Too high of a humidity?

[ahoyaki]

I'm kind of worried that I might be doing something very bad with my eggs. For the past 10 days I think that I've been adding too much water to the incubator. After adding water the humidity levels jump all the way to 65-70 and over the course of the day it trickles down all the way to 50-55 until the next day where it's at 40% and then I add water and it goes back to 65-70. Is this bad or will my eggs be fine? I'm incubating quail eggs in a little giant 300 with a spare computer fan attached to the heating element if that makes a difference

 

[JaeG]

Quail eggs are pretty forgiving. But how are the air cells looking when you candle them?

This is a chart for chicken eggs so for quail eggs day 10 would be around day 14 on the chart. They may not look as big as on the chart because the eggs are so small and they are squatter than chicken eggs, but there should be a reasonable gap. Here is also a link to an excellent article that has photos of a quail egg being candled every day so you can compare what you see with your eggs (unless you have a really strong light it won't be as apparent, but it's still helpful). https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/coturnix-quail-egg-candling-guide.71783/

Humidity is affected by the amount of surface area of water that is exposed to air, so often the water wells in incubators are too large. For my chicken eggs I have to use a shot glass with water in it because anything larger gives too much humidity. I put it next to the eggs, then by the time they need to hatch I can use the water wells and remove the shot glass because the humidity needs to be higher. The shot glass gives me around 30% humidity.

If you have the space play around with different containers and see what the humidity reads with them. You'll need to give it at least an hour, sometimes longer, to stabilise and give a correct reading. I aim for around 45% for my quail eggs but I have also hatched my own quail eggs out just fine at a much higher humidity (I live in a very humid climate so I think that makes the eggs set up for those conditions).

 

[ahoyaki]

Quail eggs are pretty forgiving. But how are the air cells looking when you candle them?
View attachment 2295256
This is a chart for chicken eggs so for quail eggs day 10 would be around day 14 on the chart. They may not look as big as on the chart because the eggs are so small and they are squatter than chicken eggs, but there should be a reasonable gap. Here is also a link to an excellent article that has photos of a quail egg being candled every day so you can compare what you see with your eggs (unless you have a really strong light it won't be as apparent, but it's still helpful). https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/coturnix-quail-egg-candling-guide.71783/

Humidity is affected by the amount of surface area of water that is exposed to air, so often the water wells in incubators are too large. For my chicken eggs I have to use a shot glass with water in it because anything larger gives too much humidity. I put it next to the eggs, then by the time they need to hatch I can use the water wells and remove the shot glass because the humidity needs to be higher. The shot glass gives me around 30% humidity.

If you have the space play around with different containers and see what the humidity reads with them. You'll need to give it at least an hour, sometimes longer, to stabilise and give a correct reading. I aim for around 45% for my quail eggs but I have also hatched my own quail eggs out just fine at a much higher humidity (I live in a very humid climate so I think that makes the eggs set up for those conditions).

Thanks a lot, I can stop worrying so much about my eggs drowning now