Humidity?

[Mt. Baker Quail]

Is it okay to incubate coturnix eggs for the first 14 days at 60% humidity, or should I have less humidity?

 

[Stellar]

That's perfectly fine.

 

[Whitehouse Quail]

You can even carry that same % all the way until they hatch.

 

[Mt. Baker Quail]

What should the humidity be for lockdown?

 

[Whitehouse Quail]

Mt. Baker Quail :

What should the humidity be for lockdown?

50-60%.​

 

[Mt. Baker Quail]

Thanks for the advise.

 

[silly]

So if I on my first ever attempt at incubation have had a really hard time regulating humidity(anywhere between 30 and 70% the first few days) but now have it mostly staying between 40-50% with eggs due to hatch next saturday can i expect eggs to hatch? Am not sure how important consistent humidity is.

 

[Chikndinner]

I ran a batch of coturnix at 45% for the first 15 days and then 60% at lockdown and everything was fine. That being said I now run it at 60% throughout.

 

[Stellar]

The purpose of humidity is to soften the shell so the chick can pip...in nature the hen doesn't increase humidity. Too much humidity can drown the embryo/chick as the eggs are porous.

Just keep it 50-60% and you are fine.

 

[_Randall_]

I think the humidity theory is one of those topics of the incubation process that you will get opinions ranging from - it's fine to dry hatch (as in you don't need water in your bator at all)......to........run it XX% humidity until lockdown, then raise it to XX% the last 3 days. Controlling humidity can be a challenge (from what I've read, and experienced myself). However, I've never been very concerned about humidity that much when hatching Bobs in a LG styrofoam bator. I just always lined the bottom of the LG with Maxi-Pads the last 3 days, and soaked the livin' daylights out of'em, and it got the humidity on up on the high 70's to low 80's........and had remarkable hatches. You've probably heard of, and understand the term "shrink wrapped", right? Well, in my opinion, the actual "busting out" of the shell that the little chick has to go through to get here is where the humidity factor really plays an important role. I had probably a half dozen or so chicks in last summer's hatchings that experienced this, and I'm 99% sure it was from going into the bator to get some dry-and-fluffy chicks out to go to the brooder while some were zipping. You read about it, and you realize it can happen when you see that little chick that has gone through the struggle to unzip his lid, and can't free himself from the shell because he's stuck. To put it in prespective, it's like the soggy late summer / early fall we have here with sticky wet gulf moisture in the air, and BOOM.....along come a cold front, and sometimes within hours, it's gone from muggy damp air to blue-bird-sky-cool-"dry"-air. Now, take that analogy, and consider that same change can happen when you open that bator lid while the hatch is happening.......which can be a few minutes to a few seconds. So, (again, in my opinon) don't fret over the humidity so much, and if you choose to, let it be during the little boogers' "bustin' out" period!