60% humidity but not high enough

[grego86]

I've kept my eggs on 60% humidity and 100F. I candled last night and not entirely sure but I think the egg air sack is half of the egg. Today is the 4th day, if I need to tonight I can try and take a picture. I have 4 different gauges in my incubator 3 of which also tell humidity and they all have said 60%. Two of the gauges are analog and one is digital. Should I raise my humidity a little ? My incubator is in my dining room away from the sunlight, fans and I only open the incubator about 3 times a day to rotate the eggs.


P.S - I have checked the calibration on my hygrometers.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I've kept my eggs on 60% humidity and 100F. I candled last night and not entirely sure but I think the egg air sack is half of the egg. Today is the 4th day, if I need to tonight I can try and take a picture. I have 4 different gauges in my incubator 3 of which also tell humidity and they all have said 60%. Two of the gauges are analog and one is digital. Should I raise my humidity a little ? My incubator is in my dining room away from the sunlight, fans and I only open the incubator about 3 times a day to rotate the eggs.


P.S - I have checked the calibration on my hygrometers.

I would take a few pics and put up for opinions. Are you in a real arid area or high elevation?? 60% should be doing just the opposite. Unless the eggs are extremely porous. At day 4 you usually can barely even see much of an air cell. You are candling down into the egg from the top (air cell end) of the egg right??

 

[grego86]

I was candling from bottom (small end) is that wrong ? I live in Southwest Arkansas. A few of the eggs seem pretty porous. I can see what I think are holes when I candle.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I was candling from bottom (small end) is that wrong ? I live in Southwest Arkansas. A few of the eggs seem pretty porous. I can see what I think are holes when I candle.

I almost guarentee what you are seeing is the albumen if you are candling from the bottom. Lots of people do this is in the beginning and confuse themselves. Candle from the top, where the air cell should be and I think you'll see a different picture and you will be able to put things into perspective better. On the average 60% is usually way too high for the first 17 days and it should keep the egg from loosing that much moisture. I'll show you with one of my candle pics from last hatch:


Candling down into the egg lights up the air cell.

 

[grego86]

here is what most of my eggs look like.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

here is what most of my eggs look like.

I'm not even seeing the air cell. I'm assuming it's real small and your hand blocks it. That lighter area at the top is the albumen, not air cell. I would definitely lower the humidity. At this point, day 4 ish the air cells are real small anyway, so it's not a worry, but lowering the humidity will let the egg loose moisture and allow the air cell to grow. If you go by the chart that is in the blog link I gave you, it'll give you an idea of how to adjust your humidity. Good news is, your air cells are not half the size of your egg, so you don't have to worry about that or trying to raise the humidity right now.

 

[grego86]

I'm so relieved lol. Thanks for the quick response! I went to remove the water and there was barely any in the tray. So now how do I lower the humidity when my incubator is dry? I opened my air vents hoping that will help.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I'm so relieved lol. Thanks for the quick response! I went to remove the water and there was barely any in the tray. So now how do I lower the humidity when my incubator is dry? I opened my air vents hoping that will help.

Once the water wells/dishes are dry and with the vents open it should come back down. OK- I mentioned giving you a blog link to help you decide/adjust humidity- but I don't see where I actually gave it to you IF I didn't, here it is: http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity

 

[grego86]

Humidity is down to 45% when I checked a few minutes ago. Hopefully this will help.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Humidity is down to 45% when I checked a few minutes ago. Hopefully this will help.

Excellent!