Have I drowned my chicks?

[Kmooneyhan3910]

Thursday night my incubator humidity was on 70% but then as the chick hatched it went up to 80% then another chick hatched Friday which brought my humidity up to 90% I’ve heard that too high of humidity will drowned the chicks the set hatch date was yesterday Saturday the 14th but none hatched im going to leave them in the incubator for another 7 days to see if anything happens bc the humidity has came back down since yesterday to 75%

 

[microchick]

Humidity will spike as the chicks hatch and release moisture into the air. I've had the humidity spike into the 90% category during hatching and had 100% hatches. The humidity will fluctuate during the hatching process. You just don't want it to stay at high levels during the process.

Are you seeing any pips in the unhatched eggs? Have you been candling them to see if they are viable (alive chicks in them)?

I'd give it a bit more time. If you are worried about the humidity you can always carefully crack the top of the incubator to bring it down to desired levels but it should stabilize on it's own once the hatched chick has dried out.

Good luck with your hatch. What you have to remember is what you read is a guideline for hatching, it really isn't carved in stone though. Congratulations on the new chicks!

 

[Kmooneyhan3910]

Humidity will spike as the chicks hatch and release moisture into the air. I've had the humidity spike into the 90% category during hatching and had 100% hatches. The humidity will fluctuate during the hatching process. You just don't want it to stay at high levels during the process.

Are you seeing any pips in the unhatched eggs? Have you been candling them to see if they are viable (alive chicks in them)?

I'd give it a bit more time. If you are worried about the humidity you can always carefully crack the top of the incubator to bring it down to desired levels but it should stabilize on it's own once the hatched chick has dried out.

Good luck with your hatch. What you have to remember is what you read is a guideline for hatching, it really isn't carved in stone though. Congratulations on the new chicks!

I haven’t candled bc I thought you weren’t supposed to open incubator while on lockdown but I might go ahead and do that if it’s safe

 

[Jetblack2004]

I haven’t candled bc I thought you weren’t supposed to open incubator while on lockdown but I might go ahead and do that if it’s safe

It's safe. Definitely candle them.

 

[microchick]

Agreed. As long as there aren't any pips or active hatching going on you can do a quick candling. If I am forced to check for viability at that point, I carefully remove the egg after putting a dot on the egg with a magic marker so I can remember which side was up, candle and return the egg to the incubator with the dotted side up.