Incubator humidity went looowww day nine

[007Sean]

Ok, so here they are. 9 days in - 13 eggs. They were collected over about 8-9 days. They are Cemani eggs, so it’s kinda hard to see clearly because the eggs are brown. I’m not a pro at candling, soo….View attachment 3353230View attachment 3353231View attachment 3353232View attachment 3353233View attachment 3353234View attachment 3353235View attachment 3353236View attachment 3353237View attachment 3353238View attachment 3353239View attachment 3353240View attachment 3353241View attachment 3353242

Looks to me like all but #10 and maybe #1 are developing. The air cells don't look bad at all, if anything they look like they have been incubating with too much humidity.
Did you notice any movement in the eggs while you candled?

 

[Tumbleweedlynn]

Looks to me like all but #10 and maybe #1 are developing. The air cells don't look bad at all, if anything they look like they have been incubating with too much humidity.
Did you notice any movement in the eggs while you candled?

Thank you! I wasn’t really looking for movement, but some seemed pretty big. Can they grow too fast? When I candle again I will look for that. I was in such a hurry and trying not to drop the eggs

 

[007Sean]

Thank you! I wasn’t really looking for movement, but some seemed pretty big. Can they grow too fast? When I candle again I will look for that. I was in such a hurry and trying not to drop the eggs

I'll assume you're referring to the air cells when you ask, "Can they grow too fast"? They can 'lose' moisture fast, if the humidity is constantly too low.
I'm also assuming that the worse case scenario is that the %Rh was low for 3 days?...and it wasn't at 4% the entire time. If that is true, it doesn't appear to have an adverse effect on the size of the air cells.
Only time will tell (at hatching time) if it had a adverse effect.

When you candle them again, also look for veins as well as movement.

 

[Tumbleweedlynn]

I'll assume you're referring to the air cells when you ask, "Can they grow too fast"? They can 'lose' moisture fast, if the humidity is constantly too low.
I'm also assuming that the worse case scenario is that the %Rh was low for 3 days?...and it wasn't at 4% the entire time. If that is true, it doesn't appear to have an adverse effect on the size of the air cells.
Only time will tell (at hatching time) if it had a adverse effect.

When you candle them again, also look for veins as well as movement.

Actually, I was referring to the chick, as some of the darkness I was seeing seemed to be bigger in some of the eggs. And the humidity was at 50 Friday morning with a full well, and 4 on Sunday afternoon, so I’d say less than 24 hours. I will look for the veins next time. It’s hard, these eggs are different shades of brown. You’re right - time will tell! Thanks!

 

[007Sean]

Actually, I was referring to the chick, as some of the darkness I was seeing seemed to be bigger in some of the eggs. And the humidity was at 50 Friday morning with a full well, and 4 on Sunday afternoon, so I’d say less than 24 hours. I will look for the veins next time. It’s hard, these eggs are different shades of brown. You’re right - time will tell! Thanks!

They should be alright as far as the humidity fiasco. Try to keep the humidity between 35 to 45% for the rest of the incubation and increase it to 55 -60% for the last 3 or 4 days of incubation.
Good luck with you're hatch.

 

[Tumbleweedlynn]

They should be alright as far as the humidity fiasco. Try to keep the humidity between 35 to 45% for the rest of the incubation and increase it to 55 -60% for the last 3 or 4 days of incubation.
Good luck with you're hatch.

Thank you much

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’ve noticed the panic these unknowns cause are disproportionate to the reality, mostly

So you've noticed that too. Your situation is not ideal but I really doubt it is a disaster.

The main purpose of controlling the humidity is to manage the total moisture loss during incubation. That depends more on the average humidity over the entire incubation than an instantaneous humidity. You are probably right, the low humidity was probably for less than a day so the overall effect on average is pretty minimal. I don't foresee any problems from that aspect. Moisture loss is not something that has to be precise. There is a reasonable window that can work well.

I assume your previous successful incubations were when your hygrometer read 50%. It is true that many hygrometers don't read that correctly, they can be off a fair amount. That's why we talk about calibrating them, we assume that the difference between what it reads and the actual is consistent. In your situation I would not calibrate it just to get accurate numbers. You have already calibrated it to your hatching conditions. Whatever the actual humidity is, your hatching conditions say it should read 50%.

I calibrated my thermometer because I consider correct temperature important. I never calibrated my hygrometer but found through trial and error that my best hatches came when it read 40%. I got decent hatches when it read 45% but the sweet spot was when it read around 40%. I don't know if the actual humidity was 30% or 60%. I didn't consider knowing the actual that important. Even if I had known what the actual was I'd still tweak it to determine my sweet spot. For various reasons that sweet spot can be different for each of us.

The concern I'd have with a period of really low humidity is that the membrane under the shell may dry out enough that it separates from the shell creating a condition we call shrink wrap. That is most likely to occur when the humidity is low during hatch, after the chick external pips. That's why we raise the humidity during lockdown. It is more likely to happen after pip if the incubation humidity was low as opposed to high but is still rare. Shrink wrap can also happen before pip if conditions are perfect for that. Really really rare but possible. Probably low humidity and a really porous egg. I don't think you need to stay up nights worrying about that but just be alert if you see it during hatch. I really don't expect this to happen.

Egg #10 is a clear, it will not hatch. I'd give all the others a chance.

 

[Tumbleweedlynn]

So you've noticed that too. Your situation is not ideal but I really doubt it is a disaster.

The main purpose of controlling the humidity is to manage the total moisture loss during incubation. That depends more on the average humidity over the entire incubation than an instantaneous humidity. You are probably right, the low humidity was probably for less than a day so the overall effect on average is pretty minimal. I don't foresee any problems from that aspect. Moisture loss is not something that has to be precise. There is a reasonable window that can work well.

I assume your previous successful incubations were when your hygrometer read 50%. It is true that many hygrometers don't read that correctly, they can be off a fair amount. That's why we talk about calibrating them, we assume that the difference between what it reads and the actual is consistent. In your situation I would not calibrate it just to get accurate numbers. You have already calibrated it to your hatching conditions. Whatever the actual humidity is, your hatching conditions say it should read 50%.

I calibrated my thermometer because I consider correct temperature important. I never calibrated my hygrometer but found through trial and error that my best hatches came when it read 40%. I got decent hatches when it read 45% but the sweet spot was when it read around 40%. I don't know if the actual humidity was 30% or 60%. I didn't consider knowing the actual that important. Even if I had known what the actual was I'd still tweak it to determine my sweet spot. For various reasons that sweet spot can be different for each of us.

The concern I'd have with a period of really low humidity is that the membrane under the shell may dry out enough that it separates from the shell creating a condition we call shrink wrap. That is most likely to occur when the humidity is low during hatch, after the chick external pips. That's why we raise the humidity during lockdown. It is more likely to happen after pip if the incubation humidity was low as opposed to high but is still rare. Shrink wrap can also happen before pip if conditions are perfect for that. Really really rare but possible. Probably low humidity and a really porous egg. I don't think you need to stay up nights worrying about that but just be alert if you see it during hatch. I really don't expect this to happen.

Egg #10 is a clear, it will not hatch. I'd give all the others a chance.

Thank you so much! This stupid humidity reading was at 4 again this morning, filled it up again and now it’s at 50 again. I’m going to shoot for 40 if I can ever get this thing right. I never had this issue before. I love all the information, definitely things I will be looking for now that I’m really paying attention to the hatch, whereas before I was totally relying on this incubator. Thanks again!

 

[Ridgeback825]

I bought a cheap, $11, Bluetooth temp and humidity sensor that sends alerts to my phone. It's much more accurate than my incubator and is tiny, so it fits inside easily. Hope that helps better than the reptile ones!

 

[Tumbleweedlynn]

I bought a cheap, $11, Bluetooth temp and humidity sensor that sends alerts to my phone. It's much more accurate than my incubator and is tiny, so it fits inside easily. Hope that helps better than the reptile ones!

Did you get it from Amazon? Thanks!