How low can I go with humidity? Help!

[TedJan92_in_Idaho]

Just hatched some chicks. Some hatched some developed and didn't hatch. One ones that did were wet and sticky with extra fluid. I ran my humidity at 40% during incubation and it was 63 during lock down. How low can I go? Chicks that didn't hatch was so large they filled the egg.

 

[rebel yell]

Quote:
That sounds about right, I run mine around 65-70% the last few days & about 30-40% the first 17 days, maybe your hydrometer is off some, did you notice any more moisture than normel ?

 

[TedJan92_in_Idaho]

I was checking humidity with 3 different Cooper tools which all 3 ready exactly the same. There was enough moisture in the eggs to drown a few. Humidity outside the incubator was around 22%

 

[rebel yell]

I dont know, everything sounds right to me, Maybe someone elese can help out here, I would like to know myself, sory about your chicks.

 

[rarely bored]

I've let my humidity drop to as low as 20%, consider 40% to be ok for a day or two, but would not want the humidity to be that high for the first 18 days. My goal humidity is 25% to 30% for those 18 days. My hatches on fertile eggs are always good. From lockdown on I get the humidity as high as possible.

 

[yinepu]

the humidity in my home this summer was running around 23 - 26%.. so I incubated at 45% and raised it to the 70 - 80% range at lockdown.. no problems with drownings or bloated chicks..

having said that.. every home is different.. as is every incubator... what I can say for certain is that if you had chicks that were bloated and drownings.. your incubation humidity was too high

what you can do is either weigh the eggs at the beginning of your next incubation and take an average from the eggs.. then periodically weigh them throughout incubation to make sure that they lose 13% of their weight (that percentage will vary depending on type of birds.. parrots and waterfowl have different needs)

what I do I believe is easier.. I monitor the size of the air cells when I have a questionable humidity readings.. .. small air cells gives you bloated chicks .. very large air cells leaves you with tiny weak chicks.. either scenario isn't good
so to make sure the air cells are growing at the proper rate i check them and adjust the humidity as needed

 

[jmc]

in some ways it seems that monitoring of the air cell size is even more important than monitoring the humidity: a hygrometer may tell you the humidity you THINK you need, but when you read the air cell you may find that you need a different RH--even if it isn't what the 'recipes' call for.

air cell monitoring seems absolutely essential (perhaps in conjunction w/weighing periodically).............

 

[yinepu]

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yup.. i take into consideration the species of bird I am hatching.. the length of incubation.. air cell size.. relative humidity of the room where the incubator is and the humidity in the incubator itself.. then between figuring all of those factors I adjust the humidity as needed

 

[Gypsy07]

Personally I prefer weighing. Candling and monitoring air cells calls for a degree of interpretive skill which I'm just not too confident I actually possess!

Weighing is foolproof, even for extreme fools like me!

 

[yinepu]

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lol.. and weighing works great (assuming you don't suck at math like some of us do)...

I have weighed eggs before and I usually recommend it to people.. but since I am an insominac and not always have math skills at 2 AM when I am normally checking the eggs i go by air cell size instead of weighing..

for anyone who does want to try weighing may I suggest you have a really good gram scales on hand to check the weight.. going by ounces lost doesn't work nearly as well as going by grams of weight lost!