Humidity Obsessed

[Roxannemc]

I'm with ya there. I used to have 0 hygrometers, I now have 4! None of it still makes since to me. I have 2 digital and 2 analog. of course they are just cheap ones. I calibrated them with the salt per instructions i've found on here. my temps in the room upstairs was 78 degrees over night. I wrote down all the readings for each. The next day I put the same bag in the incubator that was set at 99 degrees with the same salt mixture for 12 hours. none of the readings were the same or close to the same % that they were off from over night in the 78 degree temp. Then I took them out of the bag and just layed them in the incubator with no water in incubator. All were off again the ones that I had to add like 5 was now reading higher then the ones that I had to subtract to get the 75% from the first time.
example: hygrometers
#1analog in bag at 78 degrees 68%, in bag in incubator at 99 degrees 60%, incubator no bag of salt 25%
#2 digital 78% in 78 degrees, 57% in 99 degrees, i.n.salt just read low
#3 digital 70% in 78 degrees, 66% in 99 degrees, ins 16%
#4 analog 69% in 78 degrees, 69% in 99 degrees, lower than 0 in ins

So which one would you go by? I'm not sure!

I think I may be over thinking this. My incubator is the syrofoam hovabator forced air and it's in my basement but it's a little drier than normal here, no rain, no snow and my heat is on although I have the vent closed to the room it's been about 68 degrees in that room and I keep the door closed.

I'm not positive but I think I'm getting obsessed with this humidity thing and it's driving me crazy that I can't figure it out. It seemed so easy when I first read about hygrometers

Yeah over thinkiing it.......PPl set their humidity at all KINDS of percents from 15-50 . first 18 days I wouldnt freak over it at all.
All your readings seem to me to be within a few % so ....dont worry!
They are all generally a little high though 50 is about as high as you should get first 18 days BUT yo u seem to have some with veins so they are live!
...
This isnt rocket science A HEN hatches EGGS! Are the eggs the same humidity when she gets off the eggs? Does she calibrate her body whene she moves around ?Is each hen withoibn a % in any ambient air Only thing i would do now is make sure it isnt too low at the end..... last 4 days the 68- ish would be GOOD then.
.That is when they can shrink if too low and drowned they say if too high so keep it at 65 -70 ish and dont open unless you have an emergency and IF so...Add extra water to up your humidity to 70-75 if you are going to take a chick out. You dont want to drop below 60-65 when you take one out.i wait uintil there is a few and get tyhrem all at once once i get the humidity to 75 ot 76 then i move them ifthey are dry...
Better to leave it in for a day though if other eggs have pipped but not hatched.They can go 2 days with no food or water( I like one day though myself to be safe. )

 

[3Dchicken]

Yeah over thinkiing it.......PPl set their humidity at all KINDS of percents from 15-50 . first 18 days I wouldnt freak over it at all.
All your readings seem to me to be within a few % so ....dont worry!
They are all generally a little high though 50 is about as high as you should get first 18 days BUT yo u seem to have some with veins so they are live!
...
This isnt rocket science A HEN hatches EGGS! Are the eggs the same humidity when she gets off the eggs? Does she calibrate her body whene she moves around ?Is each hen withoibn a % in any ambient air Only thing i would do now is make sure it isnt too low at the end..... last 4 days the 68- ish would be GOOD then.
.That is when they can shrink if too low and drowned they say if too high so keep it at 65 -70 ish and dont open unless you have an emergency and IF so...Add extra water to up your humidity to 70-75 if you are going to take a chick out. You dont want to drop below 60-65 when you take one out.i wait uintil there is a few and get tyhrem all at once once i get the humidity to 75 ot 76 then i move them ifthey are dry...
Better to leave it in for a day though if other eggs have pipped but not hatched.They can go 2 days with no food or water( I like one day though myself to be safe. )

 

[nok13]

thanx for all the comments. well, i think saturday we will do an egg check; husband will devise a real candling device and i will try to photo them... the poster with that daily photo picture is great ,i will try to print it out somewhere to use to compare with...
the hygrometer is digital but only just ... actually ive used dry bulb wet bulb thermometers in lab set ups when i was in quality control in our windshield factory, and it always involved equations but i cant remember all of them...
at any rate, getting any room in this house (actually an apartment) to 70 faranheit wont happen as it is 20 celsius at the moment with the radiator heater going, and i am sitting with long shirt and fleece pullover... these houses were not built with insulation or cold in mind. as far as humidity, i have no control over the matter , according to the hygrometer near the computer it is 52 percent, most likely as i am breathing near it since it is always dry here compared to the coastal areas here.
so obviusly for all th stupid mistakes we did, hubby also put in more eggs last week, so they are at a different level of development then the first set...
nuther lesson learned. tomorrow after checking incubator, we will check state of nest of eggs at coop; if the hen is brooding, she will be left to it. if not, we will take upthe eggs, will attempt to store them properly and then will start all over again using incubators' 101 from here. and i wil be more scientific.

jsut goes to show: i sow seeds in rows and mark things off. he broadcasts seeds, and then once they're up, he weeds when he can recognize each plant. i measure out the water and compost, he over waters (as all my neighbhors sharp tongued point out) and tends to go by 'more is better' with fertilizers. i cook by measurement, he just tosses stuff in (and it usually tastes better in thai food, but not so good in cakes). i follow directions. he doesnt bother to read them at all (cant read either hebrew or english anyhow, but wouldnt read them in thai either). i ask our engineer neighbor for technical help, he takes things apart and then tries to reassemble.

sound familiar to anyone?
bina

 

[loves2hatch]

So which one didn't hatch? I want to guess # 18 the one that lost the most weight or # 8 that lost the least? I am really curious. I really want to know the ending to this experiment you had an exellent hatch rate but I still would like to know which one it was that didn't hatch.

Glad you and the eggs made it to Philippiness, hope the weather starts cooperating better for your hatch.

ozexpat I found your other thread that you started and seen it was # 8. I will be following that thread to see what happens with the high humidity your having to see if it makes a big difference or not.
For some reason even though I'm subscribe to these threads it never sends me an email anymore whenever someone post on it. I have them marked as notifiy immediately.

 

[loves2hatch]

Yes, I know I am over thinking it! I'm definitley Humidity obsessed right now.
I am one of those that when I first started incubating I threw the eggs in the incubator and filled up one resevoir in the bottom during the incubation, both during lockdownand temp kept around 100 and the first few hatches was like 75%. I Didn't candle I didn't do anything but what the instructions from the incubator said. Then my hatches started dropping to 50% and a couple really bad hatches with big chicks that died right after fulling hatching in the incubator.
I found BYC and am now obsessed with things that I read and can experiment with. I also now have a water wiggler with a digital therm to measure temp and before only used the thermometer that came with the incubator. so NOW when I start my incubator before eggs I have like 5 thermometers and 4 hygrometers in there to test.
I only hatch for fun and give everything I hatch away or trade for other things like homemade pies, bread, fresh jams, veggies or more eggs to hatch. So all my incubation is for fun and I love to candle and weigh, chart and see the progress of the eggs to chicks. I don't think I will attempt making my own incubator but if I would have found BYC before I bought my first incubator I would have probably tried and been obsessed over that too! LOL

I really need to move to a farm but who knows what my next obsession would be if I did that! I think I'm better off where I live.

 

[3Dchicken]

thanx for all the comments. well, i think saturday we will do an egg check; husband will devise a real candling device and i will try to photo them... the poster with that daily photo picture is great ,i will try to print it out somewhere to use to compare with...
the hygrometer is digital but only just ... actually ive used dry bulb wet bulb thermometers in lab set ups when i was in quality control in our windshield factory, and it always involved equations but i cant remember all of them...
at any rate, getting any room in this house (actually an apartment) to 70 faranheit wont happen as it is 20 celsius at the moment with the radiator heater going, and i am sitting with long shirt and fleece pullover... these houses were not built with insulation or cold in mind. as far as humidity, i have no control over the matter , according to the hygrometer near the computer it is 52 percent, most likely as i am breathing near it since it is always dry here compared to the coastal areas here.
so obviusly for all th stupid mistakes we did, hubby also put in more eggs last week, so they are at a different level of development then the first set...
nuther lesson learned. tomorrow after checking incubator, we will check state of nest of eggs at coop; if the hen is brooding, she will be left to it. if not, we will take upthe eggs, will attempt to store them properly and then will start all over again using incubators' 101 from here. and i wil be more scientific.

jsut goes to show: i sow seeds in rows and mark things off. he broadcasts seeds, and then once they're up, he weeds when he can recognize each plant. i measure out the water and compost, he over waters (as all my neighbhors sharp tongued point out) and tends to go by 'more is better' with fertilizers. i cook by measurement, he just tosses stuff in (and it usually tastes better in thai food, but not so good in cakes). i follow directions. he doesnt bother to read them at all (cant read either hebrew or english anyhow, but wouldnt read them in thai either). i ask our engineer neighbor for technical help, he takes things apart and then tries to reassemble.

sound familiar to anyone?
bina

You don't need a "proper" candler. All you need is a flashlight in a dark room! Nothing else- that's all I've used! (An LED one is MUCH better than any other though) So if you have a flashlight, (and it turns to night where you live) you can candle your eggs!!!

 

[3Dchicken]

Yes, I know I am over thinking it! I'm definitley Humidity obsessed right now.
I am one of those that when I first started incubating I threw the eggs in the incubator and filled up one resevoir in the bottom during the incubation, both during lockdownand temp kept around 100 and the first few hatches was like 75%. I Didn't candle I didn't do anything but what the instructions from the incubator said. Then my hatches started dropping to 50% and a couple really bad hatches with big chicks that died right after fulling hatching in the incubator.
I found BYC and am now obsessed with things that I read and can experiment with. I also now have a water wiggler with a digital therm to measure temp and before only used the thermometer that came with the incubator. so NOW when I start my incubator before eggs I have like 5 thermometers and 4 hygrometers in there to test.
I only hatch for fun and give everything I hatch away or trade for other things like homemade pies, bread, fresh jams, veggies or more eggs to hatch. So all my incubation is for fun and I love to candle and weigh, chart and see the progress of the eggs to chicks. I don't think I will attempt making my own incubator but if I would have found BYC before I bought my first incubator I would have probably tried and been obsessed over that too! LOL

I really need to move to a farm but who knows what my next obsession would be if I did that! I think I'm better off where I live.

True!!!!! LOL

I didn't pay too much attention to humidity when I incubated and I didn't weigh the eggs.

Maybe that's why my hatch was so bad XDD

 

[ozexpat]

ozexpat I found your other thread that you started and seen it was # 8. I will be following that thread to see what happens with the high humidity your having to see if it makes a big difference or not.
For some reason even though I'm subscribe to these threads it never sends me an email anymore whenever someone post on it. I have them marked as notifiy immediately. 

Hi.
Thanks.
I have more to post but my connection is running 7 to 10 kb/s using my cell phone. I set my eggs during a typhoon. Its day 4 and the humidity dropped to 48 in my bators.
I? Ill post more when I get into town

 

[nok13]

we candled with an LED flashlight but it was really difficult cause its a small light... hubby thinks he felt a sort of 'clink' of movement in one dark egg, but could be wish ful thinking. anyhow after all this finally he has two hens setting on their eggs so after this batch , i will have to borrow or buy eggs since my personal hens are roosterless... some i may add a small mini mini coop under the big coop, just for quails, but will have to make it very predator tight. quite possibly there will be other hens laying soon also that i can try to hatch. i could also buy eggs for hatching but not sure what to do if the young ones turn out to be males.. unless i pen them separately inside husband's thai fighting chicken coop (small fancy chickens wont ahve a chance, but also he doesnt want mixes)... but that is counting eggs before they've hatched... a saying that has never been more applicable then now...

 

[3Dchicken]

we candled with an LED flashlight but it was really difficult cause its a small light... hubby thinks he felt a sort of 'clink' of movement in one dark egg, but could be wish ful thinking. anyhow after all this finally he has two hens setting on their eggs so after this batch , i will have to borrow or buy eggs since my personal hens are roosterless... some i may add a small mini mini coop under the big coop, just for quails, but will have to make it very predator tight. quite possibly there will be other hens laying soon also that i can try to hatch. i could also buy eggs for hatching but not sure what to do if the young ones turn out to be males.. unless i pen them separately inside husband's thai fighting chicken coop (small fancy chickens wont ahve a chance, but also he doesnt want mixes)... but that is counting eggs before they've hatched... a saying that has never been more applicable then now...

I don't know what the clink sound would have been... Maybe you should keep a few roosters so that you can breed them with the hens and always have eggs to incubate! (Not that a sane person who didn't own a hatchery would always be hatching eggs. lol)