Problem humidities with Dry incubation

[BirdBrain]

I am trying to do the dry incubation method and it seems to be an all or nothing situation. I got up this morning and the humidity was 24%. I added 2 ounces of water and it jumped up to 60%. I have a medium sized black plastic TV dinner tray (the lean cuisine size) that my water supply tube runs into. I am wondering why it is either too high or too low. Any ideas why and what to do? Vents are open.

 

[Chicken Woman]

It will go up and down a bit. Open a vent for a bit and bring it down . or you can sit a paper towel in your try and remove some water.
When I add water it is only a teaspoon at a time. I let it drop to 25 before adding water. After adding water it will take a while for it to come back up.
Some people even let it stay at 25 for 12 hours before bringing it back up.

I think it is just something you have to experiment with. Good luck kiddo !!

There is really no wrong way ! 60 isn't a big deal. Just let it come down and it will be fine.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

You could try a smaller water container. A large suface area will give higher humidities

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
I second this. It doesn't matter how much water you add, what matters is how big the surface area of the water is. You can cover part of the bowl with foil to cut down on your surface area.

ETA: And opening the vent holes will also help to bring it down.

 

[BirdBrain]

Thanks for the reassurance. I hope to get something out of this hatch. I candled this morning and there were 8 out of 17 that I could see definite development in. 4-5 others were too thick shelled to see anything, and the rest are questionable. There was one that it looked like there was a free floating air sac. That was kinda weird.

 

[panner123]

The only time I add more than a 1/2 oz of water is on day 18. Then it is only 1 oz. I watch it until the humidity stops riasing, if it doesn't reach the point whaere I want it I add alittle more never more than a 1/2 oz at these times. You are some what better off with the humidity being low than high. Any large swing shouldn't hurt for a short period of time.

 

[BeardedChick]

Agreeing with others -

I found that using a small cup or something with small surface area and keeping it half full in there made the humidity stay right around 40%. So you can probably tune the size of the cup to get what you want.

You ought to preheat it to about 100 deg. before you pop it in so it doesn't mess up the temperature of the 'bator.

 

[noriko]

Oh, I have a same problem. This is a really good information for me too! I'll try it right now. Thank you everyone! Noriko.

 

[BirdBrain]

This morning I put in small plastic cup...the kind that individual apple sauce comes it. It is holding steady at 32% humidity. Looks like that was our problem. I left the other pan in there to fill up for the hatch. Thanks guys!!