Incubated with no water for 18 days! Success!

[cochin44]

Ok, I live in Louisiana, but for the first time I tried not using any water until after day 18,
and had success! I finally got a wet/dry bulb setup and trusted the readings. I noticed that
it would not get below 40-50% even totally dry, due to the humidity always staying between
50-80% outdoors. I have a Little Giant, and I filled the rings up with water on day 18, and the
humidity rose to 70-80%. Perfect!
Just thought I would share, I thought this was pretty neat.

 

[shelleyd2008]

I hatch like this all the time, I think my humidity inside my hovabator runs in the 25%-35% range for the most part. When I move them to the other (hatching) hovabator I keep the wells full in that one plus a wet cloth. The humidity in there is about 60% usually.

 

[cochin44]

Wow, that is lower humidity than I thought would work.
It's amazing how much temperature and humidity can actually fluctuate
and still be OK. A lot of what you read will scare you to death if your
temperature moves 1 or 2 degrees.

I started having my best hatches when I quit worrying so much.

 

[foxnthehenhouse]

I tried this same thing this time around. My humidity stays right at 28 percent rh. Think thats enough?

 

[mmaddie's mom]

So glad to read this! This is my first time incubating and I just purchased a hygrometer today... it is reading only 35-36% and I was worried. I guess I'll try to just not worry!

 

[silkiechicken]

Does not matter what the humidity is, all that matters is the total net loss of water in the egg. Some places you can do an all dry hatch, while in others, if you tried it, you'd have a half empty egg in 3 weeks due to drying out. If you're running a wood burning stove and have a relative humidity of 10%, I would not try it. If you live where average day temps are in the upper 80's, and humidity like Hawaii... well, you might have to find ways to lower your humidity.

 

[mmaddie's mom]

OK... back to worrying. We burn wood 24/7. Bator is in the main floor bathroom. Should I run a vaporizer in the closed bathroom? But the closed door adds another problem... cooler temps. Auhhhh... what to do?

 

[cochin44]

I would try to keep the temperature as stable as possible. Don't close the door. What kind of incubator
do you have?

 

[mmaddie's mom]

Brand new Brinsea 20 eco.

Temps has been steady @ just under 100 for 4 days.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Does the Brinsea have a digital thermostat? If so I'd just close the door, it should adjust to the temps. We use a wood burning stove too but the bators are in a closed-off bedroom.