Venting and humidity..???

[FernbergFarms]

Hey! So this is my first time hatching ducks. I’ve actually never hatched anything. I have a hova Bator (it is old ) and I was wondering what I should do with vents in the incubator.. should I open them..? They are the red holes.

And then I didn’t have a humidity gage so I went to our hardware store and just bought one that would be used for weather but I was hoping this would work. I only put one cup of water in there and it reads 70%... like some people were putting 2 cups in their incubator! What should I do? I started my incubator yesterday and had it running all night but the temperature says it’s 84 so I turned it up so hopefully it gets hotter. Is the temperature gage I have gonna be inaccurate bc it’s for weather? What would it do for the egg if the humidity was too high?

The humidity dropped to 70% and the temperature is84 now.

 

[Tonyroo]

Those red plugs looks like your vent holes. You'll need to have air movement to balance humidity and let the eggs breathe while incubating. The temperature needs to be higher. Keep testing it to make sure it works. Cause if there's a problem with it you don't wanna be using it in a hatch.

 

[FernbergFarms]

Okay yeah.. I am now using a non digital thermometer and humidity gage and they are more accurate. Now I’m trying to figure out how to lower the temp. Haven’t put the eggs in yet.

 

[Willow2253]

You’ll need to calibrate your thermometer and hygrometer. You can salt test your hygrometer, and for the thermometer, medical thermometers are a good to compare yours to, or if you can submerge your thermometer you can ice test it. I wouldn’t put the eggs in until you get the humidity and temperature figured out.

 

[FernbergFarms]

@Willow2253 the temp is at 99 F and humidity is at about 67%. I will calibrate them.