Humidity - A few thoughts to help others.....

[crp126]

I have a newly built incubator room. Built into our porch. My entire first hatch in the room died, humidity was uncontrollable. I have learned a few things from this that may help others. First, the humidity was very high here outside and temps over 90. This really affected my incubators ability to regulate humidity. I got a humidikit and set it at 75%. I hatched turkeys, guineas and quail this time. Turkeys hatched a few days ago when weather was cooler, no problems. Today the guineas and quail are hatching and nothing but shrink wrapping in first few keets. I increased the humidity to 85. Chicks are hatching normally now with no help. So do not be afraid to really push that humidity at lockdown and during hatch. I will now have my humidity set high when we have hot, humid weather. And watch the first chick to pip and hatch. If it is shrink wrapped push that humidity even higher, even if you think it is good. I am doing Orpington, sizzle silkies, and maran eggs after these are done hatching and will hopefully have a problem free hatch after what I have learned. Hoping this may help someone else down the road.

 

[IceAngel]

Shrink wrapping is definitely a sign of too low humidity but too high humidity has it's own problems. I got a lot of "sticky" chicks when I pushed the humidity beyond 85%. At least it didn't kill the chicks like the shrink wrap did but it was a lot of work bathing the "sticky" chicks to get the hardened membranes off them.

 

[crp126]

From my understanding from another thread on here, sticky chicks are humidity too high during incubation before lockdown and hatch. I am talking about strictly after lockdown and during hatch. But I could be wrong about sticky chicks, I have never had one.

 

[IceAngel]

I got my sticky chicks by filling up all the water reservoirs in my Bator during lockdown. Because I was going away for a few days, I wanted to make sure the Bator wasn't going to evaporate all the water while I was away.

For some reason I thought that too high humidity before lockdown resulted in swollen chicks that couldn't move around enough to pip on their own. Let me know.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Too high humidity during the first 17 days of incubation has higher instances of chicks drowning at hatch, "swollen" overly large chicks that are unable to move in the shell. Too low humidity during the first 17 days generally results in the air cells growing too large and shrinkwrapping the chicks or too much moisture loss causing the chicks to hatch with stickiness. Too low humidity during hatch, after a chick has pipped is more likely to cause the chicks to become "glued" by the membranes drying around the chick making it unable to move to complete the hatch. Too high humidity at hatch, in my opinion, is hard to do. If there is condensation in the bator, then that is a sign of too high humidity. I hatch out at 75% and often hit the 80's during the hatch (though not for long as I am a meddler and often open during hatch). I would never recommend anyone intentionally going up to 80%+ at lockdown, for the entire 3 days+, but I wouldn't flinch if it goes up that high during the hatching process either.

I have seen cases of "wet sticky" vs "dry sticky" supposedly signifying if they are wet and sticky it's too high and if they are dry and sticky it's too low.

I'm not sure of the accuracy of that line of thought though.

But you have to factor in that not everything works the same for everybody. Many factors effect how one method or practice will work with one person but differ for others. There are very few certainties in hatching. The key is to find what works for you and use it, despite what or how others are doing it. If your eggs hatch out with no problems at 75 or even 85% then that's what you do.