incubating eggs in high humidity enviorment

[mandelaykay]

Ok guys this is my post so here goes...

I have 4 silkies. a pair of whites and a pair of splash. I want another white hen and a blue or black hen. I was thinking about buying some hatching eggs. I figured I could raise the chicks till maturity and keep the best ones of the colors that I want and sell the rest. I thought that this would be more cost effective then buying chicks and adults. But here is the thing... I live in Maine and the humidity here is high like in the 70% plus. Will that affect my hatch? I dont want to spend $70 on eggs to not have a single one hatch. I have one of those foam incubators. I tried to hatch a few eggs this spring but the house was so dry from the cold that I did not get anything. Any advice would be helpful. Should I just go to a show and buy a few hens and know what I get?

Thanks so much
Mandy

 

[ReikiStar]

I live in Western Washington (think Seattle) and we have 3 large fish tanks in our home and live by a lake, so our house is more humid than most. The humidity in my incubators ranges from 69% to 59% (they vary depending on the weather). We have no problems with hatching eggs. The air cells get larger, meaning the eggs still lose moisture throughout the incubation as they are suppose to. We also have a fan in our incubator. And come lockdown, we still need to bump up the humidity!! I made the mistake once of thinking...since we had, what is considered high humidity, throughout the incubation, that I should leave the humidity where it was (64% at the time) in case there was extra moisture in the egg...it might evaporate quicker and not drown the chick. NOPE! Shrink wrapped the chick. Helped it out and all was well. So we've learned our lesson -- not to worry about our high humidity.

We tried putting those silicone packs in the incubator, around the incubator on the outside and all it did was make it worse! Because they are drawing moisture to them. I've heard of people putting dry rice in the incubator. We haven't done it ourselves because at this point, we don't worry about it (we just watch the air cells) but that's something you could try if it really worries you.

For some reason, keeping an open window in the room helps lower the humidity.

Good luck!