incubator humidity and environmental humidity

[10ducks]

They weather is changing rapidly here in Southeast Michigan. A week ago it was cold and dry, and I was working on getting my incubator up to the correct humidity. Now, it is 70 and the humidity was 90% this morning. I'm wicking water out of the bottom of the incubator to try to get the humidity DOWN. What do you people do in the South, where it's humid all the time?

This is the first week with the turkey eggs in the incubator. Do you think the humidity fluctuations will hurt the poults when hatching time comes? I'm trying to keep the wet bulb reading at 86 degrees, which is 55% humidity. Is that correct? Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[turkaholic]

Try running a dehumidifier in the room the incubator is in.

I run my turkey eggs at 55-60% (wet bulb about 86-90degrees) until the 25th day. Then transfer to the hatcher and bump up the humidity to over 75%. Other folks go higher, but this has always been successful for me. Your humidity during incubation should average 55-60, but a 5% variance up or down from day to day shouldn't hurt. It's when you let the eggs dry out and then try to compensate by bumping it up high that you end up with trouble at hatch. I'm sure hens exposed to the weather will vary also, but we all know they are far better incubators and have a natural ability to control the conditions of their clutch. Of course, adverse weather can also cause them to fail.