Humidity Question

[ChickadeeMom]

I am on day 4 of my 2nd hatch (1st went horribly bad 0-6 hatched!!) anywho i got some advice and picked up at hydrometer. currently my humidity is at 35-45...i have a mechanical gauge (im a college student and it was cheaper lol) is this ok?


what about for lockdown?? ive read that 60-70 is good but i dont know how to bring it up to that high....i have the rings filled almost all the wy with water now.

Help???


ps- i have a little giant stil air model bator with the bator to go with it.

also- my temp so staying abot 100-102 degrees



thanks in advance for the help!!!

 

[Joycats]

I have found some antimicrobial kitchen sponges (bought them at the grocery store). I soak them and add one to each incubator and it maintains a more consistent humidity. I only have to re-wet the sponge about every third day. I'm sure it will depend on your area but it's just an idea to raise the humidity. It should be around 50% during incubation. You are supposed to raise it to around 70% for hatching, but keep in mind that the first chicks to hatch will increase the humidity a lot. I've found (what works for me) that raising the humidity to 60 or 65% is enough, the hatching chicks take care of keeping it there and usually raise it a good bit more. Also, your temp should not fluctuate very much, but 100 to 101 is usually good for a still air incubator. Hope this helps.

 

[LC orps]

sponges work great to bring the humidity up

 

[ChickadeeMom]

Great!! thanks ill try it..right now its on about 45-50...ill raise to to about 65 on lockdown.


thanks everyone!! (guess ill have to steal mom's sponges hehe )

 

[Gypsy07]

Eggs are supposed to lose between 11% and 14% of their weight from day 1 to lockdown, and the 'correct' humidity is the one that achieves that weight loss. So 45% humidity will be too high for some people and too low for others. There is no 'correct' figure for humidity the way there is for temperature. When people are giving you humidity figures, they are really just telling you what works best for them, with their bators, their weather and their eggs. You really just have to experiment and find out what works best for you, in your bator, with your local weather conditions, and with the type of eggs you are incubating. There really aren't any right or wrong figures when it comes to humidity, that's what makes it more difficult than just getting the right temperature.

I incubate at 35-40% and then aim for 80% for lockdown. Most people wouldn't recommend that, but it's what works for me.