Humidity

[cogorman]

I'm attempting to hatch eggs in a home made incubator and for the first 8 days I used a really cheap hygometer I borrowed from a friend's lizzard tank. It read 50% for the whole time, so far. Today I got a digital unit and it is reading 65%. I've adjusted the humidity based on this new hygrometer but I'm wondering if my chicks are doomed?

 

[JordanFamily]

If you only did it for the first 8 days you have plenty of time to fix the issue... Just keep an eye on your aircell size and adjust the humidity from there... I weigh mine every four days to get an idea if they are loosing the right amount of weight...

 

[babsbag]

You need to calibrate your hygrometer. It is quite likely that your digital one is off as well, both of mine are. Here are the directions from another post on BYC

Put 1/4 cup of water on 1/2 cup of salt (in cup). It should have the "consistency of "wet sand". Carefully place this salted cup into a ZipLock bag and also put the hygrometer in the bag (NOT in the salted cup). Seal the ZipLock bag and let sit for 12 to 24 hours. At the end of this period of time, the hygrometer should read 75%. If it is more or less than 75%, that is how much it is "OFF".

My digital one read 67% so it was low by 8%. I made a note and stuck in on the incubator and just wrote down what I wanted the reading to be. I was doing dry method incubation, so I wrote 27% which meant the humidity was really at 35%. That way I didn't have to do any math in my head while checking it.

 

[cogorman]

Howdy All, Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Thanks for the advice. I did the calibration and my new digital hygrometer is right at 75%. So lets hope I can save the chicks after drowning them for 7days.