Bator humidity questions

[Love my Critters!]

I live where it is very dry. It's normal to only have 15% relative humidity. I have my bator inside my house. I recently incubated 4 eggs (my first time) to try it out. I could not get my thermometer to read more than 50% humidity and I tried everything. I filled the well in my still air incubator, put a 9" round pan with water and 2 large spunges that I kept wet in there. I don't know if my humidity reader is accurate, it is digital. 3 of the eggs hatched all by themselves. 1 did not. I don't see any movement and it seems to be stuck to the shell. The others hatched 4 days ago. Does anyone have ideas on how to raise the humidity? Do you think that 1 egg was just not meant to hatch. It did keep up with the others during incubation when I would candle it. I think I just lost it close to the end and I don't know if it was a humidity factor.

I need suggestions.
THANKS!

 

[horsejody]

If it should have hatched 4 days ago, I would open it to see if it by some miracle was still alive.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

I live in a dry part of WA state--we've got sandy soil & sagebrush in the backyard.

Anyway, I've found that filling the bottom of the bators with filtered water, adding a small butter dish with a sponge (a clean one, of course) and then--I recently got a warm mist humidifier for the egg room.

I had to give up on hatching out my reptile eggs until I did that--I just couldn't get the humidity up high enough for most species I had--but the humidifier addition made it possible to get the humidity up to about 85% in my 'bators.

I also had to plug all of the holes (using those red things) in my bators, as well..

Oh & 3 out of 4 eggs is GREAT! I think I've only had 100% hatch rate ONCE in 7 years (with reptiles, that is!)

 

[Vamp-A-Billy Princess]

how long does it take for the humidity to change? i filled 2 slots w water. Been warming about 20 min and it still says 35%. How long should I wait before I put more water in?