How does humidity affect chicken egg incubation?

[ladybugx]

Hi, I’m hatching some chicken eggs and I’m just curious as to exactly how different humidity levels affect the eggs during incubation. I know what the proper levels are I am just curious as to what exactly higher and lower levels do to the developing embryo during incubation.

Thank you!

 

[Cheekychook12]

Hi, I’m hatching some chicken eggs and I’m just curious as to exactly how different humidity levels affect the eggs during incubation. I know what the proper levels are I am just curious as to what exactly higher and lower levels do to the developing embryo during incubation.

Thank you!

There is a good article on that I’ll try to find the link
Just by the way your title says humanity instead of humidity

 

[DemeterAD9]

From my understanding it effects how quickly the eggs loose weight aka how fast/big the air cell grows. There is an ideal % of how much weight an egg should lose before hatching but I don’t know it off the top of my head. High humidity results in less weight loss/larger air cell and low humidity is the reverse. A bigger air cell restricts how much room there is for the chick to grow, generally IMO it’s better to have a bigger air cell than a smaller one as an oversized chick may have a harder time getting into position for hatching.

Of course there is also the lock down part of incubation where it is best to have high humidify to prevent the membranes from drying out as the chicks hatch.

Really it seems like doing a “dry” hatch (not adding water to up humidity) is just fine for fresh eggs but if you are doing eggs that have sit out for a while and lost some weight/ have a bigger air cell then doing a wet hatch is preferable. Just my amateur 2 cents.

 

[ladybugx]

There is a good article on that I’ll try to find the link
Just by the way your title says humanity instead of humidity

Ohh, lol. Thanks. I fixed that.

 

[Island Coppers]

When candling the eggs, I found this to be helpful.

 

[Island Coppers]

High humidity results in less weight loss therefor a smaller air sac and low humidity a larger one.