humidity question

[young budgie]

so i stated my first ever hatching on may 1st,and i am getting great info from this forum,but what still confuses me is the whole humidity hing, my temp in the hova bator is staying between 37.9 to 38.2 degrees which is in and around 100f, but im waiting on my new hygrometer from the us and as im in Ireland its taking a while, so how will i know is the humidity is ok or does it reall matter if the temp is right,
also if the temp is right but i need to raise or lower the humidity how is this done, any help will be greatly apprecaited, thanks as alway young budgie

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

WOW! You're in Ireland??? This site is sooo cool. I am not an expert for your question, however Iasked the same question a few days ago and some wonderful people here put excellent information on the thread, it's still on this page starting with humidity. I learned a lot really fast from what they put on there. What breed of chickens do you have in Ireland??

 

[young budgie]

well i have nearly 2 of a little mixture, i have
2 rhode island red
2 speckled sussex
2 maran
2 welsomer
2 white leghorn
2 buff sussex
6 different breed of bantam

im currently hatching but not counting before i hatch

12 buff sussex
6 brown sussex
6 blue/brown cochin
6 red mottled leghorn
6 yokahama bantan
6 dutch bantam

here are 2 links for some Irish websites, of course not a big as this one but i also find helpful so me in little old Ireland

http://www.irishfowl.com/

http://www.midlandpoultry.com/

and thank you for the reply as well

 

[froggie71]

Can't imagine you'd have to increase humidity in Ireland.

JK. I have no idea, we are just starting out trying to hatch ourselves, but just wanted to say I visited Ireland a few years ago and loved it!

Would definitely think of moving there if only it didn't rain nearly everyday.

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

The short answer is that you need to manipulate the humidity such that your eggs lose approximately 12% of their weight between Day 1 and Day 18.

The long answer...well, that's full of internet drama.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

So your breeds are much the same as ours here. Very interesting, are you able to ship and recieve from USA? just curious.
DID you find out the info you needed for humidity?

 

[young budgie]

i never bought eggs or anything like that from America,but i did get my incubator from Florida, and i have bought lots from ebay from America, our birds would be roughly the same as yers, but i see in ireland there trying to ban battery hens which is no harm, i think its cruel, think its the same in england, but back to the main topic, i didnt find it, all i really need to know is how do people raise or lower the humidity, is this done by adding more water or by raising temp.????

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Quote:
raise the humidity by adding water. some incubators have little troughs in the floor for this, or you may need to add little cups or pans of water, maybe with sponges in them.

my humidity is so low here that I have to use little plastic bowls with sponges in addition to the troughs in the floor during the last three days.

here are the little troughs, with food coloring in them...

they provide adequate humidity for the first 18 days...

then I have to add more for the last three days...

peep!

 

[young budgie]

now this is the exact answer i was looking for and even better its the same incubator as mine,
thank you so much for the info.at the minute i have no hygrometer, and as its a bank holiday weekend here in ireland i wont be recieving any post till tuesday, i started incubating on friday, i have no idea what % my humidity is at until i get my hygrometer which is been sent to as i bought off ebay, does anyone think ill have any problems, my temp is more or less staying right for me,and i added water this morning, i understand your better off adding a small amount at a time as its harder to take water out rather than put it in, so until tuesday i have no hygrometer

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

My experience has been that lower humidity is better for the first 18 days.

This is where people can disagree fiercely, but what works for me is to run 35-40% humidity and then allow it do drop to 25% for a few hours before bringing it back up to 35-40%.

For the last 3 days, I bump it up to 58-60% by using those little dishes with sponges.

I suspect that your climate is probably much more humid than mine, so adding the same amount of water to the same incubator is going to produce different results because our ambient air is different.

For the first 18 days, it's better to have the humidity too low than too high. The egg needs to lose about 12% of its weight for proper air cell development. If the humidity is too high, it cannot do this and the peep will drown in fluid when it pips into the air cell.