Help! Day 18 troubles...

[chickyrookie]

I been researching everywhere on how to increase the humidity of incubator. This is my first batch ever and I'm using Little Farm 9300. For the first 17 days, the humidity read 42 degrees most of the time. Now I added a drenched sponge near hole opening and I can only get it to read 46-48 degrees.

What now? Am I doomed?

 

[Pyxis]

Humidity is determined by how much surface area of water there is in an incubator.
Most incubators have water troughs built in that you can add water to for controlling humidity. If you add water to the troughs and you find it's not getting high enough, you can add baby food jars or mason jars full of water with paper towels or sponges sticking out of them to wick water up and add even more surface area. You could also add paper towels into the water troughs and stretched out across the bottom of the incubator to wick water out and make a much larger surface area. Or just place a damp sponge or paper towel in the incubator (not touching the eggs).

 

[WRXFamily]

I live in a very dry area so I struggle with humidity also. I was reading about to same as you are at day 18 so I also panicked. My husband luckily thought very quickly and saved the day. He setup an ultra sonic cool mist humidifier from Vicks. We bought it at Walmart. Not the one with the weird medicated scented pad, just regular. Set it up by your incubator with the mist falling on top of it. I then also added wicks to the built in humidifier. Wicks can also be purchased at Walmart in the camping section. They are made for camping lanterns that run off of oil or fluid. Just snip off the ends and add it to your reservoir on the inside making sure the top sticks out. This immediately brought my humidity up to 75%. Best of luck to you.

 

[chickyrookie]

Should I worry about opening the lid to add wicks? I thought I wasn't suppose lift lid. It is now DAY 19.Never mind....just added two homemade wicks and busted out the humidifier from the garage. I'll check to see what happens.

Side node: When I opened the lid, it was kinda smelly. Think I might have a rotten egg?

 

[Rocky Rhodes]

I can never get mine to get over about 50% until the first egg hatches, and then it skyrockets to the point of water droplets hanging from the viewing windows.

 

[WRXFamily]

If it's smelly before anyone has hatched yes I would worry. It isn't your water in the reservoir stinking is it? No I wouldn't worry about lifting the lid one time to get the wicks in. I'd look for an egg that is oozing and smell around to find that egg before it leaks/explodes.
Did you see a humidity rise after the humidifier and the wicks?

 

[chickyrookie]

If it's smelly before anyone has hatched yes I would worry. It isn't your water in the reservoir stinking is it? No I wouldn't worry about lifting the lid one time to get the wicks in. I'd look for an egg that is oozing and smell around to find that egg before it leaks/explodes.
Did you see a humidity rise after the humidifier and the wicks?

So... after adding wicks and humidifier the humidity says "40." That's the lowest reading thus far. And the smell is terrible. I can smell the rotten egg odor from the open air vent, but I do not see any leaking or oozing. For a first timer, this sucks. I ordered a battery operated temp gauge, but won't be here until after hatch day. Poor chickies...maybe my electronic component is wrong. It looks super steamy in there.

I even duck taped the sides.

 

[Lins_BE]

If it looks steamy in there i would say your humidity should be high enough... but i’m new, so what do the rest think of this?

Are any of them pipping yet? If not, can’t you check egg by egg to see which one is the stinky one? You don’t want that thing exploding and contaminating your incubator...

Crossing my fingers for a successfull hatch anyway!

 

[Pyxis]

Did you happen to calibrate your hygrometer to make sure it's reading correctly? Because it sounds like it's wrong; humidity definitely shouldn't go down after adding more water surface area.

 

[chickyrookie]

Did you happen to calibrate your hygrometer to make sure it's reading correctly? Because it sounds like it's wrong; humidity definitely shouldn't go down after adding more water surface area.

Right? I did what it said and let it run for 24 hours before putting in the eggs. Seemed okay to me. I never think about what the humidity is around me. It could of said 80 or 25 and I'd be like, "okay, looks good." But now that I have chickens on the way (maybe) I'm freaking out. AND I think one died because it has a rotten eggs smell, but it could be the sponge (new, but under the sink for awhile). This is so stressful.