Incubator humidity drooped overnight??

[Aholmes]

Help! When I returned to class this morning my incubator humidity was at 28! I immediately added water to raise the humidity and it pretty quickly returned to 52.

 

[nuthatched]

What day is it?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know what incubator you have, different ones handle humidity differently. Most have some sort of water reservoir. When that reservoir goes dry the humidity drops. That's how I know to add more water. Do you know how long the humidity stays up when you fill your reservoir? That might help you plan for the weekend.

During incubation the instantaneous humidity is not that important. What matters is how much total moisture the egg loses throughout the entire incubation. What you are more looking at is an average humidity. When I fill my water reservoir sometimes I spill a little water. The humidity can spike for a short period until that spilled water evaporates, even if I wipe most of it up. Unless it's a lot I don't bother. When I run out of water humidity plummets. Peaks and valleys don't worry me as long as the average humidity is OK.

During hatch that changes. If the incubator is too dry when an egg external pips that egg can become shrink-wrapped. That's when the membrane that surrounds and protects the chick dries out and shrinks around it, locking it up so it cannot move to hatch. You want the humidity to always be high during the hatching phase.

As long as you are not in lockdown I don't see a problem but it may be a good reminder to top off your water reservoir for the weekend.

 

[mcdze]

and how did that affect temp? .. thats the main issue ive seen, letting water run out .. the bator is set to 100 with water, the water runs out and its pushing 102+ on one end and 96 in the other and conditions are totally destabilized, yeah that can cause problems depending on how long it was like that it may have buggered that hatch .. several usually make it anyway ..

 

[Huntmaster]

and how did that affect temp? .. thats the main issue ive seen, letting water run out .. the bator is set to 100 with water, the water runs out and its pushing 102+ on one end and 96 in the other and conditions are totally destabilized, yeah that can cause problems depending on how long it was like that it may have buggered that hatch .. several usually make it anyway ..

Your humidity affects your temps in incubator? What type of incubator do you use?