humidity issues

[quailgal96]

For my senior project i am incubating quail eggs and raising them to their full size. I am now on my second batch of eggs and i have changed the location of my incubator to see if that would help keep the humidity levels stable , and have set a humidifier next to it also to see if that would help . i add fresh water as often as i can , as i am a full time High School student , and also have wash clothes filled with water in the corners of the incubator as well. even with all of this i am still having issues with the humidity , the highest it has been is 25 . what can i do? ( there is also a towel under it ) please help , my graduation counts on it .

 

[TwoCrows]

Hi there and welcome to BYC!

The easiest thing you can do to raise humidity in the incubator is put damp sponges inside the incubator. You are probably loosing heat and moisture somewhere if you are having trouble with keeping the humidity up. Does this incubator have vents you can open and close? If it does, you might want to close one of them until lock down and then you can re open it. Vents always need to be open at lock down and hatch. Try the sponge thing. Take a brand new kitchen sponge and depending how big your incubator is, cut a few to size to fit. Drench them down and give them a light squeeze. You don't want to put them in dripping wet, but not completely wrung out either. Add more sponges or take them away depending on the level of humidity. If you can get it up to 45% or 50%, this is perfect. At lock down you will need to get it up to 65% or 70%.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[quailgal96]

There are multiple open holes on the top of my incubator ,so i will close them and then open them at lock down . Thank you so much , you have helped me immensely .I will definitely come back here if i have more questions.

 

[TwoCrows]

There are multiple open holes on the top of my incubator ,so i will close them and then open them at lock down . Thank you so much , you have helped me immensely .I will definitely come back here if i have more questions.

Don't close all of them as you need oxygen to come into the bator. The growing embryo's need oxygen at all times. But you can close half of them and see what happens. Reopen all of them at lock down.

 

[TwoCrows]

Oh, and watch your heat as well as it will probably go up when you close the holes.

 

[quailgal96]

what does the humidity have to be at ? and what is the incubation period? the instructions i have been using are not very clear and i would like some more clarity.

 

[TwoCrows]

What breed of quail are you hatching??

The incubation period and lock down day is different with each species. Also the humidity and temp can vary as well.