How to keep my humidity in my chicken incubator down:

[chickgirl101]

Help!
I am hatching baby chicks and quails!
The heat won't stay down.
I don't know what to do except stay up all night and make adjustments to the incubator.
I don't want to stay up all night doing this,
They hatch in 18 days.
Please help!

I NEED IT SO BAD!

I don't want to mess them up!
Thank you,
Chickengirl101
Quote:

 

[countrygoddess]

Hi! So is it the heat or the humidity that won't stay down? If it's heat and the humidity is lowish, then adding a bit more water can bring the heat down as the humidity goes up. If it's the humidity that is too high, then use sponges instead of putting water in the channels.

I found that any water in the channels of my incubators (I have a Genesis and a Little Giant) brought the humidity up too high. I don't use them at all anymore. I just use sponges and I poked holes in the side of the incubators over where the sponges are (I use 1 sponge cut in half in each incubator) and then put shortish lengths of aquarium tubing through, then attached oral medication syringes to the tubing. To wet the sponges, all I had to do was push water from the syringes through and onto the sponges. They dry out every day and have to be rewetted, but it really helped to keep the humidity right where I wanted it.

 

[MargaretAnneHK]

I have a Farm Innovators incubator. What I have found is I only had to add a teaspoon of water at the beginning and the humidity was still plenty high. I just let it go down to 40 percent and didn't add any water as long as it was between 35 percent and 40 percent, which rarely happened.
As far as heat, I am in the same boat by always having to keep an eye on it. I check it every time I turn eggs.(dont have an automatic turner) It is said to have the incubator in a room that is the same temperature all the time, it's easier to regulate the thermometer then. I have noticed with my ac when it has been terribly hot, I have had to turn the thermostat up but then when I have to have less ac, it needs to be regulated back down.

 

[countrygoddess]

I have noticed with my ac when it has been terribly hot, I have had to turn the thermostat up but then when I have to have less ac, it needs to be regulated back down.

Well, that stands to reason. Sounds like you're doing what you need to do to keep things on an even keel. Good luck!

 

[MelissaBA]

I'm having issues with my humidity level as well. When I put water in the wells, it got to high. I took the water out and put in a sponge like suggested and it still was to high, so I cut the sponge and still to high, took the sponge out, now it is to low...I'm going crazy!!! HELP!!!

 

[darkbluespace]

This is an old thread, but what humidity are you aiming for? What is too low? Many of us are dry incubating with good success. With just my eggs and no water in the bator the humidity is around 30% and hatches are going well.

 

[MelissaBA]

My "instructions" that came with the incubator say 55%-60% and mine keeps going down to 40% with no water, but with any water it goes well above 60% and sometimes 70%....???

 

[birdman55]

its day 21 and one chick externally piped at nine this morning..ranges in temp go from 95 thru 101...and humidity 30 thru 45...right now its 35..and keeping...anyways...if you look into ebay and look up 12 volt dc digital thermostat you can cut your power supply put it a inverter and hang the temp monitor right by the eggs it will turn on and off very fast keeping a very constant temp...also if you chicken lovers want to make your own incubator as i did...you can use a hydrostat and a fogger...can by online for about thirty bucks and it will also keep the humidity to whatever you set it at...also the dc digital thermostat you by from ebay will be between 5 and 12 dollars with free shipping....good luck....if have any questions about wiring or which to get just pm me and we can chat....

 

[darkbluespace]

My "instructions" that came with the incubator say 55%-60% and mine keeps going down to 40% with no water, but with any water it goes well above 60% and sometimes 70%....???

Are you are on your last few days?? Sixty percent is good for lockdown, you might try a combination of wet sponges to get it where you want it. If you are incubating then I would definitely go with the 40% or less humidity!

 

[darkbluespace]

If you are on lockdown and you can keep it at 70, that would probably be better than 40... I wouldn't worry too much about it being perfect : )