Noob here. Egg cracked due to low humidity??? Help!!

[Otesanik]

Hi guys. So I’m incubating quail eggs at 40-45% humidity, temp 99.5. It’s the fourth day of incubation and 2 of my eggs were partially caved in (but no leakage). The damage was too severe to let them stay in there, as they might rot or infect other eggs, so I removed them.
I cracked both of them and only one had visible embryo development.

The humidity is kind of fluctuating a lot in the incubator right now (30 jumping to 50, mostly 46%) but I’m starting to get a grip and make it more consistent. Only once or twice did I tilt the incubator to rotate the eggs, and they did kind of roll around a bit rough, but I would have noticed sooner if the eggs cracked due to that since I’ve been hand rotating them 3-4x a day.

I’ve been leaving the lid partially open, because with or without water, the humidity sky rockets to 55 - 65%. The only thing that makes it stay at 40-46% is if I leave it partially open. I’m so confused, it’s my first time incubating and I already feel like the rest of my eggs are doomed.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

You have too much water in your incubator that's why it goes up when the lid is on. Take some out.
I've never heard of eggs cracking in low humidity??
Had you been giving your chickens oyster shell for calcium? That's what makes the shells hard.
I keep my humidity for most eggs at around 30% humidity.

 

[Otesanik]

Even without any water, the humidity goes up to 55-60%. The incubator is in a cool, dry place too. These are shipped eggs, from Myshire farms. I carefully inspected the eggs when I first got them and they were in perfect shape.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

What hygrometer are you using? Just the one on your incubator?

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

@Kiki

 

[Otesanik]

What hygrometer are you using? Just the one on your incubator?

I’m using the Imagitarium round hygrometer. Cheap little thing but overall decent reviews. My incubator is the magic fly auto incubator.