Hey Marie,
From the way it sounds, I would think that the first thing you need to do is to get the hygrometer calibrated. Otherwise, it's really just a guess as to what the humidity is. When you get it calibrated you can recheck the humidity. If it is running exceptionally high, the only way that I know of to lower it is to put a dehumidifier in the room to remove some of the humidity.
Wednesday (10/17), I put 47 Buff eggs in my styrophoam Hovabator. It doesn't have a fan... yet! I can't afford a hygrometer yet, but I have fixed up a home made water weasel with a ziplock bag and water. I got the temp just right inside the weasel (99.5), then added the eggs. The weasel temp quickly dropped to 86.2. I left it alone over night and checked it again at 9:00 the next morning. The weasel temp never made it over 97.9. In an attempt to hit a weasel temp of 99.5, I made some slight adjustments to it during the day yesterday. Just before I went to bed last night, the weasel temp was 100.9, so I made another slight adjustment. This morning, the weasel was at 100.2. I'm hoping that today I can get it to even out at or very close to 99.5!
This is my first set using a water weasel. In the past, I've just always used a therm that was at egg height. Until I started using the weasel, I never realized just how big of an impact can be made on the inside temp of an egg simply by making a very small adjustment to the thermostat! The water weasel has definately made a permanent home for itself in my bag of hatching "tricks!!"
If I lived in a "normal" place, the purchase of a higrometer would definately be high on my list of things to purchase with my fixed income. But, I don't live in a "normal" place. My place sits down in a very low spot. Of the four sides around me, three of them slant toward my house at anywhere between 25 and 40 degree angles. The third side only slopes away from the house at somewhere around 2 or 3 degrees. In other words, it's like my house sits in a huge cereal bowl with only a baby sopoon sized drain. When it rains any measurable amount here, it takes several days for the visable water to run off of my place. So, after the storms and near floods that we had last night, I think that a lack of moisture for my eggs is that last thing I have to worry about. And, since I neither own or can afford a dehumidifier right now, I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed that the humidity doesn't get too high!
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you have the best of luck with your eggs. Keep us posted as to how things go!
Robert
