Please help humidity

[tcooper23]

From today i heard one of my eggs peeping. But the humidity is at 55% even though there is twice as much surface water now (it used to be 50%). What is a fast of way getting the humidity up?? I heard something with a sponge but how do you do it??

thanks

 

[wegotchickens]

It's usually best to get the sponge in there before lockdown.
What kind of bator are you using?
Do you trust your hydrometer?


For mine I use clean paper towels laid out under an vent hole. I use a srtaw to slur up hot water, the stick the straw through the vent hole and drip the water onto the paper towel. I do that whenever it looks like the humidity has gotten low.

 

[tcooper23]

I have a home made incubator. I think my hygrometer is pretty accurate but anyway its now at 60%, i would like to make it higher a little just incase. My vent holes are made of the top of a bottle so i can screw off it to open it. Right now i have a piece of spunge hanging inside and im injecting water into it once in a while. Any ideas?

 

[wegotchickens]

Keep doing what you're doing. And use hot water, it adds to the humidity without dropping the temp.

Good luck!

 

[tcooper23]

one hatched

it took less than 2 hours to pip zip and hatch

but its having a hard time getting its shell of its back

 

[wegotchickens]

Congratulations!!

It will get it off eventually. Or you can wash it off later. Just leave that bator shut! You want to keeo the humidity & temp up. The chicks will be fine in there for a day.

 

[babsbag]

Open your vents if they aren't open. You have got to have ventilation in there or the chicks will die. It is just as important as the humidity. 60 is not that low. Mama hen probably is not any higher than that and she certainly doesn't raise it on the last 3 days.

I ran mine between 60-70 during lcokdown, but sometimes it was a little higher. Adding hot water is great, it will raise the humidity. When I was really desperate I stuck a spray bottle of warm water through my vent holes and misted the top of the incubator. I didn't aim for the eggs, but they did get some on them obviously. I only did that when I wanted to open the incubator. I also put sponges and rags in my pans of water and let them sitck out, they would evaporate faster that way. I have heard that a maxipad works well, but I haven't tried it.

Once you have a chick hatch the humidity will go up as they dry off. When you have a pip don't let the humidity drop, that is when the membrane dries out.

 

[tcooper23]

thanks for the tips

this is my first ever chicken since i was 7 years old.

i saw one of its legs stuck. theres a white thing thats stuck the shell wrapped around it, what is this??