Problem keeping humidity up in Magicfly 12 incubator. Help needed?

[Maggie1030]

Hi I placed 3 Silkie eggs in my auto turner Magicfly 12 incubator yesterday. I already had it running for a day and the temperature was good. 100.2 degrees and humidity was 51. Today when I went to check the incubator, the hygrometer reading was 100 degrees and humidity was 10 ! I hope this didn't ruin my eggs viability. The directions said to add 1/4 cup of water every 2 days. Didnt realize the humidity drops so quickly. Any help would be appreciated...

 

[Squishychicken]

I'm not familier with the incubator your using but I use a little giant and it has little chambers for the water. I fill all those up with warm water when ever they get low and it keeps the incubator around 50 for humidity. if it gets lower then 50 i add a wet sponge in there and it should keep it up.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I believe 50% RH is too high to incubate at. Regardless, looking at that incubator I see there is only an undivided bottom. Meaning there is only one surface area your working with, the entire bottom of incubator. If you want to regulate lower RH you'll need to fit a container to side of turner in there and pour water in only that.

Humidity in incubator is a relation of surface area of water. A smaller container will keep your humidity lower than the 50% RH achieved with entire bottom filled with water. You'll definitely need a another container in there in addition to bottom well to reach 65-75% RH during hatch time. So might as well play around with surface areas now to figure it all out.

Running high then low then high humidity doesn't effect the viability of the eggs. All humidity is doing is retarding or speeding up the moisture loss in the egg. This can be seen by aircell size when candling. If you run the incubator 1/2 time at 50% Rh and half at 10% RH then your averaging 30% RH over the course of incubation. Which is actually where you want to be. But again, you'll need to figure out how to get it up to 70% RH for the last few days when hatching.

It's a little hard for me to believe that it's only 50% RH with entire bottom area water. Might want to salt test a hygrometer and stick it in there to verify that number.

 

[Squishychicken]

on the instructions to the incubator it says to use 50% and 65 or 70% during hatch day.

 

[Maggie1030]

Ok thank you so much for the help

 

[lazy gardener]

on the instructions to the incubator it says to use 50% and 65 or 70% during hatch day.

Throw those instructions away! 30 - 40% is good through day 17. Humidity is used as a tool to see to it that the air cells develop in accordance with the age of the embryo. If the air cell is too small at lock down, there is too much moisture in the egg, and the chick may drown when she pips. If the aircell is too large, the egg may be too dry, and the chick will be sticky, having a difficult time moving to successfully hatch. There is no magic humidity number. It's a matter of constant assessment, and adjustment to find what works for you, your bator, and your eggs. Even different eggs require different management. Large vs. small. Porous shell vs. dense shell.

Humidity is best managed when you realize the relationship between surface area and evaporation. A sponge is the best tool to manage humidity levels IMO. I use strips of sponge, placed in a cup of water. If a 1 x 4" piece of sponge does not achieve the desired level, I can easily add an other 4 sq. inches of sponge. All those holes in the sponge = an incredible amount of surface area for evaporation. When your humidity is good one day, a storm front with increased outdoor humidity can result in a humidity spike in the bator. So, the sponge that works for you on Monday, may need to be removed on Tuesday! Last spring, I ran my bator dry through most of the incubation period!! And ran it dry right up until first internal pip.

 

[lazy gardener]

Good post @Egghead_Jr

 

[Squishychicken]

I hatched out chicks using 50% humidity...but I guess I should change it!

 

[junebuggena]

In addition, make sure your humidity gauge is reading accurately. I didn't test my tried and usually true humidity gauge prior to my last incubation. Only half the eggs hatched. Decided to check my gauge to see if it may have been off. Turns out, it's now reading 10% off. Fingers crossed next incubation goes better.

 

[Maggie1030]

thanks so much for all the great tips!