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OK, well.. wait a minute. When you say you tested it does that mean that you actually "calibrated" it? What I mean is, if you're using one of the digital units that shows temp and humidity and you didn't spend hundreds for it then the humidity reading is probably off, maybe a lot.
Mix 1/2 cup of salt in 1 cup of water in a regular ol coffee cup. Put this cup into a large zip-lock bag then set your meter in the bag beside the cup and zip it up. Let it set there at room temp for 12 hours. Your humidity reading should be 75%.
Lets say the reading is 65%, that's 10 points low, so when you use the meter in the bator and it reads 40% (for example) you'll needs to add 10 to get the correct reading, which would be 50%.
Another thing that can make the digital meters inaccurate is the battery(ies). Weak batteries will cause wrong readings, so always use new batteries for each hatching cycle. I use rechargables.
Not trying to be a know-it-all, just trying to help.
No, I tested it, using the exact method that you just described, which I found in the incubating/hatching part of the forum. I can't calibrate it because it's not a high dollar one, it's one of the 3 that I bought before my first attempt. I did get paranoid and change the batteries first before testing it... found out it was reading 9 low, and bought a new wafer for the 'bator because I didn't know if the last batch got too hot once because the only eggs that hatched were the ones right in front of the fan.
I've been really paranoid about this batch. This is the third time I've tried incubating, and the first time was a total loss, the second time I got 12 out of 42. The main problem right now is that I can't get the humidity up and I'm worried that it's compromising the hatch. Since it's only day 22, I'm not counting it as a loss yet.
It seems really odd to me, I've used the type incubator you're using before and I can't imagine the humidity being so low with all the water you have in there. The one I had was a forced air type with a fan, does yours have a fan or is it a still air type? If it's still air you could get the humidity up by adding warm water.