Day 20 and humidity may have accidently been set too high?

[Hepzabeth]

Newbie here. We began incubating our eggs in our new Janoel incubator, rushing to get the eggs is we didn’t calibrate the temperature or humidity. We have kept the temp at 37.6 Celsius and the humidity at 50-55% increasing up to 65% on day 19. On day 18 I candled all 10 eggs and I didn’t see a lot of movement but some eggs showed signs of wiggling inside and the air sacs have increased on day 19 and start of day 20 (not sure if that’s a healthy sign). On day 20 the digital thermometer and hygrometer I ordered finally arrived and I decided to pop it into the incubator to see what results it showed. Temperature is good and matches however the humidity shows up as being 15% higher than the incubator reading. So for example at the moment I am obtaining a reading of 65% on the incubator however the external hygrometer show 80%. IF the hygrometer that arrived today is correct (it’s a very cheap one from ebay) I’ve had a high humidity throughout the past 20 days. I’m wondering if there is anything I can do NOW to help solve any issues that can occur in the next 24 hours or so? I suppose a third hygrometer would be a good idea to obtain another reading. No external pips yet but I know I need to be patient, I’m just what issues will arise from possibly having a high humidity? Should I be worried

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi &

First thing is how have your air cells grown over the incubation period? Have they grown large enough for the chick to safely pip in to? Here is a guide ~

Also some info on humidity ~ https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/incubation-humidity.73386/

 

[Hepzabeth]

Hello, From the example you have shown I would say the air sacs are fairly developed. One egg showed a slightly wonkey uneven air sac but the rest were ok. Here is a pic of the air cells from day 18.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

They don’t look too bad for day 18 so I would say your chicks have every chance of hatching ok. When the chick gets ready for internal pip the air cell will draw down even further. Good luck with your hatch

 

[Hepzabeth]

Thank you! I can shine my torch on them and see the air sac has grown significantly larger on some eggs. When the chicks internally pop and I shine my torch on them from outside the incubator what can I look for? Will the chick fill into the air sac? Thank you!

 

[Hepzabeth]

One egg I can just make out a triangular shape in the air sac. I guess this chick has piped internally!

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

That’s great news! It has internally pipped! It is usually a beak shape you can see in there. Once it has used up its oxygen in the air cell and the carbon dioxide gets high it should kick it in to gear to externally pip a small crack/hole in the shell.

Are you opening the incubator to look or can you see through with your torch?

 

[Hepzabeth]

With the torch through the outside I can see the movement of the beak! Well we have come so far and if anything it’s a learning process.... not expecting a great batch but you can only gain more knowledge and get better!

 

[Mosey2003]

There's nothing to be done for it now.

If you really want to know for sure what the humidity is, you need to calibrate and use a wet bulb and dry bulb thermometer. If you stick four different digital hygrometers in there, I bet you'd get four different readings. I don't trust them.

 

[oregonkat]

You can pretty accurately calibrate your hygrometer using the salt test. Put some salt into a small bowl and add water to make a slurry. Put the small bowl and the hygrometer into a plastic bag and seal it as best you can. Leave it for several hours or over night and the hygrometer should read 75% if it is off in either direction you know how many points to adjust to.
So if it reads 80% you know that you need to account for the extra 5 points when using it.