First time incubating questions

[BarnyardChaos]

Oh my. All that moisture canNOT be good. I'd drill a 1/2" size hole in that lid pronto, if I were you. Or two holes. Open it up, dry the inside of the lid to remove as much as you can. I doubt your hygrometer is accurate at all - condensation like that is near 100% I think. I could be WRONG though. It's just what I'd do if it were my incubator and my eggs.

 

[FlowerDragon]

Oh my. All that moisture canNOT be good. I'd drill a 1/2" size hole in that lid pronto, if I were you. Or two holes. Open it up, dry the inside of the lid to remove as much as you can. I doubt your hygrometer is accurate at all - condensation like that is near 100% I think. I could be WRONG though. It's just what I'd do if it were my incubator and my eggs.

OK. I got the condensation off the lid. I'll put a hole in the lid. Thank you.

 

[agarnp]

OK. I got the condensation off the lid. I'll put a hole in the lid. Thank you.

Sounds like good advice--good luck to you !

 

[BarnyardChaos]

OK. I got the condensation off the lid. I'll put a hole in the lid. Thank you.

You're welcome. The new hygrometers can't come fast enough. fingers crossed and hoping for the best outcome.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

You don't want it to dry out completely, so keep some measure of water in there.

 

[FlowerDragon]

You don't want it to dry out completely, so keep some measure of water in there.

It's still reading 65%. We do have one chick that started pipping so hopefully the others aren't far behind.

 

[agarnp]

It's still reading 65%. We do have one chick that started pipping so hopefully the others aren't far behind.

oh wonderful! we keep our hopes high for you

 

[FlowerDragon]

We have 5 that have hatched already and several more working on it. Thank you to everyone for the help.

 

[agarnp]

We have 5 that have hatched already and several more working on it. Thank you to everyone for the help.

Yay! how exciting!! thanks for update

 

[Egghead_Jr]

You're over 80% humidity when there is a lot of condensation on the lid like that. In the future if you raise humidity for hatch 70% RH is good, 80% is too high. Most that incubate at 50-55 RH keep it at that for hatch. I incubate 30% and hatch 70%. Incubating RH is about how much the air cells grow. If older or more porous eggs you'd incubate higher humidity. If fresh and good shells you'd want to incubate drier.

The chicks won't dry out in there, take them out and put in the brooder as they hatch. I wouldn't change anything at this point. Next hatch calibrate a hygrometer with a salt test and keep in mind that RH is based on the surface area of water. If you don't have smaller trays for water in incubator then use a container size that hits the humidity you want. Fiddle with it after this hatch is done and you'll get it dialed in.