The ventilation......

[mrbstephens]

I have two vents on the incubator I made. Are they supposed to be open or closed at first. Is it that I open them during lockdown?

 

[mrbstephens]

 

[Marie1234]

Fresh air is good. That being said, the vents can be used to regulate humidity levels. When they are open they will keep it less humid and when closed they will cause the humidity to increase (all else being the same). The other way to change humidity is to increase or decrease the surface area of water. Not a good idea to mess with both at one time because then you don't know which works best for your setup.

Good luck.

 

[mrbstephens]

Quote:
So open or closed during lockdown? Or is it then just based on whether it gets too humid or not? I thought I read somewhere that they need to be open during lockdown.

 

[Marie1234]

I increase the surface area of water on day 18 and then check humidity morning day 19 and adjust vents accordingly every 12 hrs or so depending on weather. Keep in mind here that my homemade bator is likely quite different from yours. That's kind of part of the excitement in the accomplishment, I think, because if you are new to this you will really have to watch the numbers and see how things go and if you are successful it is really an accomplishment. Also keep in mind that according to the laws of science experiments you only make one change at a time so you can evaluate if that one change caused desirable effect or not.

I keep the vents open at all times unless humidity is so low that it will cause damage to eggs/hatchlings. My first choice is to increase humidity by increasing surface area of water. My less desirable option to increase humidity is to reduce air flow.

 

[mrbstephens]

Quote:
Ah! Thank you. That's very helpful!