High humidity, will the chicks survive? Or drown

[Cara83]

Hi first time incubator here.
I have 8 out of 12 lavender sussex eggs left in my incubator, and the incubator has no humidity gauge.
Today i bought one and said humidity is at 70%,, i have taken out the water and put some rice in paper towel in there to try draw out some humidity.
They have good air sack for 10 days, and all alive and moving.
I'm just worried they will drown? Will the correction of humidity now stop them drowning?
They are at 37 degrees if i take it up to 37.5 will this help?
Any advice appreciated, thank you.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

How many days have the eggs been in the incubator for? It wasn't too clear from your post if you're at hatching day or not yet. If you're not at day 21 then they are more than likely going to be absolutely fine, especially if you've candled and they have good air sacks. And even if you are at day 21 you will still probably be fine, just keep an eye on them.

I am not an incubation expert though so hopefully if I'm wrong someone can correct me.

 

[Cara83]

How many days have the eggs been in the incubator for? It wasn't too clear from your post if you're at hatching day or not yet. If you're not at day 21 then they are more than likely going to be absolutely fine, especially if you've candled and they have good air sacks. And even if you are at day 21 you will still probably be fine, just keep an eye on them.

I am not an incubation expert though so hopefully if I'm wrong someone can correct me.

I'm at day 11 and this photo was taken 2 days ago

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

You've got plenty of time left for them to lose the weight they need for correct development and hatching, just get the humidity down like you're already doing.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Oh I forgot to say, chicks only drown during their hatching process. They can't drown until they have internally pipped into the air sack in preparation for hatching out. That's not the only issue with high humidity, but yeah don't worry about them drowning at this stage of incubation.

 

[Cara83]

You've got plenty of time left for them to lose the weight they need for correct development and hatching, just get the humidity down like you're already doing.

Thank you. I'm calabrating the analog hygoemeter tonight. They where expensive heritage eggs and I really hope for a few to make it

 

[Cara83]

Oh I forgot to say, chicks only drown during their hatching process. They can't drown until they have internally pipped into the air sack in preparation for hatching out. That's not the only issue with high humidity, but yeah don't worry about them drowning at this stage of incubation.

Yes that's what I mean also, if they drown during the hatching process.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. I hatch with broody hens in what can be a very humid environment (mid 70s to mid 80s, even higher when it rains), and yeah, some of the eggs don't make it due to that. It's a real bummer as I can't control the climate! But even with the humidity being high here usually everything is fine as we get enough days low enough during the 21 days (a low humidity day is in the 50s here). Eggs and chicks are pretty resilient.

 

[casportpony]

How's your hatch going?

 

[Cara83]

How's your hatch going?

I have 6 beautiful lavender Sussex chicks