Humidity Help

[MrBoots]

I have hatched chickens for 5 year using the same incubators. Each year I don’t have a problem with the humidity. This year is different since I’m hatching them at my house instead of my classroom. I ran my incubators for the 6-8 hours before I put my eggs in and there was no issue with humidity or temperature. My incubator says to set the humidity level between 50-60 for 18 days. I put the eggs in at 2:30pm and the humidity spiked to high 65 to 70. I was able to get my one incubator to come down to 56 all day/night. The other incubator I had to remove some water with dry paper towels and took out a lot of the water. I got it to come down to 60 before I went to bed. I woke up at 4 am it was at 69. My question is with the humidity up that high for not even one day would it of harmed my hatch rate? I’m probably just freaking out due to this never happening to me before but I thought I’d put it out to some people.

 

[mdees88]

One day of high humidity won't hurt.

It also would be a good idea to get a separate thermometer/hygrometer that you can test and verify that the incubator's thermometer/hygrometer is accurate.

 

[MrBoots]

One day of high humidity won't hurt.

It also would be a good idea to get a separate thermometer/hygrometer that you can test and verify that the incubator's thermometer/hygrometer is accurate.

Thank you. I needed the reassurance.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

I used to incubate at 50% and I lost way too many chicks in eggs. They were so big and they would drown. I incubate at 20-30% now and my hatch rates have gone way up!

 

[mdees88]

The best thing you can do is weigh your eggs from start to lock down and see how much weight they're losing. I used to do 50% also with quail and i always had a few splayed legs or curled toes. Ive had much better luck around 35-40%. I have my humidity at 33% now and I'm right on track to lose 12% of weight which is what is recommended for quail. Never hatched chickens so don't know what they require...

 

[JaeG]

I second the weight loss method. It takes all the guess work out of humidity.

Weigh the eggs and work out the average (either weigh them all together and work out the average or weigh them individually then add each individual weight together and, again, work out the average). Plot that start point/weight on a graph marking days along the bottom, weight up the side (grams are more precise).

Work out what 14% (weigh loss for chicken eggs) of your initial average weight is, mark that on day 21 then draw a line between those two points. Then at any day of incubation you can weigh them and mark the average on that particular day, and if they deviate significantly you know you need to adjust your humidity.

I used to work out how much they should have lost every time I weighed them (which for chicken eggs is 0.6-0.7% per day of incubation so it gets a bit complicated) but this way is so much simpler. Even if eggs have to be removed it doesn't affect this method because you are taking the average weight which is based on the number of eggs you have.

Here's my current graph:

 

[MrBoots]

Thank you for the advice. All is good as far as humidity.

 

[MrBoots]

Just today I had a egg explode. I cleaned it up and had to quickly clean up incubator. I’m guessing there was a crack I didn’t see. Hopefully the rest of my eggs won’t be ruined due to this. Looking for advice on this situation.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

I second the weight loss method. It takes all the guess work out of humidity.

Weigh the eggs and work out the average (either weigh them all together and work out the average or weigh them individually then add each individual weight together and, again, work out the average). Plot that start point/weight on a graph marking days along the bottom, weight up the side (grams are more precise).

Work out what 14% (weigh loss for chicken eggs) of your initial average weight is, mark that on day 21 then draw a line between those two points. Then at any day of incubation you can weigh them and mark the average on that particular day, and if they deviate significantly you know you need to adjust your humidity.

I used to work out how much they should have lost every time I weighed them (which for chicken eggs is 0.6-0.7% per day of incubation so it gets a bit complicated) but this way is so much simpler. Even if eggs have to be removed it doesn't affect this method because you are taking the average weight which is based on the number of eggs you have.

Here's my current graph:
View attachment 2104005

Using your graph for my super dark marans and ameraucana eggs. Thanks, takes the guess work out!