Humidity question

[KDawn02]

Hi all! This is my first time incubating eggs and I'm super excited however, last night it was super dry in my house (like 8% humidity) and I didn't want the incubator to dry out so I partially covered the vent with a towel to increase the humidity (I've been adding water but it's really touchy and increased the humidity too much). When I woke up this morning, the humidity of the house recovered and my incubator was at 80%!! This was only the second night of the eggs being in the incubator but I'm worried. Do you think there's still a chance the eggs will survive? Any input is appreciated!

 

[Tonyroo]

2nd day in the egg development with high humidity is ok. Now is the time to adjust the incubator. Keep the vent closed, wick some of the water out to drop the humidity. And get it back to 40-45% and stabilize it for the duration.

 

[KDawn02]

2nd day in the egg development with high humidity is ok. Now is the time to adjust the incubator. Keep the vent closed, wick some of the water out to drop the humidity. And get it back to 40-45% and stabilize it for the duration.

Thank you so much! How do I "wick" the water out?

 

[Huntmaster]

@KDawn02 I would open vent I always incubate with vents open to keep as much fresh air/oxygen and adjust humidity with water amount/surface area, but each incubator is different. Try somehow to remove some of the water or at least open up incubator lid and release humidity, that short of a period of high humidity will not harm eggs but long term it will.

 

[KDawn02]

@KDawn02 I would open vent I always incubate with vents open to keep as much fresh air/oxygen and adjust humidity with water amount/surface area, but each incubator is different. Try somehow to remove some of the water or at least open up incubator lid and release humidity, that short of a period of high humidity will not harm eggs but long term it will.

Thank you so much!

 

[Huntmaster]

Thank you so much!

Good luck with your incubation and hatching, there are some very knowledgeable folks on BYC that are more than willing to help. So, don't be shy on asking questions. Again GOOD LUCK

 

[Tonyroo]

Rolled up paper towel, cotton rope, or sponge it off.

 

[KDawn02]

Rolled up paper towel, cotton rope, or sponge it off.

Will do, thank you!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Do you think there's still a chance the eggs will survive?

Instantaneous humidity is not important. What is important at this stage is how much total moisture is lost during the entire incubation period. What you are looking for is the average over that time. A spike in humidity like that is not important, that didn't hurt the embryos.

What incubator do you have? How does it manage humidity? Many incubators have reservoirs on the bottom, usually of different sizes. In those, humidity is controlled by surface area. If you fill larger reservoirs or more of the reservoirs the humidity goes up. If you leave some dry or use smaller ones the humidity drops. The depth of water in the reservoir doesn't matter as long as it does not change the surface area. Taking water out just means it runs out of water sooner.

With that type of incubator some tricks to fine tune it are to put sponges, paper towels, or cloth washrags in a reservoir to wick water out and wet the towel or rag. The part that is out of the reservoir increases wet surface area so more water can evaporate so the humidity goes up. To reduce the humidity you can cover part of a reservoir with foil or maybe plastic wrap to reduce the surface area moisture can evaporate from. If you spill water and get some additional areas wet when refilling the reservoirs the humidity will spike until those wet areas dry off and you no longer have those wet surface areas.

If you have an incubator that handles humidity by some means other than the reservoirs on the bottom then this does not work. I'd have to know which incubator and how it handles humidity to offer any suggestions.

During the first part of incubation the developing embryos do not need a lot of air exchange. Later on in incubation they do need fresh air so they can exchange bad air for good. During the first week it doesn't matter if the vent is in or out as far as fresh air goes. But toward the end they need fresh air. Having the vent out will reduce the humidity, leaving it in will raise humidity. Personally I leave the vent out the entire incubation so I have one less variable to deal with when managing humidity.

 

[KDawn02]

Instantaneous humidity is not important. What is important at this stage is how much total moisture is lost during the entire incubation period. What you are looking for is the average over that time. A spike in humidity like that is not important, that didn't hurt the embryos.

What incubator do you have? How does it manage humidity? Many incubators have reservoirs on the bottom, usually of different sizes. In those, humidity is controlled by surface area. If you fill larger reservoirs or more of the reservoirs the humidity goes up. If you leave some dry or use smaller ones the humidity drops. The depth of water in the reservoir doesn't matter as long as it does not change the surface area. Taking water out just means it runs out of water sooner.

With that type of incubator some tricks to fine tune it are to put sponges, paper towels, or cloth washrags in a reservoir to wick water out and wet the towel or rag. The part that is out of the reservoir increases wet surface area so more water can evaporate so the humidity goes up. To reduce the humidity you can cover part of a reservoir with foil or maybe plastic wrap to reduce the surface area moisture can evaporate from. If you spill water and get some additional areas wet when refilling the reservoirs the humidity will spike until those wet areas dry off and you no longer have those wet surface areas.

If you have an incubator that handles humidity by some means other than the reservoirs on the bottom then this does not work. I'd have to know which incubator and how it handles humidity to offer any suggestions.

During the first part of incubation the developing embryos do not need a lot of air exchange. Later on in incubation they do need fresh air so they can exchange bad air for good. During the first week it doesn't matter if the vent is in or out as far as fresh air goes. But toward the end they need fresh air. Having the vent out will reduce the humidity, leaving it in will raise humidity. Personally I leave the vent out the entire incubation so I have one less variable to deal with when managing humidity.

Wow thank you so much for all the great info! I have a cheaper incubator from Amazon, it's the Sailnovo 24A with automatic egg turner. It's a smaller one and it's been really hard to keep the humidity stable. If I add a little bit of water the humidity gets way too high so I have to prop the lid a little bit to let some air out. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated