I can't control the humidity in my incubator!

[dreanat]

Help! I'm a teacher and this is the second year I'm hatching eggs with my class. I'm using the same incubator as I did last year. It's a still air incubator. The guide says to set it up so that the dry bulb is 100 degrees and the wet bulb reads 86 degrees. For the first couple of days after I set the eggs, the readings were fine.
Last year, I came back after a weekend and noticed that all the water had evaporated before I could refill it. This year, I was proactive and put some more water in the water well (which is supposed to distribute water whenever the water level is low) before the weekend. Well, I came back on Monday and the wet bulb reading read 98 degrees! I can't seem to bring it down. I'm not sure if I have to add more water to the incubator or take some water out for the reading to go back down to 86. I've tried both, but it just seems to stay where it is.
Will this affect my eggs? I've candled some and it looks like dark spots are moving around in there. I just don't want them to drown when they try to pip. I've heard that some people have just sprinkled water on the eggs, they don't need that much humidity. Btw, the dry bulb temperature has been constant - 100 degrees. Any advice?

 

[silkiechick05]

I wish I could help...


BUMP

 

[medan]

I don’t know what you’re using but they make a nice digital thermometer hydrometer at wal mart for about 6 bucks.(you will need to put it on top of a cut off paper cup) Then when you know what the humidity is you can add or subtract wet paper towle's maybe just add water to the tray? I set at about 99.5 deg with 55% humidity and 3 days before hatch i raise the humidity to 75 % or so.

 

[cochin44]

If the wet bulb is reading that high, chances are the wick is not in the water or it's not wrapped good around the bulb.
So what's happening is the wet bulb is reading the dry temperature. Open it up and inspect the wick.What type of incubator is it?

 

[dreanat]

It's a Lyon Turn-X Automatic Turn Incubator. The wick looks ok, but I'll try to see if I can push it closer to the water and let you know.

 

[greathorse]

Make sure the wick has not crystallized. If it has you will get a bad reading. The depth of the water in your pan has not effect on rh only the surface area. Most folks that use a sock to get a RH reading take it out after they get the RH settled in, it wont change very much.

I would take the sock out wash it out and make sure it is wet and put it back in. The higher the RH the lower the temp reading on your wet sock reading. If your wet sock is reading 98 the odds are that the sock is dry or has crystallized

 

[cochin44]

Quote:
That's the incubator I have, and I have that problem often. Anyway, don't sweat it. Unscrew the bottle 1/4 to 1/2 of the way out and you should be close.
The last few days it's cranked almost all the way out. Mine messed up on me the last hatch and I had the whole tray filled with water to the top and didn't
know it. All hatched but one.

 

[dreanat]

Thanks for the advice. There is definitely water in the pan so I've concluded that the wick is not working or the bulb is broken. Stupid thing. So the last 3 days I want to make sure the bottle is screwed almost all the way up? I'll make sure the bottle is full before I leave for that weekend. With the humidity up that high do you think the full bottle will last for those 3 days?

 

[cochin44]

Quote:
3 days is gonna be close, maybe only go about 3/4 of the way up. Let us know how they come out.