brinsea oct 20 lockdown humidity question

[willys_truck]

I am incubating 12 sussex eggs, I am on day 20, both water wells are full. My humidity is 42%, is that enough? One egg has pipped, I know i am not supposed to open the incubator, but I thought about opening it and adding a sponge to try and get the humidity up. Any suggestions?

 

[longranger]

You need higher humidity. The easiest method i have found is to lay a paper towel or two under the tray with the wells toped off. That brings the humidity to about 70%. You can probably open, remove tray, add water and paper towels and reasemble in a minute or two at most. After that it will only take a few minutes to come back to temp and get a nice high humidity.

 

[poltroon]

I personally would not open it.

 

[Sweetfolly]

I had 3 ducklings hatch in my Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco last night - and one egg's still in there, hatching.

I would open it, willys_truck - and use either paper towel or a wash cloth the way longranger described to raise the humidity. I do it the same way, and it usually gets the humidity up to around 70%.

I've opened the incubator exactly 4 times so far during this lockdown with no detrimental effects - in the Octagon 20, your humidity is going to jump right back up to where it was/should be in about 5 minutes after you put the lid back on - but you should still try to refrain from opening it whenever possible.

 

[willys_truck]

Ok, I opened the bator and put a washcloth in the bottom,humidity is already up to 60% within minutes of opening. I know have 3 pips and they were chirping like crazy when I opened the incubator.

 

[longranger]

With a "low volume" incubator like the Brinsea 20 the temp and humidity re-equilibrate so rapidly that opening during lockdown if not prolonged is not an issue. Would I do the same with a cabinet bator or large hovabator, no way.

 

[willys_truck]

Thanks for a replies, We hatched 10 out of 12 shipped eggs!