So 4/7 eggs have begun developing.

[Quail_Guy]

I checked my eggs one last time before I heard over on a small trip for a day or two making sure everything was in tact and everything was prepared for my leave. And when I candled my eggs two more have started developing! My incubator can't keep the correct amount of humidity but would I able to keep the humidity at 50-53%?

 

[GracePoultry]

Assuming your incubating quail that would be fine. for chickens you would want it to be closer to 60% humidity which you should be able to raise a bit by adding a small bowl of water in the incubator but only a bit so the humidity doesn't get too high.

 

[Quail_Guy]

Assuming your incubating quail that would be fine. for chickens you would want it to be closer to 60% humidity which you should be able to raise a bit by adding a small bowl of water in the incubator but only a bit so the humidity doesn't get too high.

Oh okay! But what would the humidity percentage be so both eggs can survive in the same incubator? I heard it was possible to put quail eggs and chicken eggs in the same incubator but the temp and humidity would be a little difficult.

 

[GracePoultry]

I'm not an expert on this but I read around 50% - 55% humidity

 

[Ridgerunner]

It is a good thing Mother Nature doesn't have such rigid rules, otherwise both chickens and quail would be extinct.

The purpose of controlling humidity is to control moisture loss through the porous shell during incubation. Losing too much or not enough moisture can endanger the hatch. But Mother Nature was kind to us, there is a fairly wide range that still works.

Then during lockdown you typically raise the humidity. The egg should have already lost the moisture it needs to. Once it pips the chick can get shrink-wrapped if the air in the incubator is too dry. Shrink-wrap seldom happens even if the air is too dry or you open the incubator during hatch, again Mother Nature was kind. But shrink-wrap is real and can happen. That's why every reliable source says to raise your humidity during lockdown.

Different individual eggs have different requirements. Due to differences in eggs some lose moisture easier than others. Eggs loose moisture as they are stored waiting to go in the incubator. An egg laid a week ago will have lost more moisture than an egg laid the day you start incubating. Incubators are different. That's more than the difference in still air versus forced air. Ventilation holes to allow air in or out of the incubator are different. The air outside of the incubator that is being brought into the incubator is different temperatures and different moisture levels. You are not looking for the perfect moisture levels for each and every egg. That doesn't exist since the eggs are different. You are looking for the level that works for most of your eggs.

We don't all need to use exactly the same settings due to all of these factors. I'll just talk about chicken eggs as I do not hatch quail but the same general stuff will apply. Some people do great maintaining an average humidity of 30%, some do great at 50% or more. That is an average. if the humidity is higher part of the time and lower part of the time the average moisture loss can balance out.

My suggestion is to settle on a specific humidity and try to maintain that throughout incubation before you up the humidity for lockdown. Access your results and adjust as necessary. It took me a few hatches but I settled on 40% as the best for my incubator where I hatch them. I had quite a few hatch at different humidities as I narrowed this down.