https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101
HUMIDITY
The Air Bubble in the Egg
The average chicken egg has thousands of pores running through the shell allowing the embryo to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide. Water is also lost through these pores. Soon after an egg is laid, a small air bubble or “air cell” forms in the large end of the egg from this water loss. Humidity levels in the incubator determine moisture evaporation during the 21 days of incubation and hatching. The air cell is crucial for the chick to break out of the egg shell at the end of the incubation period. The chick can drown if the air cell is too small or the chick may be retarded in growth if the air cell is too large. This is why maintaining the proper humidity is crucial. Slightly lower humidity levels are more likely to be less disastrous than slightly higher humidity levels.
There are quite a few opinions on Humidity. After reading and researching for hours and hours,
I ALWAYS use DRY INCUBATION METHODS!
HOWEVER, if you are high altitude you will NOT use these methods!
Please continue with the 50-55% humidity and then 72% lockdown humidity.
The higher the Alt the more humidity needed.
What Dry Incubation implies is….
ONLY adding a small amount of water if Humidity DROPS below 25% and it should NOT go above 45% until day 18 LOCKDOWN,
then stop turning and raise humidity to 62-65%
I have read and re-read this article numerous times!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-incubate-hatch-eggs-using-the-dry-incubation-method
And read this entire thread with over 300 posts of information
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/113681/humidity-in-bator-excellent-info-here-everyone-should-read-this
Humidity will naturally fluctuate in your incubator as it fluctuates widely with weather conditions.
If it is slightly lower or higher some days then don't worry about it. Do your best to keep the humidity level in the incubating room around 50%. You may actually need to dehumidify. By controlling the room humidity, you can be more accurate with humidity inside the incubator. Just remember high humidity is MUCH worse than low humidity as higher humidity hinders the evaporation inside of the egg. Each egg must lose approximately 13% of its weight
during the incubation process. You can monitor this by marking Air cells and also by weighing.
I choose the easier method, keeping a close eye on air cell growth during incubation.
Please refer to CANDLING section of this Article for more Air Cell info.
Size of air cell on day 7, 14, and 18 of incubation
The Air Bubble in the Egg
The average chicken egg has thousands of pores running through the shell allowing the embryo to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide. Water is also lost through these pores. Soon after an egg is laid, a small air bubble or “air cell” forms in the large end of the egg from this water loss. Humidity levels in the incubator determine moisture evaporation during the 21 days of incubation and hatching. The air cell is crucial for the chick to break out of the egg shell at the end of the incubation period. The chick can drown if the air cell is too small or the chick may be retarded in growth if the air cell is too large. This is why maintaining the proper humidity is crucial. Slightly lower humidity levels are more likely to be less disastrous than slightly higher humidity levels.
There are quite a few opinions on Humidity. After reading and researching for hours and hours,
I ALWAYS use DRY INCUBATION METHODS!
HOWEVER, if you are high altitude you will NOT use these methods!
Please continue with the 50-55% humidity and then 72% lockdown humidity.
The higher the Alt the more humidity needed.
What Dry Incubation implies is….
ONLY adding a small amount of water if Humidity DROPS below 25% and it should NOT go above 45% until day 18 LOCKDOWN,
then stop turning and raise humidity to 62-65%
I have read and re-read this article numerous times!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-incubate-hatch-eggs-using-the-dry-incubation-method
And read this entire thread with over 300 posts of information
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/113681/humidity-in-bator-excellent-info-here-everyone-should-read-this
Humidity will naturally fluctuate in your incubator as it fluctuates widely with weather conditions.
If it is slightly lower or higher some days then don't worry about it. Do your best to keep the humidity level in the incubating room around 50%. You may actually need to dehumidify. By controlling the room humidity, you can be more accurate with humidity inside the incubator. Just remember high humidity is MUCH worse than low humidity as higher humidity hinders the evaporation inside of the egg. Each egg must lose approximately 13% of its weight
during the incubation process. You can monitor this by marking Air cells and also by weighing.
I choose the easier method, keeping a close eye on air cell growth during incubation.
Please refer to CANDLING section of this Article for more Air Cell info.
Size of air cell on day 7, 14, and 18 of incubation
NOTES: It’s a good idea to keep the incubator plugged into a surge protector. Use distilled water in your incubator to help prevent bacteria growth. Omphalitis, Mushy Chick Disease and Yolk Sack Infection may be caused by a bacterium that enters through the porous egg shell. Unfortunately, incubation conditions are ideal for breeding bacteria as well as incubating eggs. Brinsea sells a disinfectant, formulated to be used for cleaning eggs, incubators, safe and effective against yeasts, fungi, viruses and bacteria which can cause fatal damage to the growing embryo. Pennies can be added to water wells. Copper helps to destroy the cell walls of bacteria, thus keeping bacteria out of the incubator. Pennies before 1982 have more copper content and pure copper kills 99.9% of bacteria.
