Hovabator Humitidy

[Gsweet83]

Hi all! I have a new Hovabator 1583 with egg turner. I am having a terrible time keeping the humidity stable! I have placed a digital hygrometer (temp and humidity) which I calibrated before putting in. The temp is staying completely stable at 100 degrees. I live in Florida where humidity is very high. I could not fill the first partition of the water tray as instructions say to do because that much water Brought the humidity way too high so to get it where we wanted before we put the eggs in, we only ended up putting in about 15cc of water in tray. The red vent plug is in. Am I obsessing over keeping the humidity perfect? :/ any tricks on keeping it stable? I am having about 10 degree fluctuations, when I see it get low, I squirt about 5cc of water in the vent. We are only on day 3 of incubation. I have tried a wet paper towel, sponge etc... And ugh! the Humidity sky rockets! I think because of where I live in FL. Anyone have experience with this Bator? Should I relax and chill out? My two hens are also sitting on a few eggs and I know they would be laughing at me right now. LoL! Thanks!

 

[Alaskan]

I am sorry no one responded....

Did your eggs hatch yet? How are they doing?

 

[Gsweet83]

Hi! I have two due to hatch Friday!!! (out of 4... not too bad!)

Finally figured out the humidity. Basically... DO NOT FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS THAT COME WITH HOVABATOR! LoL! I filled the 3 middle troughs and it worked beautifully! Now to get humidity just right for lockdown! Wish me luck!

 

[Pent]

I find the hovabators hatch better if you let them get really dry, right up till lockdown, then super moist with vent holes plugged and an extra dish of water. I only lost a few eggs, and they were infertile at day 4. Every egg that went into lockdown hatched.

 

[Alaskan]

Good luck!

 

[Gsweet83]

Pent, can you tell me when exactly you pull the vent plug? The chicks have to dry out right. My plan was to bring humidity up with vent plug open. Hmmmmm. :/

 

[Gsweet83]

And do you hatch in modified styrofoam egg cartons? Or on side? Just curious!

 

[Heidisgran]

I'm very interested in this...I had too high a humidity and my fully grown chicks died without pipping...inside was too wet....I've heard others say they keep humidity lower than recommended and do very well...I'm shrugging

 

[Alaskan]

I just hatched some eggs...

I did about 40% RH by not adding any water at all, up until day 18, and then I added water in every way I could think of, wet paper towels too, etc. and got the humidity to stay from 68 to 73. I would have been happy to get it up to 80%.

The trick is, if you have kept humidity low for the first 18 days, even as low as 20% is OK, you can go way overboard on humidity from day 18 until hatch and NOT risk drowning the chicks.

BUT, if your humidity has been higher, I think anything over 50% for the first 18 days, then you need to be lots more careful about the humidity at the end. Maybe aim for just at 60% for the hatch?

 

[Alaskan]

Oh, I was going to hatch mine upright, but I couldn't in my incubator. Lots of people do it successfully though.

I ended up incubating them on their sides.

From what I read, it doesn't matter if you incubate with them upright or horizontal. BUT,you have to hatch them in the same position that they were incubated in.