Very Low Humidy (20%) Dry Incubation Question

[chicknerd]

Hi

I just found out, via two hygrometers that our room humidity is only 20%. Is this too low? Do I need to add water? I only set the eggs yesterday. I am using a forced air LG with egg turner. I have two thermometers which show we are happy at 99.5 steady, but I am concerned about the humidity? Is there such a thing as too little at this point?

Thanks

 

[4-H chicken mom]

You need to get a humidity reading from inside the bator. The humidity inside the bator should be at least 45-50%. Add some water if not.

 

[chicknerd]

THank you.

 

[Coldweatherbirds]

I disagree. I found this very helpful:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=14596-incubation-cheat-sheet

I added a squirt of water every 3 days or so to keep the humidity above 20%, but it never got higher than 37% until I went into lock-down. I had 1 quitter, 1 infertile and 32 developed to make lock-down. I had a 56% hatch rate from there. I'm not sure why they quit after lock-down. I kept the humidity up around 75%. I did have 4 deformed from the hatchlings... I'm thinking my eggs weren't good quality. I also had a power outage the day of lockdown, temps went down to 88-F, but that shouldn't have done too much damage. Who knows.

 

[chicknerd]

Quote:
Interesting as that is what I did. Used a 20ML syringe to add a bit of water. I will keep it above 20% but otherwise not worry. Thanks for the link.

 

[they'reHISchickens]

We just finished a hatch with a pellet stove burning for heat. Bator temps were on the low side at 97-99. Humidity in the bator was down to 16% at one point and we had marans and EEs in there.
We moved them to a homemade cooler hatcher and boosted the humidity to 70% and I was amazed at how well they hatched. Low humidity no longer scares me. We are doing a hatch now with the same methods.

 

[rarely bored]

You do need to measure the humidity in the bator as previous poster said. I doubt your incubator is running that low on day one, since the eggs should be releasing some moisture into their little space. With that said, I've only had two hatches (errr, well, one in progress) using the dry incubation method and I have had my humidity at 20% ish, with no problems in my Brinsea eco 20. My first hatch had a hatch rate of 11 out of 13, and my current hatch, at this moment, is 7 hatched with at least 3 pipped out of the orginal 12 fertile eggs; hard to see what is broken shell and what isn't at this point. I'm sure I'll post my final hatch number on the march brinsea hatch along.

Best wishes for your hatch!

 

[tigtoy]

put in a sponge maybe that will help.

 

[ga_goat]

I have 68 in my bator without any water , humidity has been running about ½ the outside air or 20 to 35%
I'll add water at lockdown and run it up to 60/70% , been doing it this way with good luck for 10 years .
Too much water too early will drown the eggs , very little moisture will increase the air sac inside .