Incubator and Humidity in the South

[LadiesAndJane]

I've literally been sitting here for the past 2 days reading up on incubation humidity so maybe I can explain simply and save you two days. If I'm wrong I hope somebody will correct me.

You want your eggs to loose a certain amount of weight during incubation. They need to loose 11-13% of their weight on day 18. That controls the size of the air cell.

So how do you control the weight loss? With humidity. High humidity slows down the water loss in the egg and low humidity makes it faster.

If you want to know what humidity to use, you weigh them when you start and weigh them again sometime during the incubation period and if they don't loose as much weight as they are supposed to, you lower the humidity and vice versa.

So one person has to run a different humidity than another one because of environmental factors, incubator type, and apparently egg type. Shoot I had to turn the A/C on the other day and my humidtity dropped because the A/C dries out the air so the air venting in my incubator was drier.

Running dry just means you don't add water, but the humidity inside can still be high or it can be in the perfect spot.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

I weigh mine, make graphs and mark aircells. In the end, the air cells seem to be the most accurate for me anyway!
Right now based on weights, my eggs are still running dry, but the air cells look like they are running too humid, despite my dry incubation method here on day 15. In my case, I will likely put them in lockdown at day 18. In some cases I have waited until day 20 or even when I have seen the first pip. All depends on the eggs and the individual circumstances. Amazing that chickens can just hatch their eggs without much trouble!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Where did you read this?

I have white eggs incubating that were stored for 8 days before I started incubating them. I read 30-40% humidity so averaged 37% and my aircells grew too fast. I've had to up my humidity to compensate for the past couple days and looking at my logs I'll have to incubate with a 45% average humidity next time.

I figured it was because my incubator is big and has alot of ventilation but you may be right.

Well, it's more of a personal opinion according to my experience than something I read. Maybe a broad collection of TOO much gleaned information.

For the most part.. you should be able to incubate any chicken egg at 45% humidity and get a good outcome.

Breeding Marans for a few years.. their eggs with more pigment fill the pores of the shell slowing the exchange rate of gases.. aka evaporation.

The 11-13% weight loss would be total from the day laid not day set in the incubator and would give a more accurate picture when weighed or considered as a group instead of individually.

so, you run the incubator dry until lock down at which time you add water. I will try the dry next time since humidity is so high here in the South. Yesterday humidity reading was at 92%.. Thank you

Yep I do with the same approximate results as the other poster. I have incubated Marans eggs as low as 20% humidity with good results! Completely dry usually cuts my ambient humidity by about 30 ish %. But here is an article that gave me the idea..
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...h-eggs-using-the-dry-incubation-method.47694/

Silkie Eggs I like between 35-45% depending on storage age.

I'm not 100% sure how I feel about the major increase in humidity at lock down and how relevant it is to hatch rate and haven't had time to fully investigate yet.. but have seen evidence to suggest it *may* be over rated.

Please tell me.. when your bator was reading 92% humidity.. how many of the wells did you have filled and was there condensation dripping off the sides of the plastic?

As one poster mentioned. there are more than one way to go about things, including which day you go into lock down and such. With incubation and hatching.. I have learned that there are a lot of really GOOD parameters and GUIDELINES set WITH reason.. but they aren't rules and no matter how hard we try to mess it up, sometimes life still finds a way.. Keep it close.. dial it in, do your best, forget the rest!

One of my very favorite clinical hatching resources in an easy to comprehend format..
Incubation guide

So one person has to run a different humidity than another one because of environmental factors, incubator type, and apparently egg type. Shoot I had to turn the A/C on the other day and my humidtity dropped because the A/C dries out the air so the air venting in my incubator was drier.

Close.. we may still be aiming for the same relative humidity inside the bator..but need to use different width (not depth) of water to achieve that. Depth impacts how long you can go between refills of said area.

The different shell color having an effect on evaporation/humidity parameters is really more about dialing it in to get you *maximum* hatch results for perfectionist (not a compliment) and over thinkers.. when I looked at differences it was often a very very low # like 1% difference.. and most folks may never notice the difference of 85 verses 86% hatch rate when we're talking about our small hatching stock numbers.

I can tell by what you've posted though that the link above will prove a worthwhile and enjoyable resource for you as you did a nice job describing things simply. The place where I found that and so many other hatching resources has some outdated links and info but continues being updated (I think) and worth reviewing..
Hatching Eggs 101

Please know that despite being a perfectionist and over thinker.. I'm also and adventurer who like to go against the grain sometimes.. I've hatched dark and white egg together with blue and bantam and large fowl.. no holds barred, mixed batches can be fun!

I've helped hatch just fine. I've helped and regretted it to cull later. I helped and made things worse or not helped at all, survival of the fittest, I've had bent toes and cross beaks hatch on their own (very few out of literally hundreds), I've opened the bator to remove soccer player unexpected early hatches, I've just let em roll and wait until hatch is over, gone to lock down on day 20.. etc.. the list goes on and on. Mistakes happen.. and EACH time is a new test to where I stand. One thing I avoid if possible is staggered hatch in the same bator. But I have ran rolling hatches every week for whole with one bator full incubating and the other as hatcher.. My point here being that life is complicated and complex and even what my brain knows my heart doesn't always follow.

But I never stop learning and keep looking forward to new adventures!

 

[Deltaj]

so, you run the incubator dry until lock down at which time you add water. I will try the dry next time since humidity is so high here in the South. Yesterday humidity reading was at 92%.. Thank you

92% humidity is outside, not the incubator. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Well, it's more of a personal opinion according to my experience than something I read. Maybe a broad collection of TOO much gleaned information.

For the most part.. you should be able to incubate any chicken egg at 45% humidity and get a good outcome.

Breeding Marans for a few years.. their eggs with more pigment fill the pores of the shell slowing the exchange rate of gases.. aka evaporation.

The 11-13% weight loss would be total from the day laid not day set in the incubator and would give a more accurate picture when weighed or considered as a group instead of individually.


Yep I do with the same approximate results as the other poster. I have incubated Marans eggs as low as 20% humidity with good results! Completely dry usually cuts my ambient humidity by about 30 ish %. But here is an article that gave me the idea..
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...h-eggs-using-the-dry-incubation-method.47694/

Silkie Eggs I like between 35-45% depending on storage age.

I'm not 100% sure how I feel about the major increase in humidity at lock down and how relevant it is to hatch rate and haven't had time to fully investigate yet.. but have seen evidence to suggest it *may* be over rated.

Please tell me.. when your bator was reading 92% humidity.. how many of the wells did you have filled and was there condensation dripping off the sides of the plastic?

As one poster mentioned. there are more than one way to go about things, including which day you go into lock down and such. With incubation and hatching.. I have learned that there are a lot of really GOOD parameters and GUIDELINES set WITH reason.. but they aren't rules and no matter how hard we try to mess it up, sometimes life still finds a way.. Keep it close.. dial it in, do your best, forget the rest!

One of my very favorite clinical hatching resources in an easy to comprehend format..
Incubation guide


Close.. we may still be aiming for the same relative humidity inside the bator..but need to use different width (not depth) of water to achieve that. Depth impacts how long you can go between refills of said area.

The different shell color having an effect on evaporation/humidity parameters is really more about dialing it in to get you *maximum* hatch results for perfectionist (not a compliment) and over thinkers.. when I looked at differences it was often a very very low # like 1% difference.. and most folks may never notice the difference of 85 verses 86% hatch rate when we're talking about our small hatching stock numbers.

I can tell by what you've posted though that the link above will prove a worthwhile and enjoyable resource for you as you did a nice job describing things simply. The place where I found that and so many other hatching resources has some outdated links and info but continues being updated (I think) and worth reviewing..
Hatching Eggs 101

Please know that despite being a perfectionist and over thinker.. I'm also and adventurer who like to go against the grain sometimes.. I've hatched dark and white egg together with blue and bantam and large fowl.. no holds barred, mixed batches can be fun!

I've helped hatch just fine. I've helped and regretted it to cull later. I helped and made things worse or not helped at all, survival of the fittest, I've had bent toes and cross beaks hatch on their own (very few out of literally hundreds), I've opened the bator to remove soccer player unexpected early hatches, I've just let em roll and wait until hatch is over, gone to lock down on day 20.. etc.. the list goes on and on. Mistakes happen.. and EACH time is a new test to where I stand. One thing I avoid if possible is staggered hatch in the same bator. But I have ran rolling hatches every week for whole with one bator full incubating and the other as hatcher.. My point here being that life is complicated and complex and even what my brain knows my heart doesn't always follow.

But I never stop learning and keep looking forward to new adventures!


92% humidity is outside, not the incubator. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

 

[mcdze]

so far in my limited incubating experience i havent had many issues with humidity, and i live in florida where its 90%+ ambient humidityalot of times .. ive hatched eggs in a big container that wasnt sealed running low humidity, like 30%, the whole time and in a small ebay incubator that tends to run the humidity over 60% with any water at all in it, not much difference in hatchrate .. temps more important, and 'even' temps throughout the incubator are more important than anything .. a cool corner of the incubator may still hatch the eggs but those will be the late ones with problems alot of times .. couple of points to note with a smaller inc that circulates air - the fan blowing 'will' remove more moisture out of the eggs even at a higher humidity than a still air inc, so dont fret about 50-60% humidity, and two - if you have problems keeping the humidity even at that, say it wants to run at 70+% even with one slot filled, try using a jar lid that will fit under the flooring to hold the water, that works in mine, i just have to refill it every 3-4 days and keep an eye on it ...

 

[EggSighted4Life]

temps more important, and 'even' temps throughout the incubator are more important than anything .. a cool corner of the incubator may still hatch the eggs but those will be the late ones with problems alot of times

That's why no matter the bator, circulated or still.. I move my eggs to a new location inside the bator daily.. It seriously tightened my hatch frame! The difference is most notable (verifiable) when working with my own eggs and known collection age and other parameters.

the fan blowing 'will' remove more moisture out of the eggs even at a higher humidity than a still air

Hmm. you know I've never read that or heard it before.. but definitely experienced it in hatching.. how fast the membrane was drying out at the pip/zip and even things getting stuck on the chicks. I knew that I prefer still air for hatching and got my highest hatch rates using still air.. but figured I was a little loco since everyone raves about circulated.

Now I think about it.. the wind dries out leave of plants faster than when there is no wind.. at the same temperature.. which we actually decrease temp when we add the fan.. and I mean it's still moving more air.. but I wonder what ACTUAL evaporation rate difference is?? Anyways, this is fun stuff for me to try and figure out.. only to realize that science probably already had the answer if I ask the question correctly..