don't know.
My house stays about 70.
You open that incubator and that70 degree air is hitting those
aches.
It's like a storm front.
And it is going to impact theit's gonna impact the
(28:12):
temperature for sure, but it isdefinitely gonna impact the
humidity.
Carey (28:17):
So I explained to somebody pretty similar.
I said, have you ever wentoutside when it snowed?
And they were like, yeah.
So how did your face feel?
That's what happens every timeyou open an incubator.
Because it's a drastic change intemperature and it just, and
some of'em, if they're.
(28:39):
If you're having hatchabilityproblems and you're taking
chicks out when they're stillwet and opening that door and
candling a whole lot, that mightbe the answer to your
hatchability problems is toleave the door shut.
Jennifer (28:55):
All right.
I think we have explained how itworks.
You wanna talk about some of thethings we're seeing on social
media now?
I like why?
Carey (29:09):
So we have seen some pretty interesting ones here
lately.
Jennifer (29:12):
This one took the cake though.
Carey (29:14):
Let's go ahead and share your story.
Jennifer (29:18):
Okay, and
Carey (29:19):
Hang on.
I gotta say this.
If you are the person that didthis, we are not going to reveal
whom you are.
Jennifer (29:30):
I don't even know or
Carey (29:31):
what Facebook group this was in.
So if you call us out, you areadmitting to it yourself.
We are trying to protect youridentity.
Jennifer (29:41):
Yep.
This is, boom.
There you go.
No, I don't even know what groupI was in.
I don't know a name.
I don't know anything.
This is not a follower.
This is just me scrollingFacebook.
Okay.
So she was three days beforeHatch and realized her humidity
had been too high because herHygrometer wasn't working and.
(30:05):
Wanted to know about creating anair cell to an air hole to
relieve some of the moisture nowthat
Carey (30:17):
filling a hole in the side of the incubator.
Jennifer (30:20):
In the shell.
In the shell, but that in anditself was like, okay, this is a
new person.
Okay, we're gonna explain toy'all.
So I go to the comments.
The comments, whew.
Okay.
So the consensus of the group inthe comments section, was to
(30:40):
take a small diameter screw.
And go through the shell,through the air cell, through
the membrane, but stop beforethe chick because you don't
wanna hurt the chick.
And then slowly back it back outin order to create airflow.
(31:04):
Now after I picked my jaw offthe floor,
Carey (31:08):
so like I'm just sitting here picturing, this is what I'm
picturing.
I'm picturing a chicken lady.
Jennifer (31:15):
It was chicken.
Carey (31:17):
She's got a sheet rock screw that she got from her
husband out of the junk drawer.
Got her one of those yellowhandle, like the old craftsman
screwdrivers, one of those, anda husband's holding a mag light
over the top of it trying tofind, an empty spot in the air
(31:39):
socket pocket thing and in adark room.
That's what I'm picturing.
Jennifer (31:44):
See, I didn't even put that much thought into it.
Carey (31:48):
I feel like there had to have been some kind of substance
involved in making thisdecision.
Jennifer (31:56):
There was a little more to the story, but that
won't be said on the, while therecording button is on.
So anyway, after reading thecommentary and picking my jaw up
off the floor, the only thing Isaid was.
Air, eggshells are porous andallow air exchange.
Carey (32:16):
Did you get attacked?
Jennifer (32:17):
I don't, my notifications don't work, so I
wouldn't know if I did.
So I don't know because I can't,I don't know where it was.
Carey (32:27):
But what you're saying is not only did one person have
this idea,
Jennifer (32:32):
oh, it was a consensus of the group,
Carey (32:33):
but like multiple people agreed that this was a great
idea.
Jennifer (32:39):
Yes.
Yeah,
Carey (32:45):
so if I wasn't exhausted from what all I did this past
weekend, I would scour theinnerwebs and I would find that
post because I feel like thatpost is comedy gold.
Yeah, and I will say this, ifany of our wonderful faithful
(33:06):
listeners out there, if they sawthat post and they remember
where it is, I'm at CarrieBlackman, C-A-R-E-Y.
Just tag me in it.
Jennifer (33:22):
Okay?
So let's, if you found yourselfin her scenario.
Where you discovered that thehumidity had been too high, but
you candled and the chick isstill viable.
There is an answer that does notrequire surgery.
Carey (33:41):
Just let some of it out of the hu, the incubator.
Jennifer (33:44):
You can, you're definitely gonna do that anyway,
but you just simply hatchupright.
Because the chick is going to goup into the air cell.
It doesn't matter if the aircell's on the side, if you lay
the egg down, it's on the side,or if it's upright, it's gonna
go through the membrane into theair cell, because that's how
(34:06):
it's orientated inside the egg.
So if you just simply set theegg.
You can use lots of things.
If you have a small incubator,which I'm assuming most people
do, then just cut a toiletpaper, roll into a little
cylinder, and just set the eggin it inside of your incubator.
(34:27):
That should fit inside a natureWite 360, and then the air shell
will be at the top.
The chick will come out throughthe top.
The liquid's gonna be down inthe pointy end of the egg.
Carey (34:40):
Then it's gonna eat it
Jennifer (34:42):
and then the chick won't drown.
So there is answers that don'trequire screws and surgery.
Carey (34:52):
Yeah, like I just, I'm not overly confident that would
work.
Jennifer (34:57):
And I'm gonna also say that I don't think it would work
at all, but I will say thathatching upright.
If in doubt at any point, hatchupright, because I'm gonna tell
you right now, I hatch all mybuttons upright because I have
dropped too many of thosesuckers trying to get'em out of
(35:18):
the turn of the thingies that Iput'em in
Carey (35:21):
the rails.
Jennifer (35:21):
Thank you.
And so I just pick up the wholerail and set it in the hatching
basket and they hatch just fine.
It's not a problem.
They will figure out how to getoutta that shell.
And if you forget and mess upyour hatch days and they're
still in the turner, they'regonna hatch in there too.
They do not care that you didn'ttake it and set it on its side.
(35:44):
I promise you they do not care.
So
Carey (35:46):
what I wish is that my, like I have the same hatcher
that you do and I really wishthat I could just take the tray
out.
The incubator and just sit thesucker in the hatching box.
Jennifer (36:00):
It would be nice to put in it.
Carey (36:03):
Oh,
Jennifer (36:04):
what else have we seen
Carey (36:05):
on?
I moved a thousand eggs over tothe Hatcher in five minutes.
Jennifer (36:10):
Have you watched the Quail lady flip purse?
The Bob Whites?
She just flips them out.
Carey (36:16):
Oh, speaking of that,
Jennifer (36:18):
what?
Carey (36:19):
That Hatcher incubator that she has?
Jennifer (36:21):
Yeah,
Carey (36:22):
the, is it Rosewood?
Jennifer (36:25):
Yeah.
Carey (36:26):
I bought one
Jennifer (36:27):
big one.
Oh, you can keep it.
Carey (36:32):
I got,
Jennifer (36:34):
You're gonna have to clean it up and tell us about
it.
Carey (36:37):
Yeah.
I'm really excited about itbecause.
There.
Just by, if it didn't work, it'sa beautiful piece, but it does,
it is fully functional.
Jennifer (36:46):
Oh, awesome.
Carey (36:47):
So I'm really excited about getting that and scared of
what it's gonna take to fill itup because this person used it
primarily for quail, and he saidthat he knows it'll hold 24,000.
Jennifer (36:59):
Holy mackerel.
Carey (37:01):
So
Jennifer (37:02):
that's for Bob White people.
Carey (37:04):
I won't need another one.
Jennifer (37:05):
No, you won't.
Carey (37:07):
And it's got two, two walk-in rooms and one he uses to
hatch and one he uses toincubate.
And then I'll be able to do likethe quail 80.
I'll just take thing, flip it,
Jennifer (37:24):
flip an eight.
Done.
Yep.
Carey (37:26):
Yeah, because that.
Have you seen anything elsecrazy?
I mean I have, but it wasn'treally about incubating so much.
I've seen some other stuff insome other groups and I don't
know, I'm not happy at a lot ofgroups, especially some of the
larger ones, because you have somany people that know absolutely
(37:51):
nothing about chickens.
But when you actually try tohelp somebody stop spreading
those lies but what do you meanyou're spreading lies and you
need to stop?
I'm gonna report you to admin.
Jennifer (38:07):
Yeah, I quit on Facebook.
I don't care.
Carey (38:09):
I said, am Prolia does block?
That's science.
That's a whole
Jennifer (38:16):
nother, that's a whole nother podcast.
Carey (38:18):
Yeah, that's another episode.
But like people, but when you'reusing a tabletop and it's new.
I would consider theinstructions for one, because
the manufacturer knows theirincubator, and if they include a
spray bottle, try it out atHatch.
You know it.
It will help.
(38:39):
And when you do go to Facebookfor answers.
Close your browser, open anothertab and go to YouTube.
And to search for the same thingor check the person's reputation
out that you're receiving advicefrom, because there's probably
(39:02):
more misinformation thanaccurate information in a lot of
the groups on Facebook.
Jennifer (39:09):
Yeah, I agree.
Too.
Many
Carey (39:11):
intro info@poultrynerdpodcast.com.
Jennifer (39:16):
Yeah.
Carey (39:17):
We'll point you in the right direction.
Jennifer (39:18):
Subscribe and save.
Review.
Carey (39:22):
Yeah, we like reviews.
Jennifer (39:24):
All that good stuff.
Carey (39:26):
Yeah.
See y'all next.
We are back in the studio, just Jennifer and I, and
we are talking today aboutsummertime hatching.
I'm a huge fan of hatching inthe wintertime because it's
easier to regulate your humidityand stuff, and also because I
(00:20):
don't like to get hot and goingout in the barn in the
summertime's hot.
So there's that.
Jennifer (00:27):
And I just had cheer around.
Carey (00:30):
That has become a thing, I used to, would take a break
every couple months I would cutmy incubator off and pressure
wash it, disinfect it so I couldsay I could, until I this was on
the hatching time unit.
(00:50):
I.
I had the, the big fan that's inthe back of the CT series?
That's like stupid expensivewhen they go out.
So
Jennifer (00:57):
I haven't heard one yet.
Carey (01:00):
I, okay, so you probably blow yours out a little more
often than I did the first time.
Jennifer (01:05):
Of all the incubators I have, I've blown'em out one
time.
Carey (01:10):
We also have a separate hatcher.
Jennifer (01:13):
I do.
Okay.
So that does make a difference.
Carey (01:15):
Okay.
At the time I had this thingrunning, like I had something
hatching every weekend in it.
While other eggs were in itturning, and I mean it was going
for five or six months, maybe alittle longer, and it just
(01:38):
sounded like a jet engine onenight.
And my wife says, I don't knowwhat that is, but you gotta make
it stop.
Jennifer (01:46):
It does get a little cruddy.
Carey (01:48):
I say that because yeah, they get a little cruddy, one of
the big, most important thingsabout incubating, which I will
be the first to admit, when youlet Mother Nature do it, that is
the best because I don't knowwhy, but you let a broody hen
(02:09):
sit on some eggs and she's gonnahatch out 98% of'em no matter
what the weather does outside,no matter what the humidity
does.
But when you take control, it'sgotta be like a science and
airflow is very important.
Gotta blow those fans out everynow and then, or get a separate
(02:31):
hatcher.
Jennifer (02:33):
So I think I've had my separate hatcher, is it two
years now?
Maybe a year?
I don't know.
I think it's two years.
And I finally decided it.
I had nothing hatching in it fortwo days, and I was like, I
wanna clean this thing, it'snappy.
So I rolled it out into the mainpart of the barn with the big
(02:56):
doors open, and I used theblower to blow all the dust out
of it, and then looked at thefan and I was like, Ooh, ooh,
that's pretty bad.
Lemme tell you a little trick.
The fans on the back of thosethings, they come right off.
You don't have to unscrewanything.
So we learned that the hard way.
And messed up some rivets so youcan just pull it and it will
(03:19):
actually come right off and thenyou can clean it fairly easily.
But yeah, they need to becleaned a little bit every so
often because I think that wasthe first time I had been turned
off since I got it.
Carey (03:32):
Yeah.
I would highly recommend you doas we say, not as we do, because
I had to replace my fan and itwas about a hundred bucks.
So now I have a air compressorand I give it a little
Jennifer (03:48):
Yeah.
I have a raw ob.
Rechargeable blower would blowthe barn out, and I just
happened to use that and blowout the incubators in the
hatcher with it.
Carey (03:58):
That sounds like a really good idea.
Jennifer (04:00):
It's on wheels, everything's on wheels in my
barn.
So just roll it out to the door,blow it out.
Carey (04:06):
So when I got my Hatcher a few months ago.
Did I buy that for Christmas?
Jennifer (04:14):
Yep.
You did?
Carey (04:15):
Yeah, I bought that for me for Christmas.
Like it was really cool.
You take it outta the box andooh, there's wheels.
Jennifer (04:23):
I think Tamara got that for you for Christmas.
You better give her credit forthat.
Carey (04:27):
Yeah, that's right.
Jennifer (04:30):
Listen,
Carey (04:31):
I told her about it too.
Jennifer (04:32):
Yeah.
Carey (04:33):
But like having that on wheels, I.
Is really nice.
So one project that I've thoughtabout, I have several GQF 15 oh
twos, and what I thought aboutdoing is stacking them on top of
each other and getting one ofthose furniture dollies from
(04:54):
Harbor Freight and setting thebottom one on that so I can roll
them out too.
But them things, I swear youshould only incubate in them.
Hatching in'em is rough.
Jennifer (05:07):
It is.
We're not here to talk aboutcleaning incubator studies.
We're actually here.
We've done incubating showsbefore.
If you need, if you're new toincubating and need to better
understand it, there's abeginner one, and then there we
did the one later.
That was a little bit moreadvanced.
So this one we thought we woulddo transitioning from incubating
(05:34):
in wintertime versus spring andsummertime.
'cause there are prettysignificant differences.
Carey (05:43):
Humidity,
Jennifer (05:44):
big time on the humidity,
Carey (05:46):
especially anywhere in the southern spot, parts of the
US or
Jennifer (05:55):
I would think it would be anywhere.
Carey (05:56):
Yeah,
Jennifer (05:57):
because anywhere you're gonna turn your heat on,
you're gonna be sucking themoisture out of your air.
Carey (06:03):
Yeah, that's true.
Jennifer (06:04):
Because most people have their incubators in the
house.
Carey (06:08):
Like when I go up to my dad's in Missouri, even in the
summertime, it's not really thathumid.
Jennifer (06:14):
Really?
Carey (06:15):
Yeah,
Jennifer (06:15):
we're gonna get hate mail from all the people in
Missouri.
Carey (06:19):
This, it'd be my luck this year.
They'll have record highhumidity.
I don't know.
But my dad, that was one of hisfavorite things about being up
there is the lack of humidity.
'cause it he has COPD orsomething like that.
And this good old 80 pluspercent, six months out of the
year humidity in Alabama is akiller for him.
Jennifer (06:42):
I'm looking outside right now.
It's a hundred percent.
Carey (06:45):
Yeah, my, my phone went off earlier and it said
lightning detected in your area.
I was like, really?
It's been raining and thunderingfor the last 20 minutes.
You're on top of it today.
Jennifer (06:56):
Yep.
Okay, so when you're incubatingin the winter time.
You have your heat on and Yeah.
That sucks the moisture out ofyour space.
Yeah.
'cause it's cooking out, right?
So in the summertime it'sraining and the heat is cooking
(07:18):
it and the atmosphere and justhumidity is higher, I would say
in majority of places.
The humidity is going to behigher in the summertime, so
we're gonna exclude the peoplewho live in desert climates.
I would assume that would bedifferent, but I'm not a hundred
percent.
Carey (07:36):
Oh, and we'll also we can exclude people.
I.
Who have spouses that fullysupport their addiction or that
their addiction hasn't gottenout of control and they get to
incubate in the spare bedroom.
Because in your spare bedroom,the humidity and all is what it
is in your house.
(07:56):
And summertime you've got theair conditioning on.
Winter time you got the heat on.
It's great.
I.
Yeah, I got away with incubatingin my living room for a while.
Jennifer (08:07):
I started out incubating in this spare room
too.
Used to sit in there and candlethem like 47 times to see what
was going on.
But that's how you learn, right?
Carey (08:18):
Yeah.
People are like, have you candle'em yet, have you?
I'm like, no, I don't.
Yeah, I don't even have a, oh myGod, I need a Candler.
I don't have one.
So I get on Amazon and I'm like,which one do I get?
This one's rechargeable.
I like that I don't have to keepup with batteries.
Ooh, this one's double A.
And so there's so many differentoptions.
And I finally, I ordered one.
'cause I felt like I had to havea Candler and I didn't even know
(08:41):
what I was looking at first.
And I was like, okay, the thingglows.
This one glows too.
Whoa.
Wait, what the crap is this?
Jennifer (08:51):
There's
Carey (08:51):
like a, maybe this is one.
Maybe this is what they looklike when there's a chick in
them.
So I went to, I went to Googleand started Googling stuff and
to me, candling eggs and whatyou see when you do it is really
cool because like you see theveins, you see it forming, you
can see it move.
(09:13):
So it is like.
Like a sonogram, but it's likeright there in your hands and
you're not in a weird officewith odd things going on.
So it's neat.
Jennifer (09:26):
It is.
I remember distinctly the day Idecided not to candle anymore
though.
Carey (09:32):
See Me too.
Because it got really old andpeople were like, oh, you should
do, what is it?
And I'm looking, and now peopleare like, have you candle them?
What do you, how's it look?
How's your hatch looking?
I don't know where my Candleris.
Jennifer (09:51):
No, I have a really terrible story and I'm gonna
share it with you.
So I was candle and duck eggsand the duck hen was sitting in
the woods and she was fine whereshe was, but she was sitting in
the woods and.
But she had way too many eggsand so I needed to thin them
down a little bit, and so I wascandling them, but it wasn't
really dark outside and I threwone.
(10:15):
David was standing there and Ithrew one out that I thought was
a quitter and it wasn't.
It landed on a rock and therewas a baby duck inside and.
Then it was gasping and David'smad and it became a whole thing.
So I just, okay, I don't needcandle anymore, so I don't,
Carey (10:37):
yeah, like if I get an order for Baloo, then I will
find my Candler or just find aflashlight and I'll, run it up
under'em and take the ones andtoss it in the trash that are no
good.
And I'll handle'em real quick.
'cause.
PE people order those.
(10:59):
They don't want that surprise ofnot something being in there.
'cause it, smells worse thanwhat is supposed to be in there.
I don't even wanna go there.
Jennifer (11:08):
Okay, we're so off topic.
Get back to our outline here.
Carey (11:12):
Okay.
So in the summertime when you'recandling or when you're not
candling,'cause you don't havetime.
I would recommend you not doingit because the more you op, if
you have a dome style, the moreyou open it, the more you let
humidity in or out.
And when you take control ofwhat Mother nature can do
(11:34):
easily, you gotta be scientificand keep your, keep it steady.
And some people, they'll say,oh, you gotta have 55%, you
gotta have 70%.
Any of those answers can beright, but what's most important
is that you have steadyhumidity.
(11:56):
And steady temperature
Jennifer (11:58):
and not too high.
Carey (12:00):
Yeah.
Because, I was, I have a friendof mine up in Canada and we were
trying to troubleshoot someissues that he was having.
He has he bought.
Brin, I always mess up how yousay it.
I think it's Breia.
Is that right?
Okay.
So that's one of the betterquality, like tabletop clear
dome.
(12:20):
Incubators.
And he had, he bought one ofthose because he had that good
old solid NR 360 and.
Used it for a couple years andhad two of them and one died.
Somebody talked him into buyinga breia.
(12:41):
The Brennia had a highercapacity and all that, but now
he's having problems where thefeet are messed up.
The toes are crooked.
And when a mutual friend talkedto me about it, he was like,
more about incubating than I do,so this is what's going on.
I said I'm gonna tell you thatcan only be two things.
(13:02):
He said, oh I figured it'd bemore than that.
I said, Nope.
It's 95% of the time.
One or two things.
He said, what?
I said, either your genetics orgarbage.
Or your humidity is stupid high.
And he was like he's been usingthe same breeder birds for about
(13:25):
five years.
And I said what is he feedingthem?
He said the same thing becausehe makes, like he makes his own
feed.
I said, okay.
So it's a problem withincubator.
And we're talking and I see hesends me video and they have it
(13:47):
setting on one of those table,like foldable table chairs,
stand thingies that you use toeat supper in the living room.
Everybody has'em.
They might not use'em all thetime, but most people have'em.
But he had it sitting on that.
And in the video I could seethrough the bathroom.
Window raised up, and then I seelike their bed and another
(14:11):
window up and I'm like, okay, wegot a couple issues here.
He has a thermometer, hydrometercombo.
I'm like, okay, set that on thetable by the incubator and send
me a picture in 30 minutes afteryou set it there.
So he does, and it's reallyweird because they use.
(14:35):
Celsius for temperature, but Iguess humidity is the same
percentage all around the world.
So he sends me this picture andI'm like, 27.
What?
That's freaking cold.
Why?
They got the windows up.
And then I'm like, I see thesea.
And I'm like, oh that's onlylike 72 3.
Okay, that's not bad humidity.
(14:56):
That's not bad.
And so I ask him about the unit.
And the, it is, the instructionson those things are really
horrible.
They should be written by a birdperson.
Not by a junior scientist orsomething, but there's fill up
(15:18):
this until locked down and thenfeel this and this, and don't
touch it.
He was at day one of hislockdown and his humidity was
like 70%.
I said, dude, there's yourproblem.
He said, what do you mean it?
It's always been like 70% beforeI take him out.
(15:41):
I said, yes, but ideally it'llbe closer to 50 until they start
pipping 50 55 when the first onepops.
From then on, you're gonna seeit shoot up.
But if it's 70 before that firstone pops, man, there's gonna be
(16:03):
so much humidity in there that'swhy your toes are getting,
having problems.
And he was like, okay, I havethree more days.
How do I fix this?
And him being from Canada, hewasn't.
He wasn't as familiar withSouthern Engineering as I call
it.
(16:26):
And I was like, I said do youhave any straws?
He said, straw.
I said, yep.
Need two straws.
Three would be even better.
And so he goes and gets thoseand they have the vent that you
open in the top.
Jennifer (16:43):
I said,
Carey (16:43):
open the vent all the way.
Stick a straw in it, like squishit, whatever.
Stick it in there.
Boom.
Get that done.
Now I need you to slightly liftup the side and slide the straw
in and then slide the otherstraw in.
He's okay, why?
(17:05):
I said,'cause we need to getsome of that crap out.
And so I get him to blow airinto one of the straws that goes
into the side, and his wife isoh my God this is crazy.
This is crazy.
She's freaking out and thishappens.
And the humidity, I get intoblow on it a few times and then
(17:29):
pull those two straws, butleaves the one that's sticking
out the top.
And I told him to get.
Like a big blanket or towel orsomething and just wrap around
the dome, knowing where yourstraw's coming up.
And he said about two hourslater, the humidity was like 48
or 49.
I was like, all right, leave itthere.
(17:51):
And called me in a few days andlemme know how your hatch is.
I got a picture of this morningof a crap load of chicks in his
incubator.
And from what I could tell, noneof'em have crooked toes.
If that's one of your issuesthat you have in the summertime
because you live in an areawhere it's awkwardly humid.
Jennifer (18:10):
So let me just explain how the anatomy of the egg works
a little bit.
So if you imagine an eggstraight out of the chicken,
you've got the yolk and you'vegot the white, it's very
liquidy, it's very wet.
So as the chick grows that.
Moisture has to leave the egg inorder to end up with a dry,
(18:37):
fluffy chick.
21 days later.
Carey (18:41):
Gotta go somewhere
Jennifer (18:42):
17 or 28 days.
Whatever it is you'reincubating.
The eggshell itself is porous.
And the humidity needs toaccount for letting the moisture
out not too quickly, just right.
So that the progression of thechick growing.
(19:06):
And the moisture loss coincideto end up with a healthy, dry,
fluffy chick.
Now, I personally incubate at40% humidity.
I don't care what it is, buttonquail to turkeys, it's 40%
humidity.
And look,
Carey (19:25):
changing that incubator like.
When you change, you gotta,which button is it?
Do I Hold down?
Oh, okay.
Not that one.
Oh crap, I'm in French now, oh,here it is.
Now it's flashing and then yougotta change it.
Yeah.
Bump that.
I'm the same way.
40.
My, my incubators, they're on40.
(19:48):
My hatcher, it don't move.
Boom.
That's it.
Jennifer (19:52):
What's your Hatcher set at?
Carey (19:54):
60.
Jennifer (19:55):
Mine too.
Mine set at 60.
Now, assuming not everybody hasa hatching time incubator, which
we are not at this pointadvocating for hatching time
incubators, this just happens tobe what we have.
Carey (20:07):
Hey, I'm gonna tell you right now I have hatch and time.
I have more GQs than I have halftimes.
Jennifer (20:13):
If you have tabletops it, it doesn't matter what you
have.
But you need to keep it somewhatconsistent.
And in the summertime where thehumidity is higher in the
general atmosphere, it's verylikely that you do not have to
add any water.
So always start your incubatordry and see what the humidity
(20:38):
is.
You may come in at.
Anywhere between 35 and 45without adding any water.
And if so, then just leave it.
Don't add any water.
That's called dry hatchingbecause you didn't add water.
It's just dry.
I don't know what it's called,hatching.
That's stupid.
It should be dry incubating, butit is called dry hatching when
(21:02):
you don't.
But it's like parking on adriveway and driving on a
parkway.
It makes no sense, okay?
But then when you get to thelockdown portion, the last three
days, take the turnaround.
You do need to bump it.
Now, if you are running dry.
You're stable between 35 and 40,somewhere in there.
(21:25):
At lockdown.
All I used to do when I started,when I had tabletops.
Was I, there was no sciencebehind it.
I put a splash of water in thebottom of the incubator and I
closed it.
That was it.
I didn't do anything more.
If I had to guess right now forthose who need a precise amount
of liquid that I put in there, Iwould go with three tablespoons
(21:49):
maybe, and then I would justclose it.
Now, those incubators, thosewere the old.
I don't even, I think they dosell'em still, but I'm not sure
they're yellow and they're, theytell you to keep'em in the
styrofoam.
They're a box.
That's what I started.
Oh
Carey (22:05):
yeah.
Like the, there's a coupledifferent brands that make'em
Yeah.
They're yellow and they're blue.
The front.
Jennifer (22:12):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's what I started with, andso I just.
Put a splash of water in thebottom of it and close it, and
there's no vents on thosethings.
And after they were all hatched,which if you pop the top like
just a little at eye level, youcan look in there.
Okay.
Yeah.
They're mostly hatched.
And then I have little readerglasses laying all over the
(22:34):
house, and I would just stickthe earpiece of the reader
glasses in the corner.
To prop the lid a little bit tolet the humidity out.
So the dr the chicks can dry andfluff.
So now understanding where, howhumidity works with the egg,
hopefully that will help you outa little bit better moving into
(22:59):
the higher humidity.
Season to incubate?
Carey (23:04):
Like this time of year where it's more humid.
I've dry hatched.
Jennifer (23:10):
And
Carey (23:10):
They were a little wet.
They incubated dry.
I didn't put any water in therebecause.
I couldn't find the tube for thelittle water thingy, but I
wanted to incubate those eggs.
You gotta raise it at hatch,right?
So my wife has a water bottlethat she uses to spray her hair
(23:32):
with, pop the lid, squirtsquirt, put the lid back down.
Jennifer (23:38):
Nope.
Squirt bottle.
Carey (23:39):
I don't even know what I mean.
One of the, one of the ones thatI got.
That somebody sent, I can'tremember what company it was
about a year or so ago, it camewith a squirt bottle.
Jennifer (23:52):
Yeah.
Carey (23:53):
And I was like.
Jennifer (23:55):
And we did the interview with Ty not too long
ago about doing the ducks,remember?
And he said he sprays thoseducks till they're like dripping
wet.
Carey (24:03):
Yeah.
But so when I got a brand new inthe box incubator with a spray
bottle, that just validated myredneck ingenuity of using my
wife's squirt bottle.
And so I was amazed, but.
People, there are some peoplethat are diehard dry hatch.
You need to dry hatch and if youlive in a climate where you know
(24:29):
your, the room humidity is 40ish percent steadily.
Go for it.
Jennifer (24:39):
You don't need water.
Carey (24:41):
Yeah.
You don't.
Jennifer (24:42):
You just need a splash At the end is all you need
because when they pip, thatmeans they're coming through
that membrane and they'rebreathing the air in the air
cell.
That's why it's called an aircell, and they're fixing to come
out of the shell, and that'swhen your humidity will spike
and that's what you want.
That's what you want.
(25:02):
Now, if you've got it set at 70or in, its.
Bikes to 80 something I seepeople say, that's a rainforest.
So just think about it.
If you were in a sauna and youwere trying to dry off, it's a
moot point.
There's no way to dry off.
Carey (25:23):
I've never heard it explained that way, but that's
about the most accurate way.
'Cause if you get in a sauna,it's gonna be in the high
eighties to nineties.
On the humidity and yeah, that'swhat you're doing.
Jennifer (25:37):
It's trying to dry off in the rain basically.
You can't do it, so it's toohigh.
And the other problem here is,remember I was saying that the
humidity needs to leave, themoisture needs to leave the egg,
right?
So you've got to have thathumidity in the atmosphere just
slightly lower.
So that the, everything wants tobalance, right?
(25:59):
Yeah.
So the moisture wants to leavethe egg to go out into
atmosphere, so it'll balancewell.
If you've got it too high, thenall that moisture is being
trapped in the egg.
And what happens when you're ina closed off space full of
water?
You drown.
Carey (26:18):
I was gonna say, you don't go anywhere for long.
Jennifer (26:20):
Yeah.
You drown.
So that is why you want thehumidity.
Just you want things to balance.
Balance is key here.
Yeah.
You don't want the humidityspiking at 75, 85, 95.
You don't want it raining inyour incubator.
(26:42):
Open those vents.
Get that out of there.
You want it?
You wanna start around 60 andkinda let it spike up to about
70, and then you wanna startopening some vents and start
negotiating with it, but not tooquick because if it comes down
too far, then.
(27:03):
It's going to mess up thebalance even more for those who
haven't hatched yet, whichpeople refer to as shrink
wrapping.
Yeah.
That's like when I think atornado comes through and it
sucks all the air out of theroom.
Yeah.
Same concept you're wanting tobalance is the key thing here.
Now, I explained to a customerthe other day, he didn't
(27:27):
understand why.
He couldn't open the incubatorrepeatedly to pull the chicks
out as they were drying, and Iexplained it to him like this.
When a storm front comesthrough, the dog can tell, your
eardrums can tell.
Sometimes you will feel thatcold smack hit you in the face,
(27:48):
as the front comes across you.
If you're outside, it's the samething.
You open that incubator, you'vegot.
A, I don't know.
My house stays about 70.
You open that incubator and that70 degree air is hitting those
aches.
It's like a storm front.
And it is going to impact theit's gonna impact the
(28:12):
temperature for sure, but it isdefinitely gonna impact the
humidity.
Carey (28:17):
So I explained to somebody pretty similar.
I said, have you ever wentoutside when it snowed?
And they were like, yeah.
So how did your face feel?
That's what happens every timeyou open an incubator.
Because it's a drastic change intemperature and it just, and
some of'em, if they're.
(28:39):
If you're having hatchabilityproblems and you're taking
chicks out when they're stillwet and opening that door and
candling a whole lot, that mightbe the answer to your
hatchability problems is toleave the door shut.
Jennifer (28:55):
All right.
I think we have explained how itworks.
You wanna talk about some of thethings we're seeing on social
media now?
I like why?
Carey (29:09):
So we have seen some pretty interesting ones here
lately.
Jennifer (29:12):
This one took the cake though.
Carey (29:14):
Let's go ahead and share your story.
Jennifer (29:18):
Okay, and
Carey (29:19):
Hang on.
I gotta say this.
If you are the person that didthis, we are not going to reveal
whom you are.
Jennifer (29:30):
I don't even know or
Carey (29:31):
what Facebook group this was in.
So if you call us out, you areadmitting to it yourself.
We are trying to protect youridentity.
Jennifer (29:41):
Yep.
This is, boom.
There you go.
No, I don't even know what groupI was in.
I don't know a name.
I don't know anything.
This is not a follower.
This is just me scrollingFacebook.
Okay.
So she was three days beforeHatch and realized her humidity
had been too high because herHygrometer wasn't working and.
(30:05):
Wanted to know about creating anair cell to an air hole to
relieve some of the moisture nowthat
Carey (30:17):
filling a hole in the side of the incubator.
Jennifer (30:20):
In the shell.
In the shell, but that in anditself was like, okay, this is a
new person.
Okay, we're gonna explain toy'all.
So I go to the comments.
The comments, whew.
Okay.
So the consensus of the group inthe comments section, was to
(30:40):
take a small diameter screw.
And go through the shell,through the air cell, through
the membrane, but stop beforethe chick because you don't
wanna hurt the chick.
And then slowly back it back outin order to create airflow.
(31:04):
Now after I picked my jaw offthe floor,
Carey (31:08):
so like I'm just sitting here picturing, this is what I'm
picturing.
I'm picturing a chicken lady.
Jennifer (31:15):
It was chicken.
Carey (31:17):
She's got a sheet rock screw that she got from her
husband out of the junk drawer.
Got her one of those yellowhandle, like the old craftsman
screwdrivers, one of those, anda husband's holding a mag light
over the top of it trying tofind, an empty spot in the air
(31:39):
socket pocket thing and in adark room.
That's what I'm picturing.
Jennifer (31:44):
See, I didn't even put that much thought into it.
Carey (31:48):
I feel like there had to have been some kind of substance
involved in making thisdecision.
Jennifer (31:56):
There was a little more to the story, but that
won't be said on the, while therecording button is on.
So anyway, after reading thecommentary and picking my jaw up
off the floor, the only thing Isaid was.
Air, eggshells are porous andallow air exchange.
Carey (32:16):
Did you get attacked?
Jennifer (32:17):
I don't, my notifications don't work, so I
wouldn't know if I did.
So I don't know because I can't,I don't know where it was.
Carey (32:27):
But what you're saying is not only did one person have
this idea,
Jennifer (32:32):
oh, it was a consensus of the group,
Carey (32:33):
but like multiple people agreed that this was a great
idea.
Jennifer (32:39):
Yes.
Yeah,
Carey (32:45):
so if I wasn't exhausted from what all I did this past
weekend, I would scour theinnerwebs and I would find that
post because I feel like thatpost is comedy gold.
Yeah, and I will say this, ifany of our wonderful faithful
(33:06):
listeners out there, if they sawthat post and they remember
where it is, I'm at CarrieBlackman, C-A-R-E-Y.
Just tag me in it.
Jennifer (33:22):
Okay?
So let's, if you found yourselfin her scenario.
Where you discovered that thehumidity had been too high, but
you candled and the chick isstill viable.
There is an answer that does notrequire surgery.
Carey (33:41):
Just let some of it out of the hu, the incubator.
Jennifer (33:44):
You can, you're definitely gonna do that anyway,
but you just simply hatchupright.
Because the chick is going to goup into the air cell.
It doesn't matter if the aircell's on the side, if you lay
the egg down, it's on the side,or if it's upright, it's gonna
go through the membrane into theair cell, because that's how
(34:06):
it's orientated inside the egg.
So if you just simply set theegg.
You can use lots of things.
If you have a small incubator,which I'm assuming most people
do, then just cut a toiletpaper, roll into a little
cylinder, and just set the eggin it inside of your incubator.
(34:27):
That should fit inside a natureWite 360, and then the air shell
will be at the top.
The chick will come out throughthe top.
The liquid's gonna be down inthe pointy end of the egg.
Carey (34:40):
Then it's gonna eat it
Jennifer (34:42):
and then the chick won't drown.
So there is answers that don'trequire screws and surgery.
Carey (34:52):
Yeah, like I just, I'm not overly confident that would
work.
Jennifer (34:57):
And I'm gonna also say that I don't think it would work
at all, but I will say thathatching upright.
If in doubt at any point, hatchupright, because I'm gonna tell
you right now, I hatch all mybuttons upright because I have
dropped too many of thosesuckers trying to get'em out of
(35:18):
the turn of the thingies that Iput'em in
Carey (35:21):
the rails.
Jennifer (35:21):
Thank you.
And so I just pick up the wholerail and set it in the hatching
basket and they hatch just fine.
It's not a problem.
They will figure out how to getoutta that shell.
And if you forget and mess upyour hatch days and they're
still in the turner, they'regonna hatch in there too.
They do not care that you didn'ttake it and set it on its side.
(35:44):
I promise you they do not care.
So
Carey (35:46):
what I wish is that my, like I have the same hatcher
that you do and I really wishthat I could just take the tray
out.
The incubator and just sit thesucker in the hatching box.
Jennifer (36:00):
It would be nice to put in it.
Carey (36:03):
Oh,
Jennifer (36:04):
what else have we seen
Carey (36:05):
on?
I moved a thousand eggs over tothe Hatcher in five minutes.
Jennifer (36:10):
Have you watched the Quail lady flip purse?
The Bob Whites?
She just flips them out.
Carey (36:16):
Oh, speaking of that,
Jennifer (36:18):
what?
Carey (36:19):
That Hatcher incubator that she has?
Jennifer (36:21):
Yeah,
Carey (36:22):
the, is it Rosewood?
Jennifer (36:25):
Yeah.
Carey (36:26):
I bought one
Jennifer (36:27):
big one.
Oh, you can keep it.
Carey (36:32):
I got,
Jennifer (36:34):
You're gonna have to clean it up and tell us about
it.
Carey (36:37):
Yeah.
I'm really excited about itbecause.
There.
Just by, if it didn't work, it'sa beautiful piece, but it does,
it is fully functional.
Jennifer (36:46):
Oh, awesome.
Carey (36:47):
So I'm really excited about getting that and scared of
what it's gonna take to fill itup because this person used it
primarily for quail, and he saidthat he knows it'll hold 24,000.
Jennifer (36:59):
Holy mackerel.
Carey (37:01):
So
Jennifer (37:02):
that's for Bob White people.
Carey (37:04):
I won't need another one.
Jennifer (37:05):
No, you won't.
Carey (37:07):
And it's got two, two walk-in rooms and one he uses to
hatch and one he uses toincubate.
And then I'll be able to do likethe quail 80.
I'll just take thing, flip it,
Jennifer (37:24):
flip an eight.
Done.
Yep.
Carey (37:26):
Yeah, because that.
Have you seen anything elsecrazy?
I mean I have, but it wasn'treally about incubating so much.
I've seen some other stuff insome other groups and I don't
know, I'm not happy at a lot ofgroups, especially some of the
larger ones, because you have somany people that know absolutely
(37:51):
nothing about chickens.
But when you actually try tohelp somebody stop spreading
those lies but what do you meanyou're spreading lies and you
need to stop?
I'm gonna report you to admin.
Jennifer (38:07):
Yeah, I quit on Facebook.
I don't care.
Carey (38:09):
I said, am Prolia does block?
That's science.
That's a whole
Jennifer (38:16):
nother, that's a whole nother podcast.
Carey (38:18):
Yeah, that's another episode.
But like people, but when you'reusing a tabletop and it's new.
I would consider theinstructions for one, because
the manufacturer knows theirincubator, and if they include a
spray bottle, try it out atHatch.
You know it.
It will help.
(38:39):
And when you do go to Facebookfor answers.
Close your browser, open anothertab and go to YouTube.
And to search for the same thingor check the person's reputation
out that you're receiving advicefrom, because there's probably
(39:02):
more misinformation thanaccurate information in a lot of
the groups on Facebook.
Jennifer (39:09):
Yeah, I agree.
Too.
Many
Carey (39:11):
intro info@poultrynerdpodcast.com.
Jennifer (39:16):
Yeah.
Carey (39:17):
We'll point you in the right direction.
Jennifer (39:18):
Subscribe and save.
Review.
Carey (39:22):
Yeah, we like reviews.
Jennifer (39:24):
All that good stuff.
Carey (39:26):
Yeah.
See y'all next.
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