So what is the REAL ideal humity??

[Pascal PicklePants]

Just looking for peoples experience with different humidity ranges. I am in MN and it has been really, really cold here the past week or so, making it a little more challenging to keep the humidity in my home made bator up. I'm finding it reasonably easy to keep it between 30-40% with just a water dish and a humidifier in the room. It's in a spare bathroom, so I can flip the shower on to crank it up even farther if I have to. I've read often on this site, that this sort of range is fine, but all the "official" literature seems to suggest more like 60-65%.

So, wondering what humidity ranges other folks (especially arctic folk) have found success with.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Robo]

For chickens I go 40-45%, and 60-65% for lockdown, but that's just me. I am sorry to inform you that you will get a different answer from every person.

 

[Pascal PicklePants]

Oh, I know. Just from doing a bit of searching, I realize that everyone has different answers to this. I'm just looking to compile various peoples experiences in one spot...see if there are any commonalities.

Besides......it's -17F here so I have nothing else to do but putter around on this forum

 

[jmagill]

Ideal depends on a few things that effect the rate of weight loss of the egg. Your eggs are supposed to lose between 11-14% of their weight during the hatch.

Altitude, air flow in the incubator and egg porosity all effect this weight loss. I measure the weight of the eggs each week during the hatch and adjust the humidity accordingly. I have a sportsman incubator( fan) and am at a High altitude. I hatch incubate at 40 percent and hatch at 55%. When I incubate orhatch at a higher humidity rates my hatch rate goes down dramatically.

 

[soap&eggs]

still air...i use jar of water in incubator..recently i got a indoor/outdoor thermo with humidity reading..runs on 2AA batteries..how accurate it is with humidity ?? i have nothing else to go by..temp readings are right on along with 2 other therms. anyways my reading shows 16 % humidity..last 3 days as everyone calls..lockdown..i add another jar of water & wet sponge..and reading is only 17%.....yep its cold outside..but house is warm..i even have bator near bathroom door..showers & laundry washing..humidity hasnt changed any.....but...ive had some great hatches. so far avg. is 38 live chicks out of 40 eggs. this is actually my 9th yr of using same incubator & few others just like it.. and hatches always seems to be the same percentage of hatching. the only time i have had lower percentage rate of hatching is with the serama eggs..personally my feeling with those is just a weaker breed for hatching them out..esp the smaller class A.

 

[Pascal PicklePants]

soap&eggs :

still air...i use jar of water in incubator..recently i got a indoor/outdoor thermo with humidity reading..runs on 2AA batteries..how accurate it is with humidity ?? i have nothing else to go by..temp readings are right on along with 2 other therms. anyways my reading shows 16 % humidity..last 3 days as everyone calls..lockdown..i add another jar of water & wet sponge..and reading is only 17%.....yep its cold outside..but house is warm..i even have bator near bathroom door..showers & laundry washing..humidity hasnt changed any.....but...ive had some great hatches. so far avg. is 38 live chicks out of 40 eggs. this is actually my 9th yr of using same incubator & few others just like it.. and hatches always seems to be the same percentage of hatching. the only time i have had lower percentage rate of hatching is with the serama eggs..personally my feeling with those is just a weaker breed for hatching them out..esp the smaller class A.

38 out of 40 is great!! I would be more than thrilled with that rate.

I'm using a cheap petco dial type hygrometer that I verified to read 4% low. So accounting for that is easy. Temps outside are due to warm up significantly to a balmy 28 this week. I've decided to try to sustain a 40% RH +/- 5. Should be easier now with the warm up, no more turning the hot shower on to keep RH above 30%

Keep thoughts coming, curious to see what people are having success with.​

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

I dont even pay attention to the humidity the first 18 days, just the size of the air sac. Day 18 when I "lock them down" I keep the humidity around 60-65% in the still air or 65-70% in the forced air.

 

[Pascal PicklePants]

Quote:
I was going to try and not candle very often....but.....If I were to keep track of the size of air sac, what would I be looking for? Is it just supposed to be a certain percentage of the egg volume? If so, does that percentage change over the course of the incubation?

 

[Gypsy07]

Quote:
There are loads of pictures on this site you can look at to compare, showing how the air sac gets bigger as the chick develops. I always find it difficult to judge by looking at the air sac, so I weigh my eggs instead to check their progress. Like jmagill said up there, chicken eggs should have ideally lost 11-14% of their weight by the time they get to lockdown. So if you weigh them at the start, you can keep track of their progress and adjust humidity accordingly. I don't think keeping a stable humidity is anywhere near as important as keeping a stable temperature.

I aim for 45-50% for incubation and 70% for lockdown. But weighing to judge progress means that I often adjust up or down during the incubation period. My hatch rates haven't been anything great yet, but I'm going to put that down to shipped eggs.