Temp and humidity

[Leeloo11400]

I keep reading that before lockdown the temp should be steady and the humidity should be in the 40's. After lockdown, humidity should be above 65%. How on Earth do you guys do that? I have two incubators. Their water chambers are filled and I have the temp set as high as it will go 99.5. I let both settle for 24 hours before setting eggs and kept close watch on the water. Throughout incubation, the temp fluctuated between 98.9 to 100.1, without any changes made (lower if I lifted the lid or whatnot). The humidity hung out around 40%, but now that it is day 23, the highest the humidity reads is 52%. I have two babes hatching today and when we did the water candling, there were many floaters, 8 of which were moving. My second incubator, which is on day 8 of incubation, is doing the same as this first one (where chicks are hatching) and for the life of me, I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Any ideas? Thanks!

Leah

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I keep reading that before lockdown the temp should be steady and the humidity should be in the 40's. After lockdown, humidity should be above 65%. How on Earth do you guys do that? I have two incubators. Their water chambers are filled and I have the temp set as high as it will go 99.5. I let both settle for 24 hours before setting eggs and kept close watch on the water. Throughout incubation, the temp fluctuated between 98.9 to 100.1, without any changes made (lower if I lifted the lid or whatnot). The humidity hung out around 40%, but now that it is day 23, the highest the humidity reads is 52%. I have two babes hatching today and when we did the water candling, there were many floaters, 8 of which were moving. My second incubator, which is on day 8 of incubation, is doing the same as this first one (where chicks are hatching) and for the life of me, I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Any ideas? Thanks!

Leah

I run mine at 75% or more at lockdown/hatch. I live in Northern New York and we almost always have a fairly high humidity (right now it's 76% and Wednesday it's supposed to be 91%) so I don't struggle with getting or keeping the humidity up. My bator holds about 40% w/o any water. One thing you can try is adding a sponge or two with water on it (or a cloth) to the bator. (Warm water will higher quicker I think, but it may higher your temp as well.) I have a LG w/fan and I use two whole sponges and one cut in strips in my bator at lockdown so that when I need to add water I can just pull the sponges out and wet those instead of continually opening the bator to fill the wells. Another thing you can do is use a humdifier in the room that the bator is in. The ambient humidity does affect the bator's humidity.

 

[scflock]

I keep reading that before lockdown the temp should be steady and the humidity should be in the 40's. After lockdown, humidity should be above 65%. How on Earth do you guys do that? I have two incubators. Their water chambers are filled and I have the temp set as high as it will go 99.5. I let both settle for 24 hours before setting eggs and kept close watch on the water. Throughout incubation, the temp fluctuated between 98.9 to 100.1, without any changes made (lower if I lifted the lid or whatnot). The humidity hung out around 40%, but now that it is day 23, the highest the humidity reads is 52%. I have two babes hatching today and when we did the water candling, there were many floaters, 8 of which were moving. My second incubator, which is on day 8 of incubation, is doing the same as this first one (where chicks are hatching) and for the life of me, I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Any ideas? Thanks!

Leah

In the dry winter, I can't get my Brinsea Octagon over 55% with the wells full. If I lay an entire paper towel across the bottom and through the troughs, let it wick the water until it is saturated, then top off the channels again, I can hold a steady 67%. Once the hatch starts it will peak around 75 when they are hatching. I've had great results this way