having major humidity issued in home made incubator

[shan04]

My temp in my homemade cooler incubator is staying very stable between 99 and 100 but my humidity is suddenly doing drastic changes it will go from in the 30s to in the 80s no matter what I do, we have bad weather coming in and you can feel the changes in the air but it's been doing this for the last 2 days, I'll finally get it stabilized in the 40s then a few hours later it will be one of the extremes, is this going to hurt or kill my eggs? They are only 4 days in

 

[Fred's Hens]

Check the reliability of your gauge. I suspect it is wacko.

I dry incubate, so I pay no attention. No water gets added during the process at all. Finally, on day 19 1/2 or first pip whichever occurs first, I add water and have wet sponges to toss in.

The need for a gauge goes down when you dry incubate. But still, most of these temp and humidity units are way, way off.

 

[shan04]

My gauge is a temp humidity combo one, the temp seems to stay pretty consistant but when I tried to dry Incubate it went down to in the 30s humidity wise, I just was unsure how important the Humidity being stable is. I was having issues before I put the eggs in but finally got it under control by cutting a sponge in half and just damping it and it stayed in the 40s the first few days but now it's going crazy again. So I'm hoping when I do my first candeling this weekend I'll see something developing

 

[Fred's Hens]

I just hatched out 100%.

Humidity during incubation was around 20% most of the time. Again, dry incubation means dry.

 

[ajneal30]

Do you pay attention to what the humidity is when you add the sponges Freds, hens? I am doing a dry hatch this time as well and am hoping for better results this go round.

 

[Fred's Hens]

No. I don't pay any particular attention to the humidity at hatch. The wet chicks are adding so much humidity that a wet sponge or two is just to get the ball rolling.

Most "shrink wrapping" occurs late in the hatch, when you've probably pulled 90% of the chicks out and there's like 2 eggs you're hoping will still hatch. If they pip late, they've left a hole to the inside. That when the danger is high. I really keep those sponges wet when I'm trying to coax those last two chicks out at the end.

 

[shan04]

Well this is my first incubation hatch so I'll just try a dry hatch and worry more about temp and see if I get good results

 

[lisaterrell88]

I dry incubate to. I figure the mamma hen dontwet her bottom every time sge sets on the nest so I just do it dry. I told my hubby I dont see my hens with lysole under there wings spraying there eggs every time she moves them so I try not to over think it to much. It drives him nuts but I have a great hatch rate.

 

[Tumbleweed Farm]

Check the reliability of your gauge. I suspect it is wacko.

I dry incubate, so I pay no attention. No water gets added during the process at all. Finally, on day 19 1/2 or first pip whichever occurs first, I add water and have wet sponges to toss in.

The need for a gauge goes down when you dry incubate. But still, most of these temp and humidity units are way, way off.

I agree, a good accurate one is hard to come by. I also do the dry method.

 

[subhanalah]

I encountered chick's that were unable to internally pip because they lost too much moisture between when I candle them the beginning of day 18, and when I added water for "lockdown". They were moving and alive when I candled, but when others started hatching, I candled the remaining eggs. Three had died, the rest that had live chick's in them hatched no problem. (Even with me opening the incubator to candle)