Humidity Help

[champers44]

So I just started incubating some eggs (I'm a first timer at this) and I had to leave for a few days to go to a dairy show. I put some sponges in the incubator to make sure they had a good amount of humidity while I was away for a couple of days. Is it ok if the humidity was at 65% instead of 55% for those days. The reason I raised it is because days prior to this the humidity would drop 3%-5% everyday and I wanted to have the humidity a little higher rather than lower..will this affect the eggs at all? They have been in there for about 3 days prior to me leaving for the trip.

(Also, the temperature should've been fine..the incubator was keeping it at a steady 99-100.5 degrees)

 

[Bailey1204]

Well, if it was only for a few days it should be okay. Just be sure to get the humidity down right away. And maybe give them a slightly longer cool-off time the day you come back. If it's early in development it shouldn't be too bad just don't do it after 2 weeks of incubation. If anything you'll probably just have a slightly lower hatch. Good Luck!
-Bailey1204

 

[AmyLynn2374]

So I just started incubating some eggs (I'm a first timer at this) and I had to leave for a few days to go to a dairy show. I put some sponges in the incubator to make sure they had a good amount of humidity while I was away for a couple of days. Is it ok if the humidity was at 65% instead of 55% for those days. The reason I raised it is because days prior to this the humidity would drop 3%-5% everyday and I wanted to have the humidity a little higher rather than lower..will this affect the eggs at all? They have been in there for about 3 days prior to me leaving for the trip.

(Also, the temperature should've been fine..the incubator was keeping it at a steady 99-100.5 degrees)

The humidity counts the most overall as an average during the incubation. If for two or three days, the humidity was too high and not enough moisture was lost you can correct this by running lower humidity until the air cells are where they need to be. First thing I would do is check the air cells and see where they are for what day you are on and let them guide you. If you need help with this there is a good chart and explanation here: http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity

 

[Egghead_Jr]

So I just started incubating some eggs...
Is it ok if the humidity was at 65% instead of 55% for those days.

Why did you decide to incubate at 55%?

I like the link that Amylynn posted. As suggested there and most places here on BYC incubation at lower humidity of around 35% usually have better success. The last few days of incubation, "hatching" humidity people run anywhere from 60% to 80%. My preference use to be 60-65 but in that I'm not always there to let out moisture while it spikes as they pip and zip found it better to not let it go under 70% during hatching. I get these numbers from my own trials and errors over the years. Using the air sac growth chart have come to 30-35% RH gets reliable replication of charts.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Why did you decide to incubate at 55%?

I like the link that Amylynn posted. As suggested there and most places here on BYC incubation at lower humidity of around 35% usually have better success. The last few days of incubation, "hatching" humidity people run anywhere from 60% to 80%. My preference use to be 60-65 but in that I'm not always there to let out moisture while it spikes as they pip and zip found it better to not let it go under 70% during hatching. I get these numbers from my own trials and errors over the years. Using the air sac growth chart have come to 30-35% RH gets reliable replication of charts.

I did learn to include that people in high elevations do generally need a higher humidity, but other than that, I am all for the low humidity methods. I shoot for 30%. Usually in spring summer I have no probelm achieving that dry, but if I do a late fall hatch I have to add a wet sponge to hold it at 30%. It is definitely my "magic" number. I am a meddler so I raise it at least 75% for hatch. I honestly feel that if you are monitoring the air cells, that's where you are going to find success. You have a perfect guidline right there in front of you to show you what it needs.