First time and my humidity is too high :(

[ChickenMamaMichelle]

I have taken the water out and put paper towels in because I read that, but my humidity is still at 72 with NO water and dry paper towels in it. I did that last night and checked on it about 5 AM and it was at 36 so I added a little water and it shot back up to 72. I'm so afraid I am going to do it wrong and end up hurting them. I just put the eggs in yesterday.
Please help.. I'm a wreck.

 

[Mvan42]

Since you just put them in they should be ok. Are there vents that you can open, my incubator has red plugs you can take out. Try that. Change paper towels, take water back out. When regulating my humidity I use an eye dropper and put a few drops at a time. How much water did you put in, try less.


Humidity at 36 should be ok, now higher than 45, no lower than 30...

 

[ChickenMamaMichelle]

Thank you. The vent is completely open and I have paper towels and paper towel rolls in the trays where there aren't eggs. The water is out. I guess I should have left it alone at 36, I thought it had to be between 50 and 55. I have 15 more eggs on the way and I'm so nervous. My temp is perfect, it's just the humidity that has me so concerned.

 

[Mvan42]

Thank you. The vent is completely open and I have paper towels and paper towel rolls in the trays where there aren't eggs. The water is out. I guess I should have left it alone at 36, I thought it had to be between 50 and 55. I have 15 more eggs on the way and I'm so nervous. My temp is perfect, it's just the humidity that has me so concerned.

I thought the same thing about th humidity but had several chicks not hatch but fully developed. I posted here about it and was told to drop it for day 1-18 then raise it to 50 to 60 for the last three days. Good luck

 

[ChickenMamaMichelle]

Thank you so much for your help.

 

[ChickenMamaMichelle]

It has been steady at 41 for the past few hours so that is an improvement. It has no water at all and about 10 paper towels in it. This is scary.

 

[Mvan42]

It has been steady at 41 for the past few hours so that is an improvement. It has no water at all and about 10 paper towels in it. This is scary.

It will be ok, it is stressful.. but if you keep it around that it should be ok

 

[FowlWitch]

Thank you. The vent is completely open and I have paper towels and paper towel rolls in the trays where there aren't eggs. The water is out. I guess I should have left it alone at 36, I thought it had to be between 50 and 55. I have 15 more eggs on the way and I'm so nervous. My temp is perfect, it's just the humidity that has me so concerned.

I'll delete tghis if I scroll down and see the same advice, but have you tried cracking the incubator lid a little? I like using junk mail (envelopes are the perfect size) to help let in fresh, drier air to reduce humidity. I've tried silica packets to no avail (the water reservoir just dries faster). You may need to adjust the temperature settings, but so far my eggs have been doing fine with this method.

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

Best leave it at a slightly lower humidity, to risk with high humidity causes more harm than low humidity. Same with temperature.