humidity vs ventilation

[jmoeller]

Happy Spring....
We have made our own Styrofoam incubator and are testing it right now. Our problem is humidity. I can't keep it above 30%. I have added a tinfoil cake pan as large as I can fit into the incubator. I have added sponges and wash clothes to increase surface area for evaporation. I get a humidity jump to about 50% for a few minutes after adding heated water, but it quickly falls to 30% again.
we have 4 canning jars with water (sealed) to maintain temp and that is doing real well, temp is pretty consistent at 100 degrees and 99 in water wiggler. We have 2 light bulbs ( 40 watt i believe) and a computer fan blowing across the light bulbs and the pan of water. the fan blows continuously, the light bulbs are turned on and off by a thermostat.
Questions.
1. how much ventilation is needed and how do I tell if I have enough? I'm thinking I might be able to ^ humidity if I close some vent holes. I am afraid of not having enough air circulation if I do that.
2. any other suggestions to ^ humidity? I don't think I will ever be able to get it up to 80% for lock down.
I know some people do dry incubation so do I need to be stressing out this much about humidity?
I won't be getting my eggs until mid April. This is my first hatch. I don't think I was this nervous when I had my first kid! HAHAHA

 

[lazy gardener]

The first thing I'm going to suggest is that you research "dry incubation". You can find info in the search bar at the top of this page. The next thing I'm going to suggest is that your hygrometer is way off. Sounds like you're great with temp. However, what are you using for a thermometer? Try several, and you'll find a lot of variance. That's enough to send you into a mental tail spin. How can you incubate if none of the meters are accurate?? There are several threads with instructions for calibrating thermometers and hygrometers. They should be helpful. I've chosen to go the route of using a medical thermometer as my gold standard, then making the mental adjustments to set the thermostat at the "right" temp. using the easiest to read thermometer. I always have 2 if not 3 thermometers in my incubator. An other thing you'll want to look at is: how consistent is the temp at all areas of the incubator? I found quite a bit of variance, and had to tackle the problem with tin foil baffles, and positioning the eggs for the optimum use of the high/low spots. One nice thing about foam bators: It's easy to help out with air flow and temp variance with a sharp pencil. A few well placed jabs with the pencil make excellent ventilation holes!! Take your time, and be very sure of the idiosyncracies of your set up before you set eggs in it. It's easier to make adjustments now, than when the eggs are on commit mode. Also. when those eggs go in, be prepared for a temp drop. Give it a full day before doing any temp tweaking.

 

[jmoeller]

Thanks for the advice I will read more about dry incubating this evening and double check the hygrometer. Is there a way to tell when you have enough holes for ventilation?

 

[lazy gardener]

I can't answer that... but if you get too busy with your pencil, you can always plug them with ear plugs!

 

[yinepu]

Ignore the hygrometer.. it sounds like it's inaccurate anyway.. which is just stressing you out


go by air cell growth or weight loss as the guide to humidity since the eggs will be your best guide to what that particular hatch needs

do NOT close vent holes.. if you close them off you can cause the carbon dioxide to raise to toxic levels which will cause hatch failure and death in the chicks


for me.. i incubate AND hatch dry.. if the eggs need more humidity THEN I add water... otherwise I leave well enough alone and have great hatch rates to prove it.