Can't get humidity down

[jeaucamom]

I finally set the Welsummer eggs (still haven't heard back from Strombergs) and I can't get the humidity below 54%. I have almost sucked out all of the water. There is very little left. On one of the hygrometers that I took out (I had three in for the test run), it is saying 50% in the house. Is it conceivable that even with NO water in there, it will still be too high???? What should I do??

edited to add that every time I suck out more water, it goes down temporarily and then bounces right back up to 54%, almost as if it is like a set point. I was wondering if I might try one of the small troughs with less surface area, since every time I suck out water, I am decreasing volume, but not decreasing surface area??? Any thoughts???

 

[speckledhen]

If it's at 54% and you can't get it down, then let it go down naturally. It will go down. That isn't really too bad, though. I dont like it above 50%, but in a day or two, it will be down there if you just leave it alone, I bet.

 

[jab91864]

How is your humidity holding now ??

Julie

 

[silkiechicken]

Yeah, surface area is the key to how high the humidity will be. I wouldn't worry about it being 54 really. If the house is 50 though and it does dry out all the way, it will be less than 50 due to the heat in the bator making humidity harder to keep up. Good luck.

 

[LoneCowboy]

I have the same bator, and I filled the wrong trough at first, I filled the one in the middle and I was supposed to fill the one on the outside of that. You didn't do that too did you?

Every book I've read on it says the humidity should be between 50-55% However, speckledhen says lower than that, and I've never found her advice to be wrong. So it's iffy as to what to do. What I decided to do, was to fill that "C" trough this time like the instructions say, and just see what happens.

It's never taken me over 55%, so I'm just going to see what happens since this bator has been designed so you don't have to think for yourself.

If it does get to high, you could take the red plug out of the top. Unless you have already taken it out. The other thing, is if you humidity is already high there you may not need to add water I'd think.

 

[jeaucamom]

I think my bator and I have come to an understanding.

I did fill the C trough, but I think because our heat had been broken for A LONG time our house was really damp from all the rain. Our heater is now working and the humidity in the house is coming down. And the humidity in the bator is being less tempermental.

Day 1 54% sucked some out down to 51% by evening
Day 2 51%am 26%noon added 35cc inc to 46% 46% evening
Day 3 47%am 44% at 40% at 7pm added 35cc inc to 47 %

and that was this evening so we are holding at 47%

Maybe if I add 35cc every 24 it will hold steady. It just seemed that when that trough was full, and it was definitely the c trough, that the humidity was up in the high 50s to low 60s. At least when I am adding this small amount of water I am keeping it between 40 and 50% but this is making me crazy, and that is specifically why I ordered the 1588 so I wouldn't have to fool with anything!!!

Well, a few more days and I will candle and see if anything is developing. I would think if the humidity was way off, they wouldn't get very far. I really want to get this figured out though!!

 

[marcuscarr]

If it makes you feel any better, both of my chicken books say that the humidity can swing as much as 15% and still get a good hatch. Temp is much more critical. A swing of 3 degrees will kill everything.

Marcus

 

[silkiechicken]

Very true, temp is way more important. I actually don't measure humidity and just observe the growth of the air cell. I also let the bator run dry for the last 3 days...

 

[jeaucamom]

Well, praise the Lord, because so far our temp is very steady within a .4 swing of 99.7 and 100.1. I will be very, very interested to see if these gals are growing. Now..... on a hunt for a candling device

 

[marcuscarr]

I am going to post a separate thread in a few minutes on the candler I built. I'll call it "Home built candling device - Pics"