Hands on hatching and help

[Mill Chick]

I think my incubator is overly humid (57%) and it is possible my temperatures have been higher than they should be: 100.5 to 101. I had egg movement at Day 15 on two of 7 eggs, and on day 17, all eggs were moving. These are from a jersey giant rooster with a mixed of JG, barred rocks, buff orpingtons and cinnamon girl moms. Day 18 begins in 6 hours. My question is: should I put an emergency air hole in the air space before I upped the humidity for lockdown?

Sorry for the late reply! You know the eggs aren't supposed to hatch till day 21 right? Don't put the humidity so high right now if you had it high earlier. I have never done a safety hole before so I don't have much experience with them so I'm not that much help but I will tag some people for you. @Debbie292d @Eggcessive

 

[Debbie292d]

I think my incubator is overly humid (57%) and it is possible my temperatures have been higher than they should be: 100.5 to 101. I had egg movement at Day 15 on two of 7 eggs, and on day 17, all eggs were moving. These are from a jersey giant rooster with a mixed of JG, barred rocks, buff orpingtons and cinnamon girl moms. Day 18 begins in 6 hours. My question is: should I put an emergency air hole in the air space before I upped the humidity for lockdown?

No air holes. Just put them into lockdown. I normally set them in lockdown at 70%, but if this happened to me, I'd set it to 60-65% during lockdown for at least a day of it.

I didn't read the whole thread as I just saw the tag from @Mill Chick, but if nobody recommended getting a hygrometer/thermometer, I will. We have four incubators, three are big Brinseas, and not one is correct. There are many good ones you can find, but I like the Govee brand, and many here do too. You can recalibrate them in a few months yourself if they ever stray.

 

[zippychippie]

I did not add any air holes, and all 7 hatched normally, beginning the end of Day 19 for the first one. The last one was 14 hours into Day 21. All are healthy.

I know my incubator's reading are nonsense. I had a couple of those battery powered hygrometer/thermometer I found on Amazon. I tried four of those, but they did not agree. How often does one change the batteries on those devices? I see how necessary knowing the truth about temp and humidity is, but I am frustrated with how hard it is to nail down accurate readings.