High Incubation Humidity

[chickieshealing]

Hi, Anyone know any tricks to get the humidity down besides opening the vent? I live in high moisture, Thailand...I called the company about it and they said the eggs will absorb the water...but nothing yet! Humidity is set at 45%, but has not gone lower than 57%...the directions say it should not be higher than 50%. Let me know if this is okay or any tricks to lower. Thanks!

 

[Granny Hatchet]

i have heard rice works. you would have to put it in a mesh bag or something similar.

 

[chickieshealing]

i have heard rice works. you would have to put it in a mesh bag or something similar.

Thanks for this! I tried it, but maybe I have to put more in. It seems to have dropped about 3% with what I put in. I need it to drop about 20%!

 

[Granny Hatchet]

you dont have any water in the bator do you? thats not much of a drop. i dont think your humidity will too much of an issue. hope not any way.

 

[gander007]

Why is it you do not want to open the vent's as I would think
the heat and fan would circulate air and drop the humidity
my former wife and I ran into this when I lived in Panama
and it is about the same there as Thailand, so I put the
incubator in a closet that I had insulated to keep my clothing
nice and fresh as the humidity really builds up some really
pleasant orders after a short time and I do remember her
using rice along the edges of the closet but the most
important thing was ventilation and as I remember she
got .50 cents per chick so she had to hatch as many as
she could and I do believe her lowest month was around
20 chicks and she did not have a store bought incubator
as she made it from a older metal with foam insulation
after that I got her a little air circulating fan for the lid and
she had several light bulbs for heat and I do believe it would
hold over 80 egg's and her turner was manual as she had a
stich that would move the different racks she had for the egg's
I just know it kept her busy and she had some money to buy
herself new shoes .................

 

[Granny Hatchet]

just wondering if a dry sponge would absorb some of the moister? or, you know those little packets that comes in medicines sometimes that says do not eat? those are designed to absorb . i dont know whats in them or if they are safe but i would think so as long as its took out come hatch time.

 

[chickieshealing]

Why is it you do not want to open the vent's as I would think
the heat and fan would circulate air and drop the humidity
my former wife and I ran into this when I lived in Panama
and it is about the same there as Thailand, so I put the
incubator in a closet that I had insulated to keep my clothing
nice and fresh as the humidity really builds up some really
pleasant orders after a short time and I do remember her
using rice along the edges of the closet but the most
important thing was ventilation and as I remember she
got .50 cents per chick so she had to hatch as many as
she could and I do believe her lowest month was around
20 chicks and she did not have a store bought incubator
as she made it from a older metal with foam insulation
after that I got her a little air circulating fan for the lid and
she had several light bulbs for heat and I do believe it would
hold over 80 egg's and her turner was manual as she had a
stich that would move the different racks she had for the egg's
I just know it kept her busy and she had some money to buy
herself new shoes .................

I do have the vent open, and its not helping at all. The rice I thought was maybe helping, but I put more in and the humidity is up to 71% now. It probably is just whatever the weather is. I could try a small area...not sure where yet. Perhaps I could buy a dehumidifier and put everything in a small area!?

 

[chickieshealing]

just wondering if a dry sponge would absorb some of the moister? or, you know those little packets that comes in medicines sometimes that says do not eat? those are designed to absorb . i dont know whats in them or if they are safe but i would think so as long as its took out come hatch time.

I wondered about a sponge too, but I think I would be nervous about those packets. I know the eggs are absorbent too.

 

[chickieshealing]

you dont have any water in the bator do you? thats not much of a drop. i dont think your humidity will too much of an issue. hope not any way.

No water at all in there. I hope it won't be an issue, but read you get a low hatch rate and I'll be bummed if that happens!

 

[Granny Hatchet]

i was having just the opposite problem, i tried everything to up my humidity and considered buying a whole room humidifier . luckily i found the problem. i had put, for the first time, some shelf liner on the bottom of the bator over the wire floor so when they hatched they would have a good grip to prevent splay leg. it was preventing the water from getting to the eggs. when i took it out it stabilized. have you done the salt test on your hygrometer?make sure it is working proper. open both vents and the heat will pick up and compensate. 75% is great for lock down, not so much for development.