Misting eggs during incubation

[wordgirl]

I've got ten Ancona eggs in the incubator and they're on day 8. I've been spraying them from day 4 with warm water and, understandably, the humidity always goes up after I do so. The problem is, I'm worried it's going too high. I think it got to at least 80% (according to my hygrometer, which may or may not be completely accurate) once, and the windows always get a little humid (normally I've been trying to keep my humidity within about 50-65% humidity - it's often in the 50s or low 60s). Is this supposed to happen? Is it alright for the humidity to go up for a while after I mist the eggs? I've been opening the top and trying to get most of the humid air out a little after I do this because I'm worried about drowning the ducklings, but this might be defeating the purpose and probably bad for the temperature and everything. What should I do? I'm going to start cooling the eggs for a few minutes a day tonight, so if I mist at the beginning of the cool-down period, maybe it would help a little (since that water would evaporate into the room and not into the enclosed incubator). But I've heard people mist at the beginning and I've heard other people say they mist at the end, so I'm not sure which is better. Any advice, either about when to mist, and what to do about the high humidity?

Thank you!

 

[QuackerJackFarms]

Personally I only mist about every 3 days. Sometimes if the humidity is good, not even then. And I don't cool my eggs either. That's just me. Others of course do things differently. But if it were me.. I wouldn't mist if my humidity was perfect. 50-60.

 

[Goin Quackrrs]

Personally I only mist about every 3 days. Sometimes if the humidity is good, not even then. And I don't cool my eggs either. That's just me. Others of course do things differently. But if it were me.. I wouldn't mist if my humidity was perfect. 50-60.

I mist if I've opened the incubator for other reasons, like candling or adding to the water reservoir. I spritzed three times a day like clockwork with my second hatch and that didn't go so well.

 

[BobDBirdDog]

I know this is an old dead thread, but misting is not advisable in my book... that is unless you are not misting the eggs directly, eg spraying the mist on the eggs as watter droplets will form on the shell. This in turn will have a larger potential to effect the hatch rate as egg shells are porous and the chicks breath though the shell to get thier oxygen.

So if misting, it would be better to spray the walls or an area around the egg and not the spray a mits over the egg itself. A fog of humidity would be better but since that might not be feasable in a given situation, try misting as prescribed above and at a druation that is acceptable to get the higher or desired humidity. For me there are better ways of obtaining higher humidity.