Incubator humidity dropped to 19

[Mia1023]

I’m on day 3 of incubating my quails and I woke up today to check the temp and humidity and the temperature was good but the humidity had suddenly dropped to %19 I like to keep it from 40-50 and it had plenty of water last night is there going to be any major harm? It was probably for like 5-10 hours but I just put some pretty warm water in to raise it a bit faster. Is there something I should do to make sure they’re ok?

 

[vall]

Drops are not a big deal, just try to keep it between 30-40% for quail and use a salt tested hygrometer.

 

[Sara S]

I’m on day 3 of incubating my quails and I woke up today to check the temp and humidity and the temperature was good but the humidity had suddenly dropped to %19 I like to keep it from 40-50 and it had plenty of water last night is there going to be any major harm? It was probably for like 5-10 hours but I just put some pretty warm water in to raise it a bit faster. Is there something I should do to make sure they’re ok?

I put wet paper towel around the outside,… hope this helps and good luck with them!!! I’m hatching chicks this Monday!!

 

[NatJ]

A temporary drop should not be a big deal, as long as it does not occur when they are actually pipping and hatching.

Several incubator manufacturers recommend weighing the eggs once a week to see if they are losing the right amount of weight, as a way to check humidity. I think that means the hour-to-hour humidity does not matter, as long as the total amount of water lost by each egg is right by hatching time.

edit to add: here is a lot of information about humidity, from one incubator manufacturer:
https://brinsea.com/Manuals/HumidityInIncubationEbook.pdf
A quote: "The important point is to reach the ideal weight loss by hatching day; some
deviation from the ideal weight loss line earlier in incubation will have little adverse effect" (That's from the part that talks about weighing eggs to check humidity levels.)