Another humidity question.

[cscigu]

Ok, I'm all ready to get my eggs going. Here in Oklahoma it has been raining for a month straight. It is so wet and muddy everywhere you can hardly walk. The humidity is naturally incredibly high. I've emptied the water channels in my Hovabator trying to get down under 40%. Obviously the vents are open. Once I get there, would it be better to handle humidity with bits of sponge rather than the water channels? I've never liked those channels. I could put some sponge under the vent and add water that way, without opening, too.

The race is one for someone to beat The Humidity Queen (Amy) here.

Interestingly, I was disappointed to learn the person in NJ that was to ship my Welsummer cross eggs cancelled the sale, said it was too hot there (90 degrees) to ship. I did check the weather, and one day was to be about that warm, but the rest of the time only mid 80s. I have some Bielefelder eggs I ordered from right here in Oklahoma that arrived yesterday, and a few of my own eggs. I hastily ordered some more BC Marans eggs that should be here tomorrow. Will that be a huge issue if I add those eggs several hours later? I've heard to let them rest overnight.

 

[WalnutHill]

Staggered hatches are a pain in the butt. If you haven't set the eggs yet, wait and set them all at least 8 hours after the new eggs have been resting.

 

[cscigu]

Staggered hatches are a pain in the butt. If you haven't set the eggs yet, wait and set them all at least 8 hours after the new eggs have been resting.

I agree, but have never been sure how long you can let them set out before getting them in the incubator. Have heard everything from a few days to a couple weeks.

 

[MunsterChicks]

Im dry incubating in my HovaBator right now. I haven't added any water, it's been drier than usual here, but I'm staying right at 35% and occasionally has gone to 40% for a few hours at a time.

You may not need any sponges or water until lockdown, especially if it's been humid, that's my plan. I used the channels for my first hatch (I lost my eggs due to power failure though) and my humidity was way to high. Toward the end I was adding tbsp's of water and it was raising the humidity pretty well for lockdown. My expirience with this Hova-Bator is a little water goes a very long way. With my last hatch the air cells were too small, and so I dry ran for the last few days, but My eggs were already goners

I'm using Amy's approach, LOL. I've read so much about dry incubating and high success rates in the styrofoam bators from multiple blogs and people here. I'm going to give it a try, and add a sponge and water at lockdown.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

 

[cscigu]

I'm kind of at a loss on how to get the humidity down to 35%. The outside air temp right now is 76 degrees with a humidity of 71% at 6:30 pm. It will likely rain again overnight. Every morning the humidity is 100% due to all the heavy rain. It is a mud bog everywhere you turn.

I've had the incubator going 2 days, with both vents open, and no water. The humidity in there is still 50%. Inside the house the humidity is about 60%, even with the air conditioning going some. We don't really need the a/c right now, just have it running a bit to try and lower the humidity.

Its always something, eh?

 

[WalnutHill]

I'd say don't sweat it. A few days of high, a few days of low, is exactly what they'd experience under a hen.

 

[cscigu]

I suppose I could always drill a couple extra holes in the top, but I hate to do it.

This is one of the historic things going on now. We've had over 16 inches of rain so far in May. The wettest month ever in the state. I'm sure its rained 20+ of the last 28 days. Very miserable.

 

[CrzyChknLady81]

Ive been having the same issue all spring with high humidity..I use 2 LGs, one as an incu and the other as a hatcher (bc of staggered hatches) and I finally resorted to adding a few of those packets that you get in bags to absorb moisture. .they usually say 'silica' but these ones say 'clay desiccant'.. I've always done dry incubation and it was killing me that my humidity was in the upper 40s