HELP! Humidity at 27% on day 21!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lhickey3177]

Hi, I have an incubator going and today is day 21. I wasn't around over the weekend, and somehow the humidity fell to 27%!!! They have not pipped even though it's day 21 and the humidity is slowly climbing to around 50ish and going up. I sprayed the chicken eggs with some water to help moisten their shells (hopefully that wasn't bad...).

Will they die/are they dead???

What can I do????

 

[Pyxis]

!

You're fine. Low humidity could cause shrink wrapping but it won't kill them. Anyway, open up the incubator and put a damp paper towel in there. That will get the humidity up.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

It's most important to have that humidity up once they pip. So if they haven't pipped yet, chances are they are fine. Have you ever chcecked the accuracy of your thermometer? IF your therms are off and your temp is a bit low you could see a delay in the process and that may be why you haven't seen any pipping yet. When you counted your days, you didn't start counting until 24 hours after you set them, right?

 

[Lhickey3177]

Thanks!!
I started counting on the day i put them in... was i not supposed to?
Will that effect anything since I stopped turning on day 17?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Thanks!!
I started counting on the day i put them in... was i not supposed to?
Will that effect anything since I stopped turning on day 17?

Nope. You start your count 24 hours after you set. So if you set eggs on Monday the 1st at 10 am, day one starts Tuesday the 2nd at 10 am. An egg needs 21 days of incubation. You don't have 1 day until they've been incubated for 24 hours. So you would actually be at day 20 instead of 21, so they aren't late yet.

No, it doesn't matter with the turning. Chicken eggs don't actually need to be turned after the first 2 weeks. I am in a small percentage that actually stops turning day 14 instead of the more popular day 18.