HELP- will too high humidity affect just set eggs

[katiebob]

I put too much water in my Hova Bator when I set my eggs in the incubator last night at 10 pm. Though I unplugged the vent and have been opening the bator every few hours to let out the moisture the humidity has only dropped from 70% to low of 59%-65% ( I have 4 different hygrometers) These eggs have not been incubating for very long- not even 24 hours, but do you think I have done permanent damage already?
Thank you very much for your thoughts.

 

[Lacrystol]

No I don't think soo. I keep mine at 50 55 just try to get it lowered..

 

[clairabean]

Nope. I have my bator set for about 60% all the time, give or take 5%.

Be careful about fluctuating the temp too much by opening the bator.

 

[katiebob]

Thanks everyone for giving me some peace of mind.

 

[katiebob]

Also, will going down to 97* for a couple of minutes hurt the eggs. I'd say that in the past 20 hours the temps maybe dropped to 97* for 10 minutes total.

 

[Hannah hen]

I think you will be ok. If you want I would probably sponge out one or two of the water chambers so you don't have to open it to much more. I'm hatching my second batch and haven't opened the incubator since I set the eggs three days ago. My temps and humidity are much more stable than last time when I couldn't seem to leave my hands off it.

 

[Suechick]

You should be fine. A mama chicken gets off the eggs for up to 1/2 hour per day so dropping the temp for a few minutes is OK. It gets dangerous if you have temp spikes over 103, but brief periods of low temps are OK.

 

[adrian]

For chicken eggs, it's best to keep the humidity about 45-50%. Some people have success as low as 40%. Some people even have success with dry incubation. In my experience, high humidity over the entire incubation process is far more dangerous than low humidity. However, humidity is not something that affects eggs in an immediate way the way temperature does.

Think of it this way: temperature essentially determines an embryo's body temperature because it cannot produce its own. Growing embryos' body temperature has to be roughly the same as their parents', because that is natural for their species. A high temperature is like a very high fever: it can kill you. For such a tiny embryo, high body temperature is even more dangerous. Without the ability to regulate their own body temperature, low temperatures will chill them into a state of hyperthermia. So, temperature needs to be as stable as possible because we are truly controlling the embryo's body temperature which is, of course, delicate and important.

However, keep in mind that eggs hold temperature very well for a reason. High heat can kill quickly, but cooler temperatures will not. Birds cannot, regardless of how hard they try, overheat their eggs, but they leave the nest for short periods of time every day. In some species (such as geese) this short period of cooling is sometimes thought to be beneficial. In any case, being cooled is natural for eggs because their parents cannot sit tight forever, and they are designed to hold their temperature for this very reason. With a low of 97F for only a short while you are almost certainly doing no long-term harm, but do keep in mind that the first few days are delicate days.

Now onto humidity. Humidity does not immediately affect the embryo in most cases. Even at extreme lows and highs, it would take days to affect the egg in any significant—or irreversible—way. Humidity regulates how much moisture is lost in the egg. Even without being incubated, eggs lose moisture. That is why you can determine the freshness of an egg, such as one you'd keep in your fridge, by the size of its air cell.

Now, in nature, the air cell's purpose is to provide an air supply to a hatching chick. Because of this, it needs to be large enough, which means the egg must lose a certain amount of moisture. Because moisture is lost over the entire incubation period, the average humidity is what is important: not the spikes, so long as they are only spikes instead of trends, which would last longer. For example, if you have one spike of 65% one day, but it is 45% for 22/24 hours of the day, your average humidity is still 45% and no harm will be done. Most problems associated with low humidity are too little space to allow for proper turning in order to get into hatching position prior to internal pip due to overlarge air cells, and dehydration of the embryo which requires moisture from the egg to thrive as well.

In any case, in natural incubation, humidity tends towards being very moderate for most of the incubation period. The bird's body produces a small amount of humidity in itself, but I think a large reason we have to bump our humidity levels so much in incubators is because the relative humidity in houses tend to be significantly lower than outside. For instance, right now the relative humidity is 86% outside, but lower than 30% in my dry, dry house. Nests are usually rather dry places and protect the egg from very moist conditions, but they do not dry them out the way our houses might. Obviously, a lot of this depends on your climate. During hatching, a bird will sometimes wet its feathers to provide moisture to its eggs once or twice, but as each chick hatches, the moisture from the egg raises the humidity level in the nest, thus making it ideal for other eggs to hatch.

Thus, the humidity naturally falls into place and everything tends to work itself out on its own.

So, really, humidity in natural incubation is not delicate and the natural outside humidity is generally more than enough for eggs to hatch. They require less than we probably think.

Just keep in mind that moisture loss and air cell growth are absolutely natural and your humidity levels only speed up or slow down the inevitable, whereas temperature controls heart rate, metabolism and all kinds of very important and delicate things. Breaking it down like this makes the incubation process easier to understand in my opinion. Anyway, just get the humidity down to a proper level and keep in mind that all you have to worry about is moisture loss and its rapidity. Good luck.

 

[chickbird]

high humidities make the chick larger with less air cell, i dry hatch and get really good results. i think the air cell needs to be sufficient for the chick to get air toward the end of the incubation. i also believe in helping chicks that need it to free themselves from the egg. it does not make the chicks weak(this is from my own experience.)

 

[BaJa]

I think you will be ok. If you want I would probably sponge out one or two of the water chambers so you don't have to open it to much more. I'm hatching my second batch and haven't opened the incubator since I set the eggs three days ago. My temps and humidity are much more stable than last time when I couldn't seem to leave my hands off it.

do you have an automatic turner, you have to turn them?