Lockdown Humidity

[jessmess119]

Hi everyone! I am brand new to the chicken world, and I have my first set of eggs in the incubator. We are on day 20 and in lockdown. We've been doing well up until this point and had 9 very active babies right before lockdown.

Here's my concern, though. During the day I am able to keep the humidity between 65-70%. However, overnight, it is dropping to around 45%. I put wet sponges in and fill the reservoir at around 9pm, but it is always dripped by morning. Do you think the chicks are okay? Anything else you can think of to prevent this?

Thanks!

 

[nuthatched]

What type of incubator do you have? It shouldn't be dripping like that. Have you calibrated your sensors?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Do you think the chicks are okay? Anything else you can think of to prevent this?

Welcome to BYC!

I never had humidity drop like that day after day, I usually get at least 2-3 days between the overnight drop.. but if your ambient humidity is really dry.. then I could see it happening. Where are you located and which bator are you using?

Chicks should still be fine and would even hatch at 45%.. though I would probably bring it back up.. if there aren't any external pips yet.

Also you may hear peeping from internaly pipped chicks before external pips are noticable.

To prevent.. maybe add a humidifier to the room, move to a smaller more humid room like the bathroom, maybe putting a larger card board box around/over the bator to stabilize some.

When it gets real late in the game for me.. all water addition is done through a straw (or air tube) and the ventilation hole, using a non needle syringe.. sirected either to the well or onto the extra sponge.

Happy hatching!

 

[jessmess119]

Welcome to BYC!

I never had humidity drop like that day after day, I usually get at least 2-3 days between the overnight drop.. but if your ambient humidity is really dry.. then I could see it happening. Where are you located and which bator are you using?

Chicks should still be fine and would even hatch at 45%.. though I would probably bring it back up.. if there aren't any external pips yet.

Also you may hear peeping from internaly pipped chicks before external pips are noticable.

To prevent.. maybe add a humidifier to the room, move to a smaller more humid room like the bathroom, maybe putting a larger card board box around/over the bator to stabilize some.

When it gets real late in the game for me.. all water addition is done through a straw (or air tube) and the ventilation hole, using a non needle syringe.. sirected either to the well or onto the extra sponge.

Happy hatching!

Thank you so much, that is really helpful! I do live in an incredibly dry climate. I am in west Texas, and our relative humidity is usually only around 10%. I will try those tricks to work on keeping it stable, thank you! So far no chirps or pips, but I'm very on edge this late in the game!

 

[jessmess119]

What type of incubator do you have? It shouldn't be dripping like that. Have you calibrated your sensors?

I am using this one from Amazon. It has been great maintaining humidity at the lower level during the first 18 days, but it is really struggling now that I'm trying to keep it higher. My only guess is that the dry air here is making it difficult. Today we're at 10% relative humidity, so it's really working against me!