Humidity dropped low on day 20 should I be worried?

[whispah]

Hi everyone. I was gone 8 hours today, checked the humidity before I left and it was 63. Checked the reservoir, all good but when I got home the humidity was down to 47. No pipping yet. Should i be concerned? Yes i did raise the humidity back up but wonder if they will be okay for those few hours at low humidity at the tail end of day 20?

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi!

What are you hatching?

If chicks, humidity is an average, so if that happened any other day prior, no big deal. Day 20 meaning they're due tomorrow and should have humidity to around 70% or 63 is fine too. Hopefully, none were trying to hatch early and still will be okay.

 

[CalgaryFarmer]

Personally, I am not too concerned about a drop in humidity if none of the eggs have started pipping. Once they start pipping then a drop in humidity can cause problems fairly quickly.

 

[whispah]

Hi everyone. I was gone 8 hours today, checked the humidity before I left and it was 63. Checked the reservoir, all good but when I got home the humidity was down to 47. No pipping yet. Should i be concerned? Yes i did raise the humidity back up but wonder if they will be okay for those few hours at low humidity at the tail end of day 20?

Hi!

What are you hatching?

If chicks, humidity is an average, so if that happened any other day prior, no big deal. Day 20 meaning they're due tomorrow and should have humidity to around 70% or 63 is fine too. Hopefully, none were trying to hatch early and still will be okay.

Thank you!

 

[whispah]

Hi!

What are you hatching?

If chicks, humidity is an average, so if that happened any other day prior, no big deal. Day 20 meaning they're due tomorrow and should have humidity to around 70% or 63 is fine too. Hopefully, none were trying to hatch early and still will be okay.

Thanks so much

 

[whispah]

Thank you all I feel better now. First time this happened in the 3 years Ive been doing this and I didnt know what to expect. Hopefully a few hours wouldnt matter much

 

[whispah]

Personally, I am not too concerned about a drop in humidity if none of the eggs have started pipping. Once they start pipping then a drop in humidity can cause problems fairly quickly.

Thank you

 

[Ridgerunner]

What is important about humidity during the incubation phase is that it controls the total amount of fluid lost throughout incubation through the porous shell. Your criteria is the total volume of fluid lost, not a specific humidity at a specific time. That's why we look at averages.

During hatch that changes. They still lose moisture through the porous shell but the reason we raise humidity is to avoid shrink wrap. Shrink wrap is when the membrane around the egg dries out and shrinks, wrapping the chick so tightly that it cannot move to hatch. After they pip is the danger zone. The membrane is exposed and if the humidity is low it can dry out and shrink.

Shrink wrap is still fairly rare even if you open the incubator and let moisture out after some eggs have pipped. Some people deny it can even happen or they may deny that reduced humidity during hatch is a cause. I've seen it and believe it can possibly happen.

If I have an emergency inside my incubator during a hatch I'll open it to handle the emergency and take my chances with shrink wrap. An example: An egg had a half eggshell from a previous chick slip over that egg so the chick would have a hard time pipping and zipping. So I opened the incubator to take care of that. None shrink wrapped that time. But I consider it good practice to not open the incubator until the hatch is over, unless I have an emergency. The chicks absorb the yolk before they hatch if it goes right. They can live off of that yolk for over 72 hours without eating or drinking.

As long as none had pipped, I consider that no harm, no foul. You should be fine.

 

[casportpony]

Hi everyone. I was gone 8 hours today, checked the humidity before I left and it was 63. Checked the reservoir, all good but when I got home the humidity was down to 47. No pipping yet. Should i be concerned? Yes i did raise the humidity back up but wonder if they will be okay for those few hours at low humidity at the tail end of day 20?

Welcome to BYC! They will be fine.