Goatster, I have heard of people picking up hydrometers at cigar shops, I got mine that is a combo/thermometer at sears. Do you have an automatic egg turner? they say that really increases your hatch rates. Where did you get your eggs? that also is a factor. Hope the next hatch reaps lots of healthy chicks for you!

-Sheila

Yes I used an automatic egg turner. I got the eggs through the mail from a very kind forum member! It was hot in our region and knowing my mailman like I do...........anyway, I feel since the chicks were sticking to the eggs I also had a problem with the humidity.

goatster, I sent you an email with a few thoughts on the humidity thing...I read my Little Giant instructions and curiously they don't mention the humidity range for my model 9200 'bator, just to keep the wells filled, etc. I think the thing with the styrofoam incubators is that if the humidity is off, there isn't a whole lot you can DO about it. I did read here about someone who solved their room temp/drafts/fluctuating humidity issues by placing their incubator inside a closet during the incubation period...

I'm going to fire up my incubator here in another week or so and try for some Polish chicks, now that I know my two Polish girls have been discovered. :)

I'm still hoping you'll get some latecomers from those eggs...I feel so bad that you only got 5 chicks. :( I'm thinking about scanning the Little Giant instructions and adding them to my chicken site...I wonder if that would be of interest to people...?

Velvet ~:>

I have had 100% clear down to zero% hatch from mailed eggs. Don't know why. I keep my incubator in the basement stair landing so the humidity and temp stay fairly constant. The rest of the house tends to swing with the Iowa weather, which is insane most of the year. Some days you want to run the furnace and the AC in the same day. I just let it swing mostly.

Eggs that are mailed have much less chance of hatching due to the shaking they are subjected to.

If you order eggs again, ask that the sender double box the eggs, with crumpled up newspaper between the boxes for cushioning. This is the way I have received eggs that hatched the best.

Also, you have to have a hygrometer. Everyone has different humidity and you can't just assume one is the same as the other. Humidity is probably the most important thing in hatching besides keeping the correct temperature.

M