Tropical Humidity

[Pollo Eric]

Hello, I looked through previous posts, believe me ,I understand the "this has been answered before " thing. Bit I did not find the answers. I live in the tropics and every once in a while I have way too many eggs for a hen to take care of so I bought an incubator, The problem is that so much I read says for first 18 to keep around 50% humidity, we are over 80 here on most days, the dry incubator lifts temps from around 90' to 99.5 but I cannot get humidity below 70-75 depending on time of day. Somehow my girls hatch them, any ideas?

 

[SourRoses]

Hello, I looked through previous posts, believe me ,I understand the "this has been answered before " thing. Bit I did not find the answers. I live in the tropics and every once in a while I have way too many eggs for a hen to take care of so I bought an incubator, The problem is that so much I read says for first 18 to keep around 50% humidity, we are over 80 here on most days, the dry incubator lifts temps from around 90' to 99.5 but I cannot get humidity below 70-75 depending on time of day. Somehow my girls hatch them, any ideas?

It's really humid for us here too. "Dry" hatching is essential for me, otherwise they can't lose enough moisture to hatch.
By not adding any additional water, my NR360 runs about 30% humidity on most days.
After first setting the eggs, let them get warmed up and start transpiring before you worry about the humidity. Opening the vent all the way should allow excess moisture to escape.
I always try to think about humidity in ranges. Unlike temperature it's not about a specific target, just trends over time.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Which incubator are you using? Do you have a link or a make/model number so we can see what you are working with? Different incubators handle humidity differently.

Have you calibrated your hygrometer to know that it is working properly. Quite often the ones that come with the incubators or even the ones you buy are not that accurate.

Where are you incubating, inside a climate controlled environment or one exposed to the environment? The temperature and moisture content in the air that goes in the incubator affects how well it works. If you are in air conditioned air that should be at least a little drier than if exposed to the atmosphere.

As SourRoses mentioned, opening the vents should help lower humidity.

My last thought is to contact the manufacturer of your incubator and see what they have to say. Maybe they can help.

 

[mcdze]

in a forced air incubator ive never seen high humidity be a problem, 80 or so is fine ... mainly you want to avoid drastic changes right at pip time .. popping the lid off for minutes at a time and purging the stable air out, or pulling pipped eggs out and playing with them candling etc, 'will' cause issues like the horrific freak show photos you see on some of the threads .. its not low humidity or high humidity that does that, it the drastic change in temp and humidity after theyve pipped a hole in the shell and exposed membrane .. dont do that .. if you open it, just tilt the lid some and make it very quick, and dont adjust the bator temp or humidity at pip time, if its 50 leave it, if its 80 leave it ... early on though before pipping you can adjust your humidity strategy but id do it slowly, its mostly about surface area of water .. if its too humid you need less surface area, if the built in trough size keeps it too high use a smaller container like a jar lid .. it will need replenishing more often so keep an eye on things ..

 

[Pollo Eric]

It's really humid for us here too. "Dry" hatching is essential for me, otherwise they can't lose enough moisture to hatch.
By not adding any additional water, my NR360 runs about 30% humidity on most days.
After first setting the eggs, let them get warmed up and start transpiring before you worry about the humidity. Opening the vent all the way should allow excess moisture to escape.
I always try to think about humidity in ranges. Unlike temperature it's not about a specific target, just trends over time.

my general humidity is around 90% tends range from 80-90, lowest humidity I get from dry incubator is 70%

 

[Pollo Eric]

Which incubator are you using? Do you have a link or a make/model number so we can see what you are working with? Different incubators handle humidity differently.

Have you calibrated your hygrometer to know that it is working properly. Quite often the ones that come with the incubators or even the ones you buy are not that accurate.

Where are you incubating, inside a climate controlled environment or one exposed to the environment? The temperature and moisture content in the air that goes in the incubator affects how well it works. If you are in air conditioned air that should be at least a little drier than if exposed to the atmosphere.

As SourRoses mentioned, opening the vents should help lower humidity.

My last thought is to contact the manufacturer of your incubator and see what they have to say. Maybe they can help.

Can't get below 70, vents wide open

 

[Pollo Eric]

in a forced air incubator ive never seen high humidity be a problem, 80 or so is fine ... mainly you want to avoid drastic changes right at pip time .. popping the lid off for minutes at a time and purging the stable air out, or pulling pipped eggs out and playing with them candling etc, 'will' cause issues like the horrific freak show photos you see on some of the threads .. its not low humidity or high humidity that does that, it the drastic change in temp and humidity after theyve pipped a hole in the shell and exposed membrane .. dont do that .. if you open it, just tilt the lid some and make it very quick, and dont adjust the bator temp or humidity at pip time, if its 50 leave it, if its 80 leave it ... early on though before pipping you can adjust your humidity strategy but id do it slowly, its mostly about surface area of water .. if its too humid you need less surface area, if the built in trough size keeps it too high use a smaller container like a jar lid .. it will need replenishing more often so keep an eye on things ..

I cannot adjust humidity unless I buy air conditioner our local temps are 80's+ with humidity of 80%

 

[Pollo Eric]

It's really humid for us here too. "Dry" hatching is essential for me, otherwise they can't lose enough moisture to hatch.
By not adding any additional water, my NR360 runs about 30% humidity on most days.
After first setting the eggs, let them get warmed up and start transpiring before you worry about the humidity. Opening the vent all the way should allow excess moisture to escape.
I always try to think about humidity in ranges. Unlike temperature it's not about a specific target, just trends over time.

You are funny, I wish I coukd see 30%, my general humidity here is about 80%, I would need air conditioner to get close to 30

 

[Pollo Eric]

Which incubator are you using? Do you have a link or a make/model number so we can see what you are working with? Different incubators handle humidity differently.

Have you calibrated your hygrometer to know that it is working properly. Quite often the ones that come with the incubators or even the ones you buy are not that accurate.

Where are you incubating, inside a climate controlled environment or one exposed to the environment? The temperature and moisture content in the air that goes in the incubator affects how well it works. If you are in air conditioned air that should be at least a little drier than if exposed to the atmosphere.

As SourRoses mentioned, opening the vents should help lower humidity.

My last thought is to contact the manufacturer of your incubator and see what they have to say. Maybe they can help.

No, I am not incubating in climaxed controlled environment, i live in Honduras, I do not even climate control my home it is HOT and Humid

 

[SourRoses]

You are funny, I wish I coukd see 30%, my general humidity here is about 80%, I would need air conditioner to get close to 30

Our outdoor humidity can be as high as 95% some days, and the house humidity rarely gets under 60% with the ac running. The environment inside the incubator is different because humidity is relative to temperature. Warmer air is capable of holding more moisture, so with the same amount of water the percentage of humidity goes down. An incubator running at 99.5f is going to register a lower humidity than the air it's drawing in. Do you have a reliable humidity gauge?