Have new Little Giant can't get humidty right!!!! HELP

[Fyrekitten]

I agree beautiful Avatar - is it a Line back Calf???? Adorable! I have to agree with everyone and put in my two cents....those dratted still air LG incubators are not great....my Hovabator is a bit better. I have had natural sea sponges, regular sponges, soaked cotton balls, the trays filled and a a small bowl of water but could only get my humidity often around 40%. I started putting them recently in a closed in Bathroom with the shower steaming up the room (DON"T put them in the shower...) I leave them in the bottom of the incubator - take it directly into the bathroom to sit on the counter near the shower for about fifteen minutes to up the humidity then I either bring the cover in and cover them before bringing back out and plugging in or I use a towel that is warm and slightly damp. It has seemed to help and my hatches have increased. I have probably lost a good 70 plus purchased eggs thanks to temp spikes and humidity issues. I'm pretty new at this having only done a couple of eggs last Summer and got my feet wet! The incubator I have going now has an issue with staying humid and I am in Lockdown so I "Steamed the bathroom" and had the little buggers in there for a bit and then I took a small thick hand towel and set it in the incubator out of the way of the eggs - my humidity is perfect. about 80% and lo and behold I have my first little Black Sumatra in the last two hours....I have several other eggs peeping and hope for more hatching today.....We are only into day twenty on some of these so they are a bit ahead of themselves! I have another incubator that the humidity ended up getting a bit low since we opened it up due to a huge amount of chicks playing polo with their siblings - however, it seems to have slowed down or stopped that incubator - I'm at about day 25 but I had two days of power outage and low temps so I need to add two days to my hatch I was told....keeping humidity up and need my hands spanked should I ever open up a "lock down" incubator again.

Seriously though, everyone is right, just watch and find what works best for you....it does seem out of my 3 LG incubators that two have had window issues and seepage of humidity around the seams.

 

[pioneergirl]

Thanks everyone my avatar is a holstein heifer calf we had last year named Clara Bell. Wishing I has kept her (sigh) Sold her to a nice chick breeder close by.

Ok so here's what I've done and how it's going:
I added WARM water last night and taped everything up windows seams etc. Then wrapped the incubator in a towel.
Inside I just have the water, sponges and rolled up paper towels. Pretty soon after I did all of this my temp spiked to like 106 and the humidity was 32 percent. Finally I had foggy windows!!!
Well I had to lower the temp some but when I did the humidity dropped to 30 percent.

I've been adjusting the temp and I seem to be going from 98 to 102 - the humidty seems to be staying at 29 percent.
I know... I need to wait a long time before making temp changes. I've probably been a little too hasty with my changes.

I plan to start a hygrometer test today.

From hearing everyone using LG's it sounds like I should try wet warm socks or wet warm towels inside. I was just wondering how often are you guys re-wetting or exchanging them for new ones? Guess it lasts long enough for a lockdown huh?

 

[pioneergirl]

I started my hygrometer test just now.. so we'll see. I'm thinking it may be off.
I had it out in the barn with some chicks for a couple of weeks and I think it may had received some damage while being out there.

Another reason that I think its off is that when I went to remove my incubator lid this morning to get out the hygrometer I had probably 2-3 Tablespoons of run off water form the lid!!!!
There was so much water on the lid that I was worried about the heating element!!!! Does everyone else have this much condensation on their lids?
I was thinking surely my humidty is higher than 30 percent!!!

 

[Elktondude]

If you have a combo temp and humity monitor the whole unit must be in the bator. the cord is only for temp. and can not pick-up the humity. if the unit is on the outside you are reading room Humity and bator temp.

 

[beckim5]

I would think if you're getting that much condensation that your humidity is definitely higher than 30%!!! I'm going into lockdown today with an LG still air and I read about someone adding water through the ventilation holes in the top with a straw. So far, with strategically placed sponges, it has been working! Keep us posted with the results of your hygrometer test!

 

[pioneergirl]

Quote:
No I have the little one piece white one from Walmart. I am putting the whole thing inside on top of the egg turner.

There is no cord on mine it's a little square piece of plastic about 2inches by 2 inches in size.

 

[destinydot6]

Quote:
No I have the little one piece white one from Walmart. I am putting the whole thing inside on top of the egg turner.

There is no cord on mine it's a little square piece of plastic about 2inches by 2 inches in size.

you should pry get a new one from petsmart or any pet shop really but petsmart is like $10 to $15 cheaper than petstore but the real good ones are for cigars! my eggs are growing perfect with humidity at 20%to 40% in my still air so all im going to do is worrie about extra humidity at lockdown tomarrow night

 

[pioneergirl]

ok it's almost been 3 hours since I started my hygrometer test so far it says the humidity in the zip lock bag is 28%

how long should it take to read 75%?

A broken hygrometer would actually be a good thing because it would mean that my incubator wasn't REALLY having trouble raising humidity.

I cannot wait to set some eggs!!!!!

Those Brinsea incubators are starting to look really good right now.. AAWWW I'm such a cheapskate

 

[destinydot6]

Quote:
24 hours but if your hygrometer is off then it wont say 75%
until you set it when the test is dont right as you take it out of bag
there should be a little notch on back that sometimes looks like a little hole only
and you take a very small flat head and turn back or forth till it says 75%

 

[Fyrekitten]

Hmmm...paper towels - I tried those but they dry out too often so I went with a washcloth, it seems to keep the humiidty better. You do have to watch putting a towel on the bator since it will trap all the heat in and not let it escape. When I cover mine I often don't cover the whole bator so some heat does escape around the unit.

It sounds you have great humidity if your unit is dripping water - maybe a bit too much! Definitely get another unit or change the batteries - I have a couple stand alone units like yours and let me tell you the thing freaked me out one time saying it was only around 19% humidity which I knew couldn't be right. I added more water and sponges and it wouldn't move past 23 percent. Finally this ding dong realized that MAYBE she should check the batteries - that of course did the trick - I was actually around 70 percent.

My husband says if we keep doing this we're going to buy a good cabinet unit next year....if we can afford it. Otherwise - oh silkie girls - you're gonna be busy incubating!