High Humidity Please Help

[MrsChicky55]

Humidity comes from surface area and not the amount of water. The bottom of the incubator should have separate water reservoir that you can fill or leave empty. Empty all of them but one small one and fill it with water. Humidity should stabilize in about 8 hours. Based on what the humidity is, fill more reservoirs to get to the humidity level you want.

For silkies, I would try 35 to 0%

I actually opened my incubator to dump out any remaining water to lower humidity and candle the eggs. There was zero water in the reservoirs (originally I had put a TBSP in each of 6 reservoirs but it was all gone). With no water and with rice in the incubator I'm still at 48% 8 hours later.

I had originally bought a second Thermometer and Hygrometer that I bought to try to closely regulate the incubator but it was crap. It said the temp was 75 degrees F and the humidity was 89% both in the incubator and my house. Pretty sure neither was true. I wish I had a really great option to double check both Temp and Moisture but I haven't found one.

 

[MrsChicky55]

what incubator are you using?
fan or still air?

I'm using a neighbors little giant with the fan. I left the plugs in at first, removed one day 3 and the second on day 5.

I've got about a 1/2 cup of rice in the bottom of the incubator spread out to increase surface area in the hopes of bringing the humidity down more. But like I said 8 hours later the humidity hasn't changed.

I candled the eggs today and most of them the air sacs were completely unchanged, a few had changed by 1-2 mm but a few of those were due to unstable air sacs.

I did have one with the red circle of death, but it was the egg that had a free floating air sac to begin with.

Most of them showed development, a few I could only see the air sac and the shadow of the yolk.

I'm really glad that most of the eggs are developing well but it also makes me more nervous about getting the humidity down. It's one thing to have eggs not develop... it would be another to have a pretty healthy chick drown at the last minute.

I'm an NICU nurse by trade and those traumatic birth injuries where everything with the pregnancy went great right up until delivery.... well those were some of the hardest because they were so unexpected. To lose a healthy baby human or animal would just be really rotten!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I never trust thermometers or hygrometers unless they have been calibrated. I’ve seen them off too much to really trust them. There are a lot of different types of thermometers and hygrometers so it’s not always easy to come up with a calibration method. With a thermometer I use a medical thermometer that is calibrated and a glass of warm water to see if they read the same. There is a method to calibrate a hygrometer using salt and a plastic bag but I’ve never done that myself. Through trial and error I’ve learned that when my hygrometer readings average around 40% during incubation I get good hatches, whatever the real humidity is.

I am not familiar with that specific make and model of incubator but it sounds a lot like my Hovabator. Sometimes with all the reservoirs empty I get a humidity of 15%. Sometimes I get a humidity of over 35% with all reservoirs dry. The temperature and moisture in the air going in can make that much of a difference. I really notice it at different times of the year. I can get that much swing with just one reservoir filled.

Instantaneous humidity isn’t that important, it’s average humidity over the incubation period. If mine runs at 50% a few days I’ll run it at 30% for a while to average it out. It’s about the total moisture loss over the total incubation period.

Ventilation will affect moisture levels in the incubator. Taking those plugs out as you did will help drop it a bit. Warm air holds more moisture and rises. If it can escape out of the top the humidity drops a bit. One time I was having trouble with humidity in mine, it was running several points lower than it should. It was driving me batty until I realized the cord to the turner was not in its slot correctly so the top was not sealed like it should have been. My heater was able to maintain proper temperature with the top cracked which made it harder to realize what was wrong. You might try cracking the lid a tiny bit but watch your temperatures very closely to make sure the heater can keep up. There is some risk involved in this approach. Watch the temperature.

When I refill my water reservoirs if I spill a bit of water the humidity will spike until that water dries up. Sometimes that can take hours. With the tiny amount of water you added and after you’ve dried it, that doesn’t seem to be the problem.

I don’t know how accurate your hygrometer is to start with, you’ve seen with that other one how far off they can be. You may not be in as bad a situation as you think. I think my first efforts would be toward getting a hygrometer I could trust to at least be fairly accurate. Do you have a drier room you could put the incubator in? You don’t want it where a window can let sunlight hit it and warm it up and you want to avoid AC/Heating vents. Cooler air going in can help drop the humidity too.

As Ron said there is a wide humidity range that works. The sweet spot for best humidity will vary for each of us, often you find that by trial and error. Commercial hatcheries have found that the same model incubators that you would think identical have to be tweaked for maximum hatch rate. Just moving one from one spot in the room to another can change that sweet spot. These are incubators that might hold 60,000 to 120,000 eggs. They adjust those by trial and error too but they use calibrated instruments so they know what they are working with.

I don’t know how much trouble you are actually in. I really don’t trust that hygrometer.

 

[DwayneNLiz]

I actually opened my incubator to dump out any remaining water to lower humidity and candle the eggs. There was zero water in the reservoirs (originally I had put a TBSP in each of 6 reservoirs but it was all gone). With no water and with rice in the incubator I'm still at 48% 8 hours later.

I had originally bought a second Thermometer and Hygrometer that I bought to try to closely regulate the incubator but it was crap. It said the temp was 75 degrees F and the humidity was 89% both in the incubator and my house. Pretty sure neither was true. I wish I had a really great option to double check both Temp and Moisture but I haven't found one.

you should calibrate them

@BantyChooks can you give calibration links please

I'm using a neighbors little giant with the fan. I left the plugs in at first, removed one day 3 and the second on day 5.

I've got about a 1/2 cup of rice in the bottom of the incubator spread out to increase surface area in the hopes of bringing the humidity down more. But like I said 8 hours later the humidity hasn't changed.

I candled the eggs today and most of them the air sacs were completely unchanged, a few had changed by 1-2 mm but a few of those were due to unstable air sacs.

I did have one with the red circle of death, but it was the egg that had a free floating air sac to begin with.

Most of them showed development, a few I could only see the air sac and the shadow of the yolk.

I'm really glad that most of the eggs are developing well but it also makes me more nervous about getting the humidity down. It's one thing to have eggs not develop... it would be another to have a pretty healthy chick drown at the last minute.

I'm an NICU nurse by trade and those traumatic birth injuries where everything with the pregnancy went great right up until delivery.... well those were some of the hardest because they were so unexpected. To lose a healthy baby human or animal would just be really rotten!

LGs are known to have issues, get your tools calibrated
sorry about the blood ring
hopefully the rest do well

 

[BantyChooks]

you should calibrate them

@BantyChooks can you give calibration links please

LGs are known to have issues, get your tools calibrated
sorry about the blood ring
hopefully the rest do well

Calibration links are broken.

 

[DwayneNLiz]

Calibration links are broken.

thanks for trying

 

[Ridgerunner]

These worked a couple of minutes ago.

Rebel’s Thermometer Calibration

http://cmfarm.us/ThermometerCalibration.html

Rebel’s Hygrometer Calibration

http://cmfarm.us/HygrometerCalibration.html

 

[MrsChicky55]

I never trust thermometers or hygrometers unless they have been calibrated. I’ve seen them off too much to really trust them. There are a lot of different types of thermometers and hygrometers so it’s not always easy to come up with a calibration method. With a thermometer I use a medical thermometer that is calibrated and a glass of warm water to see if they read the same. There is a method to calibrate a hygrometer using salt and a plastic bag but I’ve never done that myself. Through trial and error I’ve learned that when my hygrometer readings average around 40% during incubation I get good hatches, whatever the real humidity is.

I am not familiar with that specific make and model of incubator but it sounds a lot like my Hovabator. Sometimes with all the reservoirs empty I get a humidity of 15%. Sometimes I get a humidity of over 35% with all reservoirs dry. The temperature and moisture in the air going in can make that much of a difference. I really notice it at different times of the year. I can get that much swing with just one reservoir filled.

Instantaneous humidity isn’t that important, it’s average humidity over the incubation period. If mine runs at 50% a few days I’ll run it at 30% for a while to average it out. It’s about the total moisture loss over the total incubation period.

Ventilation will affect moisture levels in the incubator. Taking those plugs out as you did will help drop it a bit. Warm air holds more moisture and rises. If it can escape out of the top the humidity drops a bit. One time I was having trouble with humidity in mine, it was running several points lower than it should. It was driving me batty until I realized the cord to the turner was not in its slot correctly so the top was not sealed like it should have been. My heater was able to maintain proper temperature with the top cracked which made it harder to realize what was wrong. You might try cracking the lid a tiny bit but watch your temperatures very closely to make sure the heater can keep up. There is some risk involved in this approach. Watch the temperature.

When I refill my water reservoirs if I spill a bit of water the humidity will spike until that water dries up. Sometimes that can take hours. With the tiny amount of water you added and after you’ve dried it, that doesn’t seem to be the problem.

I don’t know how accurate your hygrometer is to start with, you’ve seen with that other one how far off they can be. You may not be in as bad a situation as you think. I think my first efforts would be toward getting a hygrometer I could trust to at least be fairly accurate. Do you have a drier room you could put the incubator in? You don’t want it where a window can let sunlight hit it and warm it up and you want to avoid AC/Heating vents. Cooler air going in can help drop the humidity too.

As Ron said there is a wide humidity range that works. The sweet spot for best humidity will vary for each of us, often you find that by trial and error. Commercial hatcheries have found that the same model incubators that you would think identical have to be tweaked for maximum hatch rate. Just moving one from one spot in the room to another can change that sweet spot. These are incubators that might hold 60,000 to 120,000 eggs. They adjust those by trial and error too but they use calibrated instruments so they know what they are working with.

I don’t know how much trouble you are actually in. I really don’t trust that hygrometer.

I trusted this hygrometer pretty well when the moisture level was high. I’ve worked with babies in isolettes for years in the NICU. With micropremies we add high humidity and control it and wean it pretty tightly. I’m familiar with what the condensation tends to look like. When humidity was high I felt the hygrometer was pretty accurate. Now it’s harder to tell. And given that it’s stayed between 48-49% steadily I’m pretty suspicious that it’s that tightly regulated. Maybe this hygrometer doesn’t do as well in the lower range. I’m really ticked that the hygrometer I bought to double check was such crap. If I can find another one locally to try I will. I like this idea of a calibrator though. How do you do that?

 

[MrsChicky55]

Unfortunately my house is SO full of windows this really is the best spot for the incubator. That’s what I picked it. Fingers crossed!

 

[MrsChicky55]

These worked a couple of minutes ago.

Rebel’s Thermometer Calibration

http://cmfarm.us/ThermometerCalibration.html

Rebel’s Hygrometer Calibration

http://cmfarm.us/HygrometerCalibration.html

That’s awesome! From now on I’ll calibrate b4 incubation. If I find another probe I’ll calibrate it first. I can’t really take the probe out of the incubator for 6 hours though or the temp won’t maintain.