Hey everyone, I have been reading byc since I've had chickens, which has been about a year. A lot of helpful info but finally started an account bc I can't find what I need this time. I'm probably just missing something. Anyway, I am hatching 30 eggs in an incubator, it has an automatic turner and is one of those styrofoam ones. It can hold 42 eggs. Yesterday was day 18 and I took out the turner and filled up some of the water tunnels at the bottom with a little bit of water and I put in a small damp rag (ok really it was a small old sock) for the humidity. This morning I wake up and he humidity was down, although when I went to bed it was where it needs to be. I went wth the dry incubating method for the first 18 days and I left the two red plugs out. I still left them out yesterday bc I read they need the air. How am I to keep the humidity up without filling up the basins and getting the humidity too high? I am borrowing the incubator from a friend and she had really low hatch rate bc I think her humidity was too high and she drowned them. Any advice? Oh and I out the plastic cabinet liner and then some paper towels down under the eggs, so in order to fill the bottom basin up, I would have to remove the eggs Sorry for the rambling but trying to give as much info as I can. Any hep or advice is greatly appreciated!
I don't worry about too high. As long as you are not seeing condensation on your bator's window you're good. I actually aim for 75% at hatch because I meddle and open my bator frequently. Once they start hatching it often goes up to 85% or more. (Not that it stays there too long because I take advantage of the higher humidity and remove shells, flip over pippers that have been rolled and/or take out my hatched chicks. I use sponges. I wet two or three kitchen sized sponges and set on the screen at egg level. This helps boost the humidity and if it starts to dip all I need to do is grab a sponge out pour water on it (I keep a gallon of water at my bator all times during hatch,) and slide it back in. I also leave my vents open for the entire incubation. Sounds to me like you are headed in the right direction. Good luck on the hatch and make sure you let us know how it's going.
Thanks for the reply! I snuck a damp sponge in there and put it under one of the vent holes. Maybe I can use a straw to wet it if necessary. So many different ways to do it but also easy to mess things up, I'll let you know how it goes!
It's always better to open up the incubator and move the eggs to add more water than to leave it alone and do nothing. Keep in mind that a broody hen will still get up off the nest to eat, drink, and poo even if chicks are hatching. Moving the eggs over to pour in some more water through the screen is not going to hurt them.
