Humidity

[Rescuedrvr4u]

So...After I turned the cat crate around (Christmas Day) so my hen couldn't get out, she "some what" laid on the eggs. Yesterday I turned it back around and sure enough, she came right out. At the 11th hour this "mom" really dropped the ball. I went immediately and got an incubator from a friend and put all the eggs in it. She didn't seem to mind at all. 2 of the eggs were already broken and the insides eaten...VERY disappointing. Anyhoo....I've got the temp set right, but how do I tell if the humidity is right? There isn't any kind of a meter or any way to tell w/ this incubator. I candled all the eggs, all have "something" in them, but no movement...not holding out much hope.

 

[JodyJo]

you may want to post this under the "incubating & hatching eggs" thread...you will get more replies

 

[cmom]

I agree. Go to Walmart and get a hygrometer in the pet section. They also have thermometer/hygrometers in the hardware department. At least you will know pretty much where the humidity is at. Humidity is important in an incubator. I experimented with my humidity and now I keep my humidity around 35% during incubation (for the first 18 days) then raise it to around 75% for the last 3 days. My hatches went from around 60% to 95% to 100%. Just what I do

and

 

[Me & Jack]

What kind of incubator is it? The foam incubators are fairly easy to keep at the right humidity just by filling the correct trough on the bottom lid. You might also find instructions online for the type of incubator your borrowed.

Good luck!

- Janine