First time going on lockdown tonight with a question on humidity

[topgunbobby]

Hello fellow quailophiles,

Tonight marks the beginning of lockdown: my first lockdown. I'm very anxious and I have a quick question on humidity control.


I have a Hovabator Genesis and I am having trouble getting over 60% humidity. How much water should I add? I have already added a small bowl of water and a sponge, but can't seem to get it any higher.

Any thoughts?

 

[DoubletakeFarm]

I have a brinsea octagon 20 and cannot get the humidity above 62% no matter what I do. They still hatch.

 

[topgunbobby]

K, finally got up to 65%. But for how long, who knows. No chickies yet

 

[TwoCrows]

If you want to up humidity in the incubator, you can add a wet sponge or a piece of a wet sponge. Don't apply the sponge drenched, but not completely wrung out either. You will have to experiment with it till you get the humidity where you want it. I usually start out with a very small wet sponge and work up from there if I need more humidity at lock down.

 

[goagain]

I have two incubators with the exact same box just different heating and fan systems. One has a larger fan than the other. The one with the larger fan I can add 5 cc's of water and raise the humidity ten percent, the other commercial type heater and fan won't go over sixty five no matter what I do, I run them together a lot of times and I get the same percent avg out of both. Some incubators won't circulate air hard or fast enough to increase evaporation and air saturation but too large a fan and you can over dry eggs during the initial phases of incubation. It's a delicate balance and usually requires an expensive set up to be consistent with humidity. For me it's more economical to run a cheap incubator more often rather than purchasing commercial large very sophisticated equipment for a higher percent hatch. Do the best you can, after that don't stress. You'll probably still get a good hatch if they are fertile to begin with.

 

[James the Bald]

Also, you want to add water that is equal to the temperature inside the incubator... 99 degrees.

 

[Eggcessive]

My new Hovabator Genesis this year was kind of hard to keep humidity up. First I used shot glasses, then sponges, but I finally had to run aquarium tubing (available at Walmart) to the two water compartments and connected a syringe to add the water to keep them full during the last 3 days. I also had a small plastic basket with a sponge I could add water to keep wet.

 

[topgunbobby]

68% and thats been the tops for me. Oh, and I have my first two peepers!

 

[topgunbobby]

 

[TwoCrows]

Congrats!