Lockdown Humidity Question... Fill all water reservoirs?

[snaffle]

Instructions with my syrofoam incubators say to fill all 4 water troughs before locking down. I have never done that because with just a couple of filled troughs the humidity gets so dog gone high. (In my opinion)

I just read the post from the young person who filled all troughs at lockdown and the humidity climbed to 70 but there was a successful hatch.

How do you handle this? Do you fill all those troughs/resevoirs and close the lid?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Instructions with my syrofoam incubators say to fill all 4 water troughs before locking down. I have never done that because with just a couple of filled troughs the humidity gets so dog gone high. (In my opinion)

I just read the post from the young person who filled all troughs at lockdown and the humidity climbed to 70 but there was a successful hatch.

How do you handle this? Do you fill all those troughs/resevoirs and close the lid?

I fill mine and add sponges. I shoot for 75% at hatch. If you see condensation you have too much and should cut it back.

 

[snaffle]

Well AmyLynn.... next time I have an incubator empty, which should be later today or tomorrow... I am going to fill all the reservoirs and patiently wait for the humidity to level out...

maybe I have been worrying too much?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Well AmyLynn.... next time I have an incubator empty, which should be later today or tomorrow... I am going to fill all the reservoirs and patiently wait for the humidity to level out...

maybe I have been worrying too much?

You confused me. What are you talking about when you say 'when I have an incubator empty'? If you are using a styrofoam bator, you don't want to do that (in my opinion) for the first 17 days. Styros have better hatches (in my experience and many other's) using the dry incubation method for days 1-17, then upping the humidity for lockdown. The dry method is less stressfull and if you do it right, you are monitoring the air cells so that you know how to adjust humidity for what is best for your eggs.

 

[lazy gardener]

Snaffle: Are you using a separate incubator for lock down? In that case, you do want to raise the humidity during those last 3 days. Don't do what the manual says, by filling all the water troughs. Use as much water as you need to raise the humidity to 65-75%. If you get condensation, it's too much.

 

[snaffle]

I do use a separate incubator for lockdown.

AmyLynn the dry incubation does not work for me because the humidity in our area and house is such that it would drop below 20 in the incubator.

I do not want to experiment with testing the humidity (when all water troughs are full) with an incubator full of eggs which is why I will do it with an empty incubator.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I do use a separate incubator for lockdown.

AmyLynn the dry incubation does not work for me because the humidity in our area and house is such that it would drop below 20 in the incubator.

I do not want to experiment with testing the humidity (when all water troughs are full) with an incubator full of eggs which is why I will do it with an empty incubator.

Dry incubation is not always 100% dry. In the fall I could do a completely dry incubation and my bator held an average of 40% w/o water. This last incubation for the Easter HAL I could not run the bator 100% dry as it was about 16% w/o water. So I use a wet sponge to keep it at 30%. Even though my bator itself is not 100% w/o added moisture this is still considered a dry incubation because of the low amount of humidity compared to the standard incubation. http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity

Just remember that unless you use "dummy eggs" (something in place of the eggs) that you will have a different outcome in an empty incubator as you will in an incubator full of eggs.

 

[scflock]

Dry incubation is not always 100% dry. In the fall I could do a completely dry incubation and my bator held an average of 40% w/o water. This last incubation for the Easter HAL I could not run the bator 100% dry as it was about 16% w/o water. So I use a wet sponge to keep it at 30%. Even though my bator itself is not 100% w/o added moisture this is still considered a dry incubation because of the low amount of humidity compared to the standard incubation. http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity

Just remember that unless you use "dummy eggs" (something in place of the eggs) that you will have a different outcome in an empty incubator as you will in an incubator full of eggs.

That's the point that people need to understand about "dry" incubation. Even I am running close to dry now, but I am still at 40%

 

[AmyLynn2374]

That's the point that people need to understand about "dry" incubation. Even I am running close to dry now, but I am still at 40%

It really needs a new name, like low humidity incubation. People get confused very easy. They either think that you have to run completetly dry or that you run dry the whole incubation right through to hatch. Do you think that if we all start calling it Low Humidity Incubation (LHI) instead of dry incubation that it will catch on and people will have a better grasp at the concept??? lol

 

[scflock]

It really needs a new name, like low humidity incubation. People get confused very easy. They either think that you have to run completetly dry or that you run dry the whole incubation right through to hatch. Do you think that if we all start calling it Low Humidity Incubation (LHI) instead of dry incubation that it will catch on and people will have a better grasp at the concept??? lol

AmyLynn's Super Duper Styromidity Guide