humidity???

[tmpshrty96]

i had my incubator set like a week before i got eggs and then i read somethin about humidity so i dumped a glass of water in the bottom of my lg incubator and it took another day to get the temperature back right after that. but its been about a week and a half since we put the eggs in there. do i need to add more water? if so how do i keep it from affecting the temperature? and what do you use to tell what the humidity level is in the incubator and where do you get 1? this is my first time hatching eggs and i candled the eggs yesterday so there all doing ok and little chicks are moving inside!!!

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi! To measure humidity, you use a hygrometer.

I don't know where you are, but *here* it is sufficient to fill the trough in the middle of my LG's for the first 18 days (let them run dry before refilling) and on Day 18 fill the 2 outside troughs.
Good luck!

Lisa

 

[dancingbear]

I'm in a humid area, at least in summer.
I've started dry hatching, and get better results, with less hassle. The hum usually hangs right around 45% with no water added at all. But my most recent hatch, there were a few days that our ambient humidity dropped, (unusual for this time of year) and the hum in the bator dropped to about 25%. I added just a little of water in a small cup, increased the hum to 45%, until the weather shifted back to the normal summer stickiness. Then I took the water out, the hum stayed 45%.

While hatching, (last 3 days, which started early because they started hatching on day 24, with the turner still on

) it increased to 55%, on it's own. I didn't add any water at all until I saw it start to drop to below 50%, then just enough to stay around 55%-60%. No higher. Chicks hatched easily, not sticky or slimy, only a little damp. 11 eggs in, 10 chicks out, the last egg I'm waiting on, since they weren't actually due until yesterday. Maybe it'll still hatch.

 

[tmpshrty96]

ok thanks but when i put water in it it makes the temperature go down and if i put warm water in the temp goes to high how do i stop that?

 

[dancingbear]

Make the water 100F, and if the temp drops a little, it should come back up in a couple of hours. If it's still a little low several hours later, you may need to bump it up just a hair. change temp slowly, and wait several hours between adjustments.

 

[tmpshrty96]

so if it goes down for a couple of hours it wont hurt the eggs??

 

[Billy7871]

Always add hot water so it will not bring the temp down.

 

[tmpshrty96]

then what if it goes up. that happened 1 time when my ant was incubating

 

[dancingbear]

If you use 100F water, it can't make it go too high, and no, a slight drop for a few hours won't hurt. Mine often drops to 98 when I add water, even warm (cooling from evaporation, probably) and my eggs hatch anyway. The last batch hatched early.

 

[tmpshrty96]

ok thanks