How Important Is Knowing/Checking The Humidity?

[Mahlzeit]

Ok I just bought a new incubator the Hova-bator 1588. I just stuck my first set of eggs inside of it. For the past couple of years I have been using a brinsea octagon 10 for my hatches. Now I never had or used a hygrometer. I just kept those two little troughs in there full of water and never had a problem with hatches. The booklet that came with my new incubator said to keep the inner groove filled with water during the first 18 days and then filling both the outer and inner for the last 3. I guess my question is do I need to buy a hygrometer and keep a close eye on the humidity? Or is it not really as important as some people make it out to be? Again I never had a problem with the humidity in my other bator and never checked it. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

[kyeschicks]

Well it is really important because when you have to raise the humidity you need to know how much humidity you are putting. If you have the humidity really high the chicks can drown and die. The best idea is to buy a hygrometer and know if the humidity is high. But if you have the humidity low the chicks can still hatch but they might come with some really bad deformities.

 

[bigmike&nan]

Sounds to me like what worked for you with the Brinsea would work in your 1588...

I am beginning to think that a cheap humidity gauge works ok enough for our purposes. I took one out of my cabinet cigar humidor and it's helping. About every 5 days I top up the channel in my Brinsea and close the thing right back up.

 

[Mahlzeit]

Thanks for the responses.