Humidity?

[Nichole1]

Hey everyone. So I'm happy to announce I just got My first incubator. Its been running for about 4 hours now on "trial" so I can see how it acts. So far ive had a problem with humidity. It kept dropping to around 30% (humidity in our house is basically 0 right now) and the temp was low. I read to place it back in the Styrofoam box it came in to help maintain temp, so i did that now the humidity is 60% Or greater !! I can't find a happy medium. Any suggestions? I dont to risk putting eggs in till its stable

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Take out any water in the incubator.

 

[Nichole1]

Take out any water in the incubator.

Then the humidity will drop back to basically nothing?

 

[Mellowmalt]

there will be a lot of conflicting advice on this as some people believe to incubate dry, others follow the manufacturers guidelines. You need to find what works best for you. Less eggs need more humidity in my opinion. Mine fluctuates from 40-60%.

Anyway from what you are describing your incubator will have a ventilation hole - you need to locate this. When you plced the incubator into the polystyrene cover you most likely partially covered this hole thus increasing humdity in the incubator.

So fill the incubator with water and run it - you want to be able to achieve 40-60% easily - if not use some tape to partially block the ventlation hole.

Remember that once eggs are added the humidity will change completely again so whatever you achieve on this test run, it will not be the same.
You need to achieve 40-60% for incubation and 60-70% for lockdown in the last 3 days.

So in your test run you should at least have that worked out too that you know instantly how to raise humidity by the needed 10% - I use wet sponges or crunched up paper towels.

 

[Nichole1]

there will be a lot of conflicting advice on this as some people believe to incubate dry, others follow the manufacturers guidelines. You need to find what works best for you. Less eggs need more humidity in my opinion. Mine fluctuates from 40-60%.

Anyway from what you are describing your incubator will have a ventilation hole - you need to locate this. When you plced the incubator into the polystyrene cover you most likely partially covered this hole thus increasing humdity in the incubator.

So fill the incubator with water and run it - you want to be able to achieve 40-60% easily - if not use some tape to partially block the ventlation hole.

Remember that once eggs are added the humidity will change completely again so whatever you achieve on this test run, it will not be the same.
You need to achieve 40-60% for incubation and 60-70% for lockdown in the last 3 days.

So in your test run you should at least have that worked out too that you know instantly how to raise humidity by the needed 10% - I use wet sponges or crunched up paper towels.

Thank you so much. You were exactly right. Wish me luck!

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

there will be a lot of conflicting advice on this as some people believe to incubate dry, others follow the manufacturers guidelines. You need to find what works best for you. Less eggs need more humidity in my opinion. Mine fluctuates from 40-60%.

Anyway from what you are describing your incubator will have a ventilation hole - you need to locate this. When you plced the incubator into the polystyrene cover you most likely partially covered this hole thus increasing humdity in the incubator.

So fill the incubator with water and run it - you want to be able to achieve 40-60% easily - if not use some tape to partially block the ventlation hole.

Remember that once eggs are added the humidity will change completely again so whatever you achieve on this test run, it will not be the same.
You need to achieve 40-60% for incubation and 60-70% for lockdown in the last 3 days.

So in your test run you should at least have that worked out too that you know instantly how to raise humidity by the needed 10% - I use wet sponges or crunched up paper towels.

Curious how are your hatch rates at 40-60% humidity, and how long have you been hatching? I have a 90-95% hatch rate at 30% for chicken and quail eggs. When I just started incubating 15 years ago I used the higher rates of humidity but they kept drowning in the shell and had horrible hatch rates.

 

[Mellowmalt]

I only do smaller incubations and haven't got that much experience, luckily none have ever drowned on me which sounds horrible. Are you sure it wasn't your temperatures that were off and the chicks didn't develop properly as a result and thus drowned? I think that is far more likely - if it was temps, lower humidity raises temps slightly so maybe that did the trick for you and you blamed high humidity ever since. Our climates are completely different so what works for you won't work here. Humidity drops to 20% every time I open the incubator, I'd dread to think what would happen if I ran it dry.
I also hand turn every 3 hours or so - so I open my incubator far more which ultimately makes a huge difference as it dries the air every time I open it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Which incubator are you using? Which make and model? Do you have a link showing where it is advertised so we can see what it looks like? Do you have instructions? It's hard for me to give advice if I don't know what you are working with. Different incubators work different ways.

Do you have it set up where you are going to be incubating in it? If you move it conditions can change. Is it protected from changes when you open or close doors, is it getting hit with air from a vent, or can sunlight hit it during the day? It needs to be somewhere stable.

You are right, you need it to be stable before you start eggs. Also, when you go into lockdown you'll want to raise the humidity. How will you do that and how much will you raise it. I'd want to know what to do then before I started eggs.