HELP! Humidity at 78% at lock down.

[mycutekitties]

We are due to hatch Wedneday. One egg has already piped. My humidity is at 78%. Last year I used my incubator about 12 times with very sucessful hatches (about 90%+). This is the first time using a Hygrometer and it says 78% and I am a little worried. Do I need to bring the humidity down? The only way I can think to do that is open the incubator and poor water out but that would not be great since it would take some time to get all my eggs out. Anyway now what?? (Oh and temp is 99).
Help!

 

[PepsNick]

Do you have any vent plugs that are still in? Maybe you could take them out. It will go down, relax.

Or... I know this sounds gross, but once I stuck a straw through a hole for plugs, through the wire mesh and onto the bottom of the bator and sucked water out. It helped at least.

 

[mycutekitties]

Quote:
I might actually try that (yuck!) lol

 

[AlexKilpatrick]

Remember it is the surface area of water that controls humidity, not the depth. You need to decrease the surface area to reduce the humidity.

 

[tec27]

78% isnt really too high. You can leave it at that because it wont go up anymore it will only go down because of the constant temperature. Just leave it. If you do decided that it is too high and take water out, you will probably end up adding water eventually again because the incubator will dry out. Dont worry too much about the humidity. You're in a good range.

 

[mycutekitties]

Ok thanks! I have two pips today

 

[Gypsy07]

I hatch at 85%+ and don't ever have any excess humidity related problems - 78% shouldn't do any damage...

 

[BawGock]

I'm going to agree with the last post, too.
Higher humidity is not going to harm your chicks during the last few days of incubation.

Chicks drowning in eggs is from the water that naturally occurs in the egg not drying out of the egg during the first 18 days of incubation.

Best of luck on your hatch

Carollyn