Humidity...again

[MearBear]

I'm on the 6th day of incubation and my humidity has been around 45-55%, is this ok? Will they have problems when hatching? Also are there any tricks for candling brown australorp eggs? Thanks

 

[lazy gardener]

Do you have water in the bator? If you do, you might want to remove it. I incubate at 30 - 40% humidity. Have you calibrated your thermometer and hygrometer? Humidity is a tool which is used to ensure that the egg looses the correct amount of weight so that the air cell is the correct size and the chick can correctly position for a successful hatch.

On candling: Use new batteries in a strong flash light in a very dark room. If that doesn't work, use a table lamp and make a candler. I use a round shampoo bottle wrapped in foil over a table lamp with a 7W CFL bulb.

 

[MearBear]

Thanks! I didn't know about calibrating until after I started incubating. I haven't calibrated my hygrometer but I get the feeling its lower than it says. If this hatch doesn't work out then I'll just incubate another batch. I'll hopefully get a fully automatic incubator next time. Thanks for the candling advice, I'm candling them for the first time tomorrow so I guess I'll find out if they're ok then.