Why The Wide Range of Humidity Levels?

[Lextextrapper]

Can anyone tell me why there seems to be such a wide range of suggested humidity levels depending on the source? For chickens, Texas A&M suggests a Wet Bulb Temp of 86 which translates to 60% RH. My RCOM incubator booklet suggests 45% RH. The Brinsea handbook suggest between 40 and 50% RH. One other I saw suggested between 55 and 60% RH. How do you know which one is correct and which relative humidity level do you use?

 

[silkiechicken]

In the end, you'll have to use what works for you. Matter of fact, I do not check humidity levels. I fill my tray, let it go dry, humidity probably bounces between 20 and 80. I just watch the air cell growth and adjust from there. Or you could just weigh a few eggs and make sure they lose about 10% of their weight.

Just start off with 50% relative and go from there. If that hatch is sticky, drop it, if it is dry raise it. With identical incubators, different seasons, different rooms, even different users, age of eggs, or size of eggs will make a difference when you're not a hen. Even hens don't always get it right.

 

[Lapaysannefarm]

I think it depends on the incubator, I use 40% -55% humidity for chickens during incubation.. For hatching I use 60%-70%.

It seems to work well because by keeping my humidity correct during my last batch of eggs I hatched 22 chicks out of 23 eggs!

 

[Lextextrapper]

I was always like Silkiechicken in the past. I never checked humidity levels and I always had good hatch rates. It's just that now I have a new incubator that is all digitally controlled and I can tell it exactly what humidity level I want it to maintain. I have 28 guinea eggs in there now and I will try this first batch of eggs using A&M guidelines, since that's my school.

We'll see how it goes.

 

[Frost Homestead]

I have heard so many different things when it comes to humidity. The humidity in my room is pretty high so it stays stable at around 35-40% in my incubator with *no* water in it. Should I be adding water? Anytime I squirt a syringe full of water in there it spikes to about 50%. When I first set it up I filled one of the trays as advised by the incubator instructions but the humidity jumped to over 60% which I'm thinking is too high....so I opened it and took out all the water. I only add a syringe of water if it drops below 30%. Of course I plan on adding water to up the humidity during lockdown to about 65-70%, at this rate it seems like it's going to be pretty easy to get it up that high. Do y'all think this is ok?