Glad to know I can start a little early...because I had to. My Ameraucana and marans eggs were 7 to 10 days old, and I had the new incubator stabilized (and oh, my, I actually was able to install the fan my own self

now I am an electrician

. So, I put all seventeen eggs in the incubator (Hovabator with fan) Friday night at 9:39 pm, after poring over "Hatching eggs 101" and fussing with three thermometers and a hygrometer.
My questions this morning is, I found the hygrometer sayign "low" this morning after it had read in the 40 and 50% range since Friday night, and the well was dry.The water in well #1 dried up in three days on the initial run without the eggs. So, should it have dried up sooner with the eggs? Is it okay? I think I caught it very quickly, but now I doubt the hygrometer.