humidity issues, Please help!

[firedove]

Here is the deal. Today is day 20 for my eggs. Yesterday I checked the humidity for the bator in the early am and it was holding at 45% so I cranked up the bottle a couple of turns to increase the humidity and took out the digital hygrometer since it has to sit on top of the eggs and I didn't want to have it hurt their chances on hatching. Last night I woke up at 2:30am with a bad feeling, I checked the bator and noticed condensation on the bator and thought maybe they were hatching, but alas no pips. I put the hygrometer back in and discovered that the humidity had spiked to 98%!!! I removed the bottle from the side of the bator and carefully took out all the eggs, lifted the grate and dried out some of the water cells. After that I got the eggs back in the bator and waited. It took quite a while for the temp to come back up into the 90s (it had fallen to 86 while it was open). Now the temp is holding at 100.9 and the humidity is down to 56%.

So the question is, should I let the humidity drop more to hopefully correct any problems the high humidity may have caused, or do I keep it steady and pray for the best?

Also the 10 minutes or so that they were cooler, would that kill them?

 

[shelleyd2008]

Letting it dry out now will only harm them more. I doubt the high humidity would have done that much damage, if any. And no, the lower temps would not kill them. I just yesterday rescued some eggs that a hen had left in the nest. They were cool to the touch, and one of the eggs was pipped. That baby hatched last night.

Cooler temps don't affect them as badly as temps that are too hot