Lockdown Checkin - Humidity

[Shelbysoobs]

Hi, I am doing my second incubation (first = 0% viable shipped eggs, so no lockdown period), but my first time making it to lock down. I had 2 yolkers and 1 suspected quitter but it’s a Maran egg and really hard to see. So I left it in just in case.

I am confused because I tracked humidity loss by grams and some of my eggs are weighing more and some are weighing less, but overall they are weighing more on average. The discrepancy is somewhat large for some, and then others are dead on. I am using a NR360 so they are rotated in a circle through all hot and cold spots, and I’m tracking heat and humidity with two Govees on opposite ends of the bator. I am also worried about keeping humidity in target (65-75 as I understand) for lockdown because of the variance. Does it matter? Is it negligible? I don’t want any to drown or suffocate if I miss making a necessary adjustment.

I’m also worried about keeping temp on target. It is soooo low after adding the extra water, I added warm water but the time it took to candle and weigh eggs, it is struggling to get back up to temp. I have it set to 100.5, because I needed to increase it to 100.0 to average around 99.5 on the Govees, but now the Govees are only reading 98.6 and 98.8 even though humidity seems to have stabilized. It’s been almost 45 mins since adding water to reservoir B, 15 mins since I replaced lid.

 

[Shelbysoobs]

It’s been an hour and my temp and humidity still aren’t right.. as the temp has risen, now my humidity is too high and my temp is alllllllmost high enough.

 

[Debbie292d]

The temp will be okay as it's very close and since you're in lockdown it won't slow them down just being low by tenth of a degree. We can be within a degree of 99.5F and still be okay.

Is the vent open in the lid? 75% will be okay. I go between 65% to 70% mostly, but as long as it doesn't hit 80% (which I've actually heard a couple of people say they set theirs at, which I find odd they don't drown their chicks).

I have never been one to weigh the eggs I'm incubating. I only candle them at 7 days, then again while taking the racks out for lockdown.

 

[Shelbysoobs]

I can’t seem to get it below 75, and it’s really closer to 76. I tried to suck as much water as possible out of reservoir A to decrease water surface area. The vent is fully open, and I’ve had it open fully the entire incubation period. With just reservoir A filled I was between 45-50 humidity

 

[Debbie292d]

I can’t seem to get it below 75, and it’s really closer to 76. I tried to suck as much water as possible out of reservoir A to decrease water surface area. The vent is fully open, and I’ve had it open fully the entire incubation period. With just reservoir A filled I was between 45-50 humidity

If you want it down, remembering it's an average, provided none have pipped, I'd just crack one side of the incubator, then the other. It will rise back up, but doing that a couple of times will slowly get it to come down.

I ditched my NR360 years ago for a used Brinsea 56EX mostly due to that humidity issue.

 

[Shelbysoobs]

If you want it down, remembering it's an average, provided none have pipped, I'd just crack one side of the incubator, then the other. It will rise back up, but doing that a couple of times will slowly get it to come down.

I ditched my NR360 years ago for a used Brinsea 56EX mostly due to that humidity issue.

Interesting … yeah I really can’t get the humidity lower, reservoir A is almost completely dry and basically no difference in humidity. I’m hoping it will evaporate the rest of the way tonight out of A and I’ll wake up to a better RH but I’m so worried they will drown

Could I dry up reservoir B and switch back to using A and then add sponges for lockdown? Will they retain moisture long enough that I don’t need to open the lid? Or could I close the air vent halfway with reservoir A to increase it? I was averaging 51 humidity before lockdown with reservoir A and air vent fully open.

 

[Debbie292d]

Interesting … yeah I really can’t get the humidity lower, reservoir A is almost completely dry and basically no difference in humidity. I’m hoping it will evaporate the rest of the way tonight out of A and I’ll wake up to a better RH but I’m so worried they will drown

Could I dry up reservoir B and switch back to using A and then add sponges for lockdown? Will they retain moisture long enough that I don’t need to open the lid? Or could I close the air vent halfway with reservoir A to increase it? I was averaging 51 humidity before lockdown with reservoir A and air vent fully open.

I've never had to add sponges but I've heard of using a small one in a Dixie cup but don't soak it too much as if a chick hatches and knocks it over an accident could happen.

I used to fill A totally, then trickle some into B. B would run out so fast so this became a 3X a day job. If I filled B, I ran into your issue so only did that once and never filled B again. You could try it your way and let A dry out and fill up B too I think and just see what that does. If it's not enough, then you could trickle into A.

 

[my spoiled chickens]

Interesting … yeah I really can’t get the humidity lower, reservoir A is almost completely dry and basically no difference in humidity. I’m hoping it will evaporate the rest of the way tonight out of A and I’ll wake up to a better RH but I’m so worried they will drown

Could I dry up reservoir B and switch back to using A and then add sponges for lockdown? Will they retain moisture long enough that I don’t need to open the lid? Or could I close the air vent halfway with reservoir A to increase it? I was averaging 51 humidity before lockdown with reservoir A and air vent fully open.

Did you try using a papertowel or sponge?

 

[Susan Skylark]

I had trouble with temp variation between the inner and outer rings on the NR360, even though it goes in a circle the inside ring is warmer than the outside ring, I ended up hand turning my second batch and moving eggs around the hatching floor every so often. Now I’m using a cheap Chinese bubble incubator and the humidity control is ridiculous, I have 2 bottle caps from a 20 oz soda bottle with water and it stays at 74 percent through lockdown with nothing in the reservoir. I have 10 quail eggs pipping right now, hopefully this works! Hope your hatch turns out!

 

[Shelbysoobs]

Did you try using a papertowel or sponge?

Not yet, I’ve been using a baster to suck as much water out as possible so the reservoirs will dry up and then I can try adding humidity a different way. I’m still sitting at 74% humidity but I’m hoping it’ll drop this evening and I’ll be able to fill up reservoir A and close the vent 3/4 or add a sponge