Boosting Humidity??

[MotherCluck4]

Hi there! Tomorrow is day 21! So excited.

I live in an old farmhouse and run 2 woodstoves but with the current cold snap we’ve been running the kitchen wood stove as well. So dry air to say the least. House runs 14-18% humidity.

I’ve kept the humidity up by putting water in the bottom well of the incubator. This incubator came directly from China and has temp controls, a fan, and vent hole. I have a separate hygrometer in there as well. It’s running at 55-56 humidity. But I can’t get it higher.

I moved the bator into the bathroom with a room sized humidifier and am trying to keep the door shut. But without central heat, and the fact we use the bathroom, we’ll be going in and out. I have a baby pack-n-play potty pad wrapped around for heat conservation, it’s kinda quilted with a waterproof layer. It does not cover the vent hole.

I will try a sponge as well. I don’t use them but maybe I have a spare somewhere.

Other than a sponge, is there anything I can do? The turner has been taken out and the hatching shelf is in. Do I just cross my fingers and hope my excessively dry house doesn’t hamper their hatching?

 

[Pyxis]

To increase humidity, you need to increase water surface area. So you could fold up a wet paper towel and put it in there (not touching the eggs) and that would increase it, or a jar of water, or a sponge, etc etc.

 

[lazy gardener]

What day of incubation are you on? Have you calibrated your thermometers and your hygrometer? I run 30 - 40% until day 17, but let air cell size dictate my humdity both before and after day 17. You can't believe a thermometer or a hygrometer, no matter how much you paid for it, or whether it came with your bator or from somewhere else, or even if it's built into the bator UNLESS it has been calibrated. If you've not read all of "hatching eggs 101" in the learning center, please do so. It can make the difference between a high hatch rate of healthy chicks, or a poor hatch rate of chicks plagued with birth defects.

BTW, I hatch with wood heat, and my humidity in the house drops down to 11%.

 

[lazy gardener]

OOPS! I missed your first line. MY bad! Sponges. Lots of sponges!!! A wet wash cloth. What ever you do, don't put a USED sponge in that bator. sponges are bacteria havens. Wet paper towels draped through the water channels. Be sure that you don't have any water that the chicks could fall into, or could drag their umbilical stumps through. That could cause Omphalitis.

Once those chicks start to hatch, their wet down will help to kick up the humidity! How many eggs?

 

[MotherCluck4]

Thank you both!

I’ll check out the 101. I’ve been reading for weeks!

I didn’t have a sponge so I used a washcloth I may swap it out for clean paper towels. The hatching grate is up out of the water.

Out of 9, I have 5 viable. (I went out frequently in the Montana winter to try to grab the freshest eggs, but baby it’s cold outside!) I took the others out a few days ago. So tomorrow morning it’ll be 21 full days. I can feel them and see them moving last time I checked.

This is my first time, and all my kiddos are quite excited! I’m learning a lot.