Humidity Emergency!!

[GoldenChicks16]

Help my eggs are at two weeks and the humidity dropped to 40! I filled the slots up with water again and it's increasing back to 70.. Will my babies be okay?? First time hatching. I have 34 eggs in there.. Temp. Stayed at 89.5

 

[GoldenChicks16]

99.5

 

[sumi]

Have you been incubating them at 70% humidity? That's way high... Chicken, duck eggs etc should be incubated at 45-55% ideally, though you can go lower. Some more info here:

http://www.brinsea.com/customerservice/humidity.html

 

[GoldenChicks16]

The incubator I have them in, a lot of humidity escapes so I have to keep them at 50-70 percent humidity.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Actually your humidity is too high. If your going the route of filling the bottom water wells then only use the small one first 18 days then only the large or both last 3 days.

What many do is adjust humidity according to how much wieght loss the egg has. Weight loss is water loss and at high humidity there is no water loss. Instead of actually weighing the eggs you can candle a few and see the air cell. If the cell is too large you'd up your humidity some, if too small then lower it. Personally I'd soak up the water in your incubator now and let it run dry until day 18 then up the humidity to 60%. Without a large enough air cell the chicks will drown when they internally pip. Candle a few and see where your at.

 

[GoldenChicks16]

Can different incubators be set at different humidities..? The book that came with it told me to keep them between 50-70 percent humidity for chicken eggs and at 99.5 degrees farenhite. They've been developing nicely and I haven't lost an egg yet..

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Those that incubate at higher humidity would still only incubate first 18 days at 50% then more for last 3 days. Perhaps that is what is meant by 50-70%; poorly written short hand for 50% then 70%.

Seriously, candle and see how the air cell is developing. Judge from there. If your hygrometer isn't calibrated then there is no telling what your actual humidity is to begin with.

For calibrating do a search for "salt test".

 

[sumi]

There is quite a large room to play around in when it comes to humidity. Some prefer to "dry" incubate at around 25-30% and others, like myself incubate at 45-50%. The most important thing is that the air cell grows at the correct rate (see the chart posted above) and the egg loses the correct amount of moisture (±12%). I have seen some strange instructions come with incubators, one that comes to mind said to place the eggs upside down! So unless you are buying a reliable brand, like Brinsea, it's better to double check.

Candle a few of your eggs and mark the air cell line and show us how they are doing?

 

[GoldenChicks16]

Will do!