First time incubator has questions

[borzoimom]

I am incubating eggs for the first time. Really am confused and hoping to get more advise here. I started with 15 eggs, most were Americaunas, others were assorted eggs but all are colored. Today was day 11, tried to candle, didn't see much, 13 of the eggs were half to mostly dark, though I couldn't make out much of what I was seeing. 1 moved inside (or it was my imagination). 2 were clear and I threw them out. The temp has been kept pretty steady at 99-100, but it is my humidity I am confused about. It has been anywhere from 38-45%, mostly at 40-42%, is that too high? How do I lover the humidity? Do I remove a plug, but won't that lower the temp too? Have I already messed up my eggs? I know to raise humidity upon lockdown, but what about temp. during lockdown, still 99-100 range. Thank you for all your help and advise.

 

[FFAChickenFan]

There really is no set number for humidity- most hatchers gauge whether they should be raising or lowering humidity by the size of the air cell at the fat end of the egg. Although 40% humidity is a little low, unless you live in a real humid area. I usually keep my incubator at around 60% humidity until lockdown, when I make it as humid as possible (around 80%). The reason for this is that in the incubator, your eggs are constantly losing water. Now, while some of this is natural and eggs usually lose around 13% of their weight from evaporation, you dont want your babies to get "shrink wrapped", so I would add a little more water to your incubator.

I think you'll find this guide to be pretty helpful in answering your questions https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101

If you're curious about what you should be seeing when you candle the eggs, the Chicken Chick has a great day-by-day documentation of embryo development here: http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/03/chicken-embryo-development-views-from.html but beware, she does in egg AND out of egg development, so if you're sensitive to somewhat graphic images I wouldn't view it.