Is it ok to incubate eggs at 62% to 65% from the beginning?

[RiverMan420]

And if so then what about temperature? With my aquarium heating pad I seem to maintain a temp of about 97F to 100F but the humidity is way high.

 

[Denninmi]

No, if they are kept too humid, they won't lose enough moisture and the chicks can drown in the egg at internal pip. You need to do something to correct that. What is your water source? Is it something like a dish of water or a sponge? If so, make it smaller.

 

[hinkjc]

Drowning occurs when hatching humidity is too high. What happens when you keep humidity too high during incubation is the air cell does not gets large enough and results in an oversized chick that internally pips and runs out of air in the air cell - they typically never externally pip the shell. Or the chick may grow normally (this depends on temperature as well) and the air cell is too far to reach, thus they never pip internally or externally.

 

[RiverMan420]

Thanks folks for the info. Seems odd that the temp and humidity have to be so precise. Makes me wonder how people ever figured this out and a momma hen knew all along

 

[mulia24]

momma hens are natural being, and many things in nature already have good balance without (and/or before) human intervention.

People do learn from momma hen how to set the eggs and of course with trial and error people gain knowledge.

the humidity is way too high, it's better about 40%-50% (just in my opinion)

 

[MjChickens]

So I am lost now, I run my bator 30%-40% the first 18 days and the last 3 days I up it to 70%-75%. Now If I am not careful they still shrink wrap. Would that be because I need to move my humidity up the first 18 days and down the last 3 days?