Humidity Question

[BaileyMChicks]

Hi. I am hatching out chicks in a brinsea mini eco incubator, and This is my third time hatching. I has been very humid and rainy where I live, and I'm worried my humidity is too high. The first 2 hatches I did, I kept it at 30-40% humidity, and that seemed to be perfect... But now I can't get it below 45 for this hatch...I have NO water in the bator, and a water bottle cap filled with dry rice, but nothing will bring the humidity down...I'm worried that the chicks will drown...Any tips to get the humidity down? Would adding a piece of dry sponge help? Putting a fan in the room? We don't have a dehumidifier for the part of the house they are in...I'm just really worried...

 

[Rod-T]

Hi.  I am hatching out chicks in a brinsea mini eco incubator, and This is my third time hatching.  I has been very humid and rainy where I live, and I'm worried my humidity is too high.  The first 2 hatches I did, I kept it at 30-40% humidity, and that seemed to be perfect...  But now I can't get it below 45 for this hatch...I have NO water in the bator, and a water bottle cap filled with dry rice, but nothing will bring the humidity down...I'm worried that the chicks will drown...Any tips to get the humidity down?  Would adding a piece of dry sponge help?  Putting a fan in the room?  We don't have a dehumidifier for the part of the house they are in...I'm just really worried... 

45 isn't bad... I run 45 first 18 days.. 70 last 3.. I wouldn't worry... you might check for accuracy. . Some times the gauge can be off

 

[n8ivetxn]

What day are you on?

You might try something a little bigger than a water bottle cap, or maybe even place a small stack of saltine crackers in there to absorb moisture.

Have you calibrated your hygrometer, just to see how accurate it really is? I have 2 in my bator and when I calibrated, one was close to correct, but the other was off significantly....

 

[BaileyMChicks]

What day are you on?

You might try something a little bigger than a water bottle cap, or maybe even place a small stack of saltine crackers in there to absorb moisture.

Have you calibrated your hygrometer, just to see how accurate it really is? I have 2 in my bator and when I calibrated, one was close to correct, but the other was off significantly....

The thing about the day is complicated...So, basically I got a bunch of D'Uccles from a breeder, and they hadn't collected eggs for a week, and one of the hens was sitting on 4 eggs, and 2 had embryos. One is about day 10, and the other is about day 8. I also have 5 silkie eggs and 2 backyard mix eggs in there as well. They are all on day 5 today, but I got the silkie eggs from the breeder. They have a pen of young silkies, and hadn't been collecting eggs, and they gave me some to hatch for free. i think they got too cold because none of the five are developing, and I cracked open the other three I couldn't fit in my incubator, and at least 2 were fertile, and I wasn't sure on the third one. So maybe the eggs froze. Some of the other silkie pullet eggs she brought in had detached air cells. I can't tell if my 'backyard mix' eggs are developing, because they are really dark. I'm hoping that they hatch out though, because the pullet that laid them had to be put down...I'm going to take the silkie eggs out on day 7, just to be sure, but I think nothing is going to happen.

At the moment I don't think I have enough room for anything bigger. I might be able to add a few more though.

I haven't calibrated it, but it's also a thermometer, and the reading for the thermometer is the same as my house one when just set out on the table, so I think it's ok. Plus, it worked the last 2 times I hatched. The first time, I screwed up because of temperature, but the second time, I only had one quitter, and everyone else who made it to lockdown hatched completely fine with no complications, so even if it isn't completely accurate, I think it's working at the percent I like to keep it at( which, on my hydrometer is 30-40%, but no higher or lower).

Do you think 41-49 is too high? The lowest I got it to was 41, and the highest it's been is 49...

 

[n8ivetxn]

Everybody seems to have a different idea about ideal humidity....I'm new at this, but the reasoning behind dry hatch method makes sense to me: when an egg is laid, it has a lot of excess fluid. As it ages, it loses moisture through evaporation. This creates a larger breathing space for the chick, when it pips. Your aim should be to create a nice breathing space for the chick, without drying the membrane. So, in the beginning of incubation, you want to keep a nice low range, to draw down moisture (I'm using 27 - 35%), then at lockdown, you want to increase the moisture so the chick can unzip and get out easily (I'm going to shoot for 65-70%).

So, to answer your question - 41 is about as high as I would go, I think you'd get a better hatch at 35%.... However, your method seems to work previously... there's no "right way" method to hatch..

I think you're going to be fine, I think!!

 

[BaileyMChicks]

Everybody seems to have a different idea about ideal humidity....I'm new at this, but the reasoning behind dry hatch method makes sense to me: when an egg is laid, it has a lot of excess fluid. As it ages, it loses moisture through evaporation. This creates a larger breathing space for the chick, when it pips. Your aim should be to create a nice breathing space for the chick, without drying the membrane. So, in the beginning of incubation, you want to keep a nice low range, to draw down moisture (I'm using 27 - 35%), then at lockdown, you want to increase the moisture so the chick can unzip and get out easily (I'm going to shoot for 65-70%).

So, to answer your question - 41 is about as high as I would go, I think you'd get a better hatch at 35%.... However, your method seems to work previously... there's no "right way" method to hatch..

I think you're going to be fine, I think!!

Thanks for the encouragement! Yeah, I think the dry hatch method is the smartest. That's the only thing I've ever done(hatching wise). I didn't even read the manual for my incubator, except to figure out the basics of how it worked. Never went by the recommended humidity.

And I agree that 35% would be more preferable, but I just can't get the humidity down and it's kind of stressing me out. And what i normally do for humidity is keep it around 30%-40%, but 40 is the highest I'll ever let it be. But for this hatch, it's just been too humid and rainy out where I live...And the lowest it's been is 41%. I have no water in there, and I'm going to add more water bottle caps filled with dry rice, and see if that helps anything...I hope everything will be fine.

And I'm also still a newbie at hatching in an incubator. But I read up a lot. I keep my humidity at lockdown at 65-75%, but sometimes I let it get up to 80%...I never use the water wells. I just add wet sponges. The only time I use the wells is if I want my humidity to go up during incubation. So, say I'm running the incubator the day before I put the eggs in, and it's at 20% humidity. I'll add water to the well to get it up to 30-35%, but during hatch I can't get it up high enough just using the wells, so I just leave them alone completely and use pieces of wet sponge.

 

[n8ivetxn]

I don't think I'd stress out too much, if I were you...you seem to have a good handle on hatching. I read up a lot too, I hate to start something without having some understanding of how the process is supposed to work.

Yeah, it's amazing how the weather can impact what goes on inside the bator. I notice in the evening my temps in the bator get out of whack for a bit when the outside temps start to fall. But it corrects itself later in the evening.

I used wet sponges to begin with, but then had to add a small well. Tomorrow is lockdown, and I'll add a second small well with a sponge to get the humidity up to 70%. My understanding is that, during hatch it doesn't matter how high it gets, there's a lot of fluctuation due to the chicks hatching and changing their own micro-climate.... that's interesting, I can totally see how that would happen, but I wouldn't have thought of it on my own....

Happy Hatching!