Low Humidity

[Kristisp]

I have 12 eggs in an incubator and on day 6 they were without water for about 12-24 hours. Since then, humidity is fine and they are 15 days into their hatch. I candled 2 today and they looked okay.

Any ideas what low humidity for a short period will do at the beginning of the cycle? It is a forced air incubator.

Thanks.
Kristi

 

[Mama Bird]

im sorry to tell you that i dont really know much about the humidity, but i have always just dry-hatched and its all turned out better for me than the water in the bator thing. so i dont think it would have hurt them much. hope this gives a little info. have a good hatch.



-mama bird-

 

[Llysse]

My guess is also that it shouldn't hurt anything significantly. The 50% humidity level early on is meant to ensure that enough moisture evaporates form your eggs so that the chicks will have a large enough air pocket at the end to hatch--but not so much that the eggs have completely dried out. If there is too much humidity for too long a time early on, not enough evaporation occurs for the air pocket to grow and the chicks can drown as they try to pip. Towards the end of incubation, the humidity is raised so that the membrane is soft enough that the chick can get through it more easily. Ideally, the air pocket is already large enough by that time. Bottom line is that I doubt that one day, early on, with less than 50% humidity will hurt anything.