How do I lower humidity?

[Harder84]

Well before I panic I would candle at 7 days and see what the air cell progression is compared to the pic.

I consider hygrometers to be useless. The best indicator of humidity adjustments during incubation is the air cell. If you have too, candle a few eggs on day 1 and trace around the aircell to create reference points. Increase humidity it if it's too big on day 7/ remove any water if too small. Repeat on day 14.

I think you stated you were having a big storm at the moment. When it rains humidity is 100% and remain very high for a week. Nothing you can do about the weather. If ambient humidity is high incubator humidity will be high. Truly the only practical humidity adjustment that's possible for us is to increase it.

Incubate and hatch vertically. The embryo will be always be oriented to the aircell for pipping. On day 19 set them in an egg carton, max out humidity and you'll have a great hatch.

Thank you so much for your help. This puts me more at ease - I will candle on day 7 and see how they are looking and try to adjust accordingly. Yes we have a blizzard going through right now so probably higher than normal humidity levels. That is a GREAT idea about the egg cartons for hatching. I had seen people just lay them on their sides to hatch.

 

[Fairview01]

Thank you so much for your help. This puts me more at ease - I will candle on day 7 and see how they are looking and try to adjust accordingly. Yes we have a blizzard going through right now so probably higher than normal humidity levels. That is a GREAT idea about the egg cartons for hatching. I had seen people just lay them on their sides to hatch.

Some people swear that way is better because it's more natural but once we remove eggs and place them in an incubator they are in an artificially created environments. Certain requirements cant be changed or modified while others can be replaced with better ways. Try it both ways. I get a lot of anxiety when the chicks start playing kickball with the unhatched eggs thus the egg carton and vertical hatching for me.

 

[cmom]

This thread may help you.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/little-giant-incubator-tricks.601352/

I was late hatching last year and had a terrible time lowering my humidity so I put some desiccants in the incubator. I have some that are reusable. It worked.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=desiccants&ref=nb_sb_noss

 

[Harder84]

This thread may help you.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/little-giant-incubator-tricks.601352/

I was late hatching last year and had a terrible time lowering my humidity so I put some desiccants in the incubator. I have some that are reusable. It worked.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=desiccants&ref=nb_sb_noss

Thank you that is a great idea!

 

[Harder84]

There is a little variance. Like silkie eggs tend to be very glossy, and lose weight slowly sometimes, as well as very dark shells like black copper Marans, wellsummers, etc. My lav orps were always very hard to candle, dense shells for the light color, but lost weight just fine.

I am on day 6 and candles a few just out of curiosity. On my bantam eggs it was very easy to see veins and the embryo but on my larger eggs, I could not see anything. Mostly orpingtons and wyandottes. Is that normal? It made me a bit concerned they are not developing.

 

[cmom]

Sometimes it's difficult to see the embryos prior to around day 10.

 

[Harder84]

Sometimes it's difficult to see the embryos prior to around day 10.

Should I be seeing the veins this early?

 

[cmom]

I would say yes but when you candle during the first week, they can be difficult to see.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Some people can see development as early as three days. It really helps for the eggs to be white so they are easy to see inside, the room to be really dark, and have really good candling equipment. Some experience helps too. The darker the eggs or the worse your technique the harder that is.

I use a flashlight and just hold it up to the eggs, I don't have a good candler. Especially with my darker green eggs I can't really see much at 7 days and even at 18 days I'm mostly looking for clear or is it dark with a clear air cell. I can't see any better detail than that. With white or light brown eggs I can see chicks moving and good detail.