Air space and high humidity...

[zowieyellowflame]

I have about 40 eggs in the bator and it has rained everyday. I have had high, high humidity 80 to 85 percent for all 13 days. I even had water in the bator, I didn't realize high humidity was so bad.
I took the water out and I candled some eggs. Some have a very tiny air space, some have a very large air space. (seems to vary by variety... rir small, barred rocks and green eggs big....)
It is too soon to tell if my humidity will drop, I have my fingers crossed. What should I think about my big air space and little air spaces?
Is there anything else I can do to drop the humidity?

 

[zowieyellowflame]

Anybody?

 

[Intheswamp]

Howdy zowie. The best you can do is lower the humidity and see how it goes. Drop it down to 40% if you can. Mop up any moisture in the bottom of the incubator. Even with the outside humidity being so high the humidity inside the incubator should drop a good bit if there's no water in it. The critical time, of course, is when the embryos start pipping. It will just have to be a "wait and see" situation on the outcome.

I presume that you have a hygrometer inside of the incubator. What type of reading do you have now? Holler back.

Ed

 

[zowieyellowflame]

Down to 70! I opened the vents and put in a dish of silica crystals (for flower drying)
I have a feeling that my more porus eggs will thrive and my regular ones will die. I am lucky they are not all the same kind.

 

[gocrow77]

I am having something like this with my own hatch now. I had some shipped eggs, and others that were my own that I just popped into the bator when I collected for the day. Both are hatching out fine. The bigger air cells are the shipped eggs - I am assuming maybe because they sat for a few extra days ( maybe a week altogether if you count days for collecting plus days to ship) and mine were put in the day they were laid. No problems thus far and both have been hatching out just fine over the last day or two. Not sure if this is the norm or if I am really getting lucky, but figured I would chime in with how it's going for me. Best of luck to you!

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
That's progress! Keep us posted. The silica crystals are an interesting experiment.

Ed

 

[zowieyellowflame]

The humidity is dropping some more. How low do I want to go?
I candled every single egg this morning and I marked with a pencil where the airspace is with the date. I want to see how much progress is made over the next couple of days.
Another question, this one about lockdown.
I started my eggs at about noon on June 22. I counted that as day one, June 23 as day two and so on and the due date was to be July 12. Is that right or should the date be July 13?
I am concerned because I want to stay at low humidity for as long as I can to give a chance for the air space to enlarge. Could I wait until July 10 at bedtime to raise the humidity?
Out of 41 eggs, 36 are forming, but maybe just the air space is small. When they begin to hatch there is this risk of drowning because of inadequate air space, couldn't I put a small hole into the air space end to increase the chance they will get air?

 

[Germaine_11.20]

I think it is the 13th. I am using 2 different incubators for just that reason too. One gets more moisture to stop any more air cell loss and the other gets the 40-50 % as they look normal. We will see...they should be hatching over the next few days.

 

[zowieyellowflame]

I am down to 52!!!

 

[zowieyellowflame]

And now 46.... is that low enough?