humidity during hatching problem

madi99

Songster
7 Years
May 13, 2012
283
3
103
Long Island, New York
my chicks started hatching sometime yesterday, day 20. when i went to bed last night the humidity was really high, like condensation on the windows high, so i removed the vent plug and went to bed. When i woke up this morning the humidity was all the way down to 53%!!! is this going to affect the rest of my pipped eggs?
 
I don't have the vent plug in while they are hatching. It depends in your incubator, but the chicks and eggs need the oxygen so they can breathe. With a forced air it is not as critical, but with a still air especially, it can be. I up the humidity by adding water in different water reservoirs.

It is hard to say if that is a problem for you or not. Just because something can happen does not mean that it absolutely, every time, without a shadow of a doubt will happen. You can shrink-wrap chicks by having low humidity when they pip. I've done it by opening the incubator to take care of a problem. But I've also not shrink-wrapped chicks when I open the incubator. It does not happen every time.

That humidity is lower than I'd like. If you can, I'd suggest adding more water surface area to increase the humidity. If you have extra water reservoirs, you might use something like this to go in through a vent hole to add water.



If you don't have any accessible reservoirs, you may need to take the chance of opening it to add water. If you can take it to the bathroom, close the door, and turn on the hot water to steam up the bathroom, you have less chance of drying them out.

Another thing. That seems like a huge drop just from opening a vent plug. Are you sure your water reservoir hasn't run dry?
 
You can add water though the vent holes with a turkey injector (spelling doesn't count) and a straw. Good luck
 

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