Does making holes at the lower/lowest end of my bator make a lot of humidity escape?

[Cheecky B]

I want to provide enough ventilation for my developing chicken embryo. I don't wana make holes at the top so I thought I should make holes at the lowest end of my bator. I'm almost at lock down and I just wana find out does this make my bator lose a lot of humid? I'm asking this cause I've heard that humidity usually doesn't escape at the bottom and usually at the top

 

[Ridgerunner]

Are you using a homemade incubator or a commercial one? If it is a commercial one, read the instructions and do what it says. That generally means taking out the vent plugs. Don't go punching holes in it, especially this late in the incubation.

If it is a homemade one, is it a forced air or a still air? In a forced air, it should not matter whether the ventilation holes are high or low. The air is being stirred up so the temperature and moisture should be the same everywhere in there. It’s always possible, especially in a homemade one, that you have some sheltered spots, but as long as the vent holes don’t line up directly with the fan so the air is blown straight out and you get circulation, it should not matter. My forced air Hovabator has a vent lines up so the fan is sucking air into the incubator, not blowing it out. There is a separate vent hole up high to let the air out so I get circulation and fresh air.

In a still air, warm air rises. Warm air holds more moisture than cool air. You can see how much difference there is in the incubator by taking the temperature at different levels. If your vent is at the top, warmer moister air will escape but that will help ensure circulation. If it is at the bottom, any air that escapes will be cooler drier air, but you won’t get much circulation. Since the air outside the incubator is almost certainly cooler than the heated air inside, that warm moist air is trapped in the top of the incubator and can’t go anywhere.

If you poke a hole in a forced air, it will affect the humidity. If you poke a hole up high in a still air it will affect the humidity a lot more than poking a hole down low. How much affect it will have on heat is not known. Heat will escape but your heat source may or may not be able to keep up by working harder. I had that happen with my Hovabator when I didn’t get the lid back on perfectly but left a crack due to the turner cord. It was able to keep up with temperature but the humidity dropped quite a bit.

I have no id if your incubator can keep up if you go punching holes in it at this stage.

 

[Cheecky B]

Wow perfect answer 10 out of 10 thank u so much. I have a still aired home made bator. Would u recommend that I make my hole at the top or bottom of bator? I had holes since I started the incubation process at the top of my bator but I am planning to close it out of fear that humidity will drop. What's you're comment?

 

[Ridgerunner]

The developing eggs do not need fresh air the first week or so, but as they develop they need air exchange through that porous shell. The older they get the more fresh air they need. I'm pretty sure a lot of the hatches where about all the chicks pip but don't hatch or hatch then die is because there is not enough fresh air. People are afraid of losing humidity or heat so they plug the vents and suffocate the chicks.

You control humidity by the surface area of the water. My suggestion, instead of closing the vents add more containers of water to up the humidity.

There is no way for me to know if you need another hole or not. Since you already have open holes in the top, another one up there won't do as much as one in the bottom, but that depend on how big it is too. If you poke a hole in the bottom with those holes open up top, you will get a lot of air movement and lose a lot of humidity. Cooler heavier air from the room will come in the bottom and force warmer more moist air out the top.

 

[Cheecky B]

Thanks so much