Little Giant Incubator holding at 60% humidity - Day 21 raise?????

[Mommysongbird]

Hey everyone, I have 24 bantam eggs in my Little Giant Incubator w/fan and I am on day 21, the humidity seems to be sitting at 60%, should I try to raise it???

I put one of the red plugs back in so it would stay at the 60% mark. Two chicks have already hatched and I have about 4 more that have pipped and at least 2 of those will zip most likely in the next half hour.

Incubator is also wrapped to hold in heat better.

This is our second hatch this year, the first one we got 7 out of 12 eggs to hatch. I would love for that rate to go up. Some of these eggs were darker, so I couldn't see in them very well, so I really don't know if any of those were fertile to begin with.

This is what the incubator is wrapped with, in case your wondering, this was from our first hatch.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

As far as humidity goes if you didn't calibrate your hygrometer then it's anyone's guess what the actual RH is. I've seen hygrometers off by 10 or more percent. Google salt test to see about calibrating. 60% RH is a bit low in my mind. I've read of a person that hatches less than that. Eggs really are incredible things and survive in huge range of conditions. Personal experience is 65-75% RH for hatching is best results.

Personally I'd not wrap the incubator. as your restricting air flow. Chicks need more air, in other words incubating eggs requires less air in beginning and more near end of hatch as the chicks are breathing then. I like simple so keep any and all plugs out of the incubator from the get go.

 

[Mommysongbird]

As far as humidity goes if you didn't calibrate your hygrometer then it's anyone's guess what the actual RH is. I've seen hygrometers off by 10 or more percent. Google salt test to see about calibrating. 60% RH is a bit low in my mind. I've read of a person that hatches less than that. Eggs really are incredible things and survive in huge range of conditions. Personal experience is 65-75% RH for hatching is best results.

Personally I'd not wrap the incubator. as your restricting air flow. Chicks need more air, in other words incubating eggs requires less air in beginning and more near end of hatch as the chicks are breathing then. I like simple so keep any and all plugs out of the incubator from the get go.

It was calibrated

I have to wrap because our house stays on the cool side, and it's the ONLY way I can keep the temps right. Same with brooders, I have to put towels or blankets over the brooder boxes so the heat stays in.

My incubator has several holes in the top, not including the plug holes. If I take out the plugs, even just 1, my temp and humidity start to fall, even covered.

 

[Duck Drover]

I think air is more critical than humidity. There is less oxygen in humid air so you don't want to reduce the oxygen to get the humidity higher. I do dry hatching in my Little Giant incubators so my humidity is not as high as yours.