I want to put my eggs in but my Hum. is at 58% I wanted to do dry hatch what can I do??? can I just put my eggs in tonight like I planned?? Thanks
Can you get some the dessicants used to dry out medications and stuff? They also sell a similar product at RV stores to collect excess water from the air in RVs, made to put in the cabinets with your clothing and stuff.
I've never had a problem with keeping humidity down, but I understand that putting dry paper towels in will soak up humidity so you could try that. Also, make sure the vents are open. Good luck!
Had the same problem today, all day I have been opening the door to let moisture out while using a hair dryer to maintain temp. Started around 9:30 am, it finally came down around 7:00. I was doing this about every 15-20 minutes for the first 3 hours! Painstaking but hopefully it worked. Have been at 40% for about an hour and a half. Good luck!
I just recently had the same problem due to a rainy period. Nothing I tried helped for long. When the front passed and we got into some dryer weather. I ran the incubator on the dry side for the same number of days as it was too humid. Its the average humidity of the entire incubation period that counts. The way to be sure is to go by the weight of the egg before the start of incubation compared to the weight of the egg at lockdown. It should be about a 17% loss, if memory serves me correctly.
I dont understand a Dry Hatch, I think that would be hard on the babies, But I have the opposite problem I cant get my humidity up above 55-57%.
The eggs need to loose a certain amount of moisture during incubation. If you initially incubate at a higher humidity then you can drown the chicks as the water accumulates in the air sack and when the chick pips the air sack in lockdown it drowns. I used to incubate at around 50% humidity but have found if I keep my humidity down to around 35% during incubation and keep it around 70% to 75% during lockdown I get much better hatches. If your humidity runs high during incubation I would take the plugs out if you are using a styrofoam incubator. The plugs need to be out during lockdown. The eggs need the added airflow. If the humidity goes down during lockdown I put a straw in a hole and squirt a little warm water on a paper towel in the bottom of the incubator. The moisture will spread out some but that is ok. My hatches are or near 100%. Since I have been doing my hatching like this my hatch rate has went up and I have had 100% hatches which I never thought before was possible. Good luck on your hatch...
Quote:Did you put any water in the wells? If so, take it out. Do you have plugs or vents on the bator on top? Open them until it drys out. I just put more eggs in a few days ago and had just cleaned the bator, but not dried it. I had humidity at 87% and couldn't get that during lockdown for my life. I opened the top plugs and let it dry out, then it went down to about 40% for a couple days, then 16 this morning so I added some water to the small well...now hanging at 40% which is good for me.
