Dry incubation

[Arielle]

THe RH in my LF fluctuates. The house RH changes with the weather and if I have clothes dying in the house. THen the LG starts to shift to follow the house RH. SO my goal is to have the air cells develop in a timely manner.GEnerally it fluctuates from 20-40% RH.

Diagrams of air cells, duck and chicken:

http://www.poultryconnection.com/quackers/aircell.html

 

[mohillbilly]

did you calibrate your hygrometer?

 

[HEChicken]

Yes, I totally understand, but we have about the same rh in the house, yet your rh in the bator is much higher... that's the part that confused me.

Oh, I'm sorry. I've read several threads on dry incubation recently and missed that yours was a response to what I had said above! Ok, yeah, that is surprising that there is such a difference. What is the temp reading in your house?

 

[quintinp]

Instead of bringing the room humidity to a certain spot, check what the incubator humidity is, and go by that. No need to make it complicated.

I usually get 20% humidity in my cooler incubator, when I don't add water to it.

20-30% is what you want to aim for.

Just recently I bought and used a Brower model 846 round metal incubator to incubate 21 eggs.

I wasn't too impressed with it, but it got the job done.

The air temperature swung from 97.3 to 102.4 the whole incubation.

The humidity stayed at 10% constantly.

I would have added water, but since I only had 21 eggs, It was more of a trial run.

I ended up getting 18 healthy chicks.

One of the 3 didn't fully form, but decided to pip anyway, it got shrink wrapped, because it didn't move, and I ended up having to cull it.

The other 2 didn't form correctly, one had malformed legs, and the other didn't have eyes. I should have not used those 2 eggs, they were fairly large, but only had 1 yolk.

 

[quintinp]

Instead of bringing the room humidity to a certain spot, check what the incubator humidity is, and go by that. No need to make it complicated.

I usually get 20% humidity in my cooler incubator, when I don't add water to it.

20-30% is what you want to aim for.

Just recently I bought and used a Brower model 846 round metal incubator to incubate 21 eggs.

I wasn't too impressed with it, but it got the job done.

The air temperature swung from 97.3 to 102.4 the whole incubation.

The humidity stayed at 10% constantly.

I would have added water, but since I only had 21 eggs, It was more of a trial run.

I ended up getting 18 healthy chicks.

One of the 3 didn't fully form, but decided to pip anyway, it got shrink wrapped, because it didn't move, and I ended up having to cull it.

The other 2 didn't form correctly, one had malformed legs, and the other didn't have eyes. I should have not used those 2 eggs, they were fairly large, but only had 1 yolk.

My point in writing this, is that my experience with very low humidity yielded good results. I was pleased with what I got, but I will not do another 10% humidity incubation again. I will stick with 20-30% humidity for my future incubation.

 

[Arielle]

I have a digital thermometer in my bator. It records daily high and low temps as well as the current temp. My bator is fluctuating between 99 and 102!!! I haven't touched the dial, so why is the temp range so big? Also, the humidity is holding steady at 16%. Is that Ok? IK I'm not supposed to worry about the humidity for the first part of the hatch, but it's just so different from how I've hatched before. I just need someone to tell me that it will be ok. LOL

Fluctuating temps are normal. Because the heater is on/off, on/off.

I am sorta trying a dry hatch method this time, did not add any water initially to my Brinsea OCT-20, humidty stayed consistently at the 32-36% range,
I have boosted the room humidity up to 65% using a humidifier, but this hasn't affected the incubator humidity much. I have been occasionally putting 5 to 10 ml of distilled water into the incubator which does push the humidity up to the 40% range, but only stays in that range for a few hours, then drops back to the 35% range. Guess I need to stop fretting about the humidity, and see what the aircell looks like when I candle in a week.

Eggs put off a bit of moisture and contribute to the RH in the incubator; as well as the ambient room RH because air is drawn into the incubator for the eggs to breathe.

Yes, I totally understand, but we have about the same rh in the house, yet your rh in the bator is much higher... that's the part that confused me.

See above.

Quote:
GOod experience to share. Thank you.