I have a incubator made of a large plastic container (holes drilled for air flow); I lined the inside of the container with tin foil, then I have 2 cereal boxes cut open and lined with a towel for the eggs, with a metal loaf pan in the middle full of water. all of it is raised off the bottom of the container to keep it closer to the light. The container lid had a light and a glass window. The temp wavers between 99-100 and the humidity is stuck at 40-50%. Its the 18th day and I'm trying to figure out how I would get the humidity up without raising the temperature too high. Any suggestions before I do the lockdown today? P.S. I candled the eggs and 16 out of 22 were doing well with veins and a little fetus...the other 6 were really dark but I left them in just in case.
I put a sponge in mine, and it raised it 5-10%, then I put a wash cloth in, and wetted it, this brought it up another 5-10%. This had me at around 60-65%, but all of the sudden it dropped to 50%. I have rewetted everything, and it is climbing slowly.
Yup--that's what you need to do...increase the surface area of whatever you have in there that is wet. The more surface area the higher you can get the humidity. You can also put a tube through one of your holes to add more water without opening the whole unit and losing the humidity you do have. also you can plug up the holes and tape the seams of the container to keep more inside. Good luck on your hatch! Terri O
I put it two or three new sponges to get the humidity up. I've found that when candeling the eggs on day 18 before lockdown the chicks are in various stages of drawing the yolk into their bodies. You will see some that have completed the process and those eggs will be completely dark. Those are good eggs, I'm glad you didn't throw them out! Others take a little longer to absorb the yolk and you will see a yellowish blob near the small end of the egg. This is usually drawn up by the time they hatch. Good luck!!!
