low humidity in incubator

[morheb]

Hello guys
my homemade incubator humidity is always at 40%
I have added a big surface of water but the humidity still low (15cm*30cm)

My encubator has lots of holes that i made to have fresh air it it, shoud i close them or keep them?

 

[mich9510]

I'm new to all this but I can tell you that my incubator only has two dime-sized holes. It's pretty small..I think capacity for 42 eggs. If I were you I might close some holes and add a wet sponge.

 

[morheb]

Im using half of my incubator area for water so i can only add about 38 eggs

 

[AmyLynn2374]

If your humidity is 40% and you are in the first 17 days of incubation I would not be striving to higher it unless my air cells were showing they needed it. You will need higher humidity for lockdown. Depending on how much ventilation you have added, you may be able to close some off in order to be able to raise the humidity for lockdown. If possible, you'd be better off by adding some pics so that we can see the set up and how much ventilation you are using and then maybe someone can make recommendations.

 

[morheb]

I have been putting eggs on daily basis
Each day ine chick hatches but they cant get out on their own, im helpong them all out
I closed all the holes in the incubator,i will see how it works

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I have been putting eggs on daily basis
Each day ine chick hatches but they cant get out on their own, im helpong them all out
I closed all the holes in the incubator,i will see how it works

Staggered hatches complicate things especially for a new hatcher. Why don't you collect a week's worth of eggs and set them all together?

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Quote:
I agree with AmyLynn. I do staggered hatches all the time...but it makes it considerably easier if you collect for a week or so and set them in a bunch instead of daily. If you set them on the same day each week, for example Saturday if you work or go to school, then they'll always start hatching when you're home on the weekend. It just helps keep things simple.

A picture would be great to see your incubator and the ventilation. I've got a homemade incubator too. I have 4 holes the size of a stick pen and two larger holes in the side where I was modifying it. I'm not sure you want to completely close it up.

 

[reddtekk]

While I know this adds complexity to the matter, I used a very small and inexpensive ultrasonic humidifier to maintain humidity in the incubator.

At first I was using sponges and trays but I wasn't satisfied with the amount of fussing around I had to do to maintain proper humidity. I bought the humidifier and set it next to the incubator (a modified Styrofoam cooler) and jammed a piece of garden hose between the discharge of the humidifier and the cooler. I varied the alignment of the hose with the hole to vary the amount of moisture introduced. I used distilled water to prevent disease and deposits in the humidifier. This worked but was messy - I had water running all over the side of the incubator and had to fill the humidifier daily.

Next I disassembled the humidifier and cut one of the wires to the float switch. I extended it to the outside and reassembled the unit. I then hooked that up with a relay in series with the switch and controlled it with a Raspberry Pi and a DHT-22 temperature/humidity sensor and a simple Python program (I say "simple" but it took me a LONG time to learn enough to write it!!) I have two humidity levels set in the program selected by an external switch - one for the incubation period and another for lockdown. The relay turns the humidifier on and off on a 10 second cycle, varying how many seconds it stays on in response to the reading from the sensor to vary the amount of moisture introduced and maintain the correct humidity level without wasting any water.

Temperature control is currently accomplished using an industrial temperature controller and a 75 watt ceramic infrared heater (commonly used for reptile terrariums).

I know I probably have a lot invested in this for what it is, but it's a hobby for me and I have learned a tremendous amount about the Raspberry Pi and how versatile it is. Hopefully one day my life will calm down a bit and I can finalize the project - using the Raspberry Pi exclusively, without the external temperature controller, and adding egg turning, camera, charts and alarms and other bells and whistles. But for now, maybe my humidity solution will be helpful to you.