Lock Down / Hatching Humidity

[CMRchick]

Hi! I am new here! I have read and gathered lots of info over the last few months, but this is my first question to the group! I have 25 eggs hatching at this very moment. They started at 7am today (11/25/2020). 11 have hatched, 14 to go. My question is about the humidity. I put it up to 65 degrees on day 18 when I locked it down. It was set for 50 from day 1-18. As these babies are hatching the humidity is rising... it is currently at 80%. I have watched it rise all day. I read so many warnings about how a sudden drop in humidity can trap all the chicks in the egg. (Basically zip locking them in the membrane). I have the vent open all the way to try to reduce the humidity naturally. I am using the Brinsea Ovation 56 EX.

My question is: Do I just watch it continue to rise because of all the hatching going on in there? or ... Do I lift the lid for 10 seconds to lower the humidity? Again , it was only set for 65 at the start oof the morning, and I have since set it down to 50 degrees. I am so afraid to harm the chicks that still haven't hatched yet. I have no idea why the humidity is going up so high? Is that normal during the hatching process?

Any help / advice would be extremely appreciated!! Thank you!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Increase in humidity while the chicks are actively hatching will not hurt anything. It will all be fine. You probably do not need to worry, just keep it over 60%, it will go up as you note, as the chicks hatch. Good luck!
Welcome to BYC!

 

[mcdze]

couple thoughts - .. its normal but temps are more important, ive found that in smaller incubators anyway temps can drop with the higher humidity and opening the incubator to lower humidity can compound that issue .. so watch temps more than anything .. high humidity wont hurt them while theyre hatching but if temps do drop off it can chill chicks still wet which will generally make them scream non-stop, so thats a telling sign theres a problem, and its not good for late hatchers either and can slow them down which can potentially put them 'in the red' so to speak .. so yeah .. again, watch the temps, and watch them 'on the ground' so to speak on the gauge thats next to the eggs not the units gauge, and up it if necessary ..