Water droplets in DIY Incubator

[CastleCoop]

I made a DIY incubator a couple days ago and put a small bowl of water in it to keep it humid. Now I'm worried it's too humid because there is water droplets and moisture on the walls of the incubator and the towel I put over the eggs is slightly damp. Also, I have no way to measure the humidity, and Im very worried about my eggs. What should I do?

 

[Bert96746]

You can buy a hygrometer. It'll tell you the temp and humidity. I'd take the eggs out, wipe down the incubator, and put the eggs back in.

 

[JaeG]

Condensation will happen when there's a large difference in the air temperature inside the incubator as compared to the temperature of the plastic/glass/Perspex your incubator is made of. This is called 'dew point': https://www.livescience.com/43269-what-is-dew-point.html

How warm is the room your incubator is in? Sounds like it's too cold.

A hygrometer is definitely needed to track the humidity during incubation.

 

[Bert96746]

I bought an incubator that has a digital read of the temp and rh but i still put one of my own meters in there for safety and reassurance. I hope you get it figured out!

 

[JaeG]

The incubator is just a plastic tub, but I have a thermometer that reads 38°C, so I assumed that it was the right temperature.

Inside it will be fine but it could be that the temperature outside of the incubator is cooling the plastic tub enough to cause condensation to form when the hot air inside the incubator hits it.

What are you hatching? Hatching is a lot of fun so I'm sending lots of good luck your way.

 

[CastleCoop]

Condensation will happen when there's a large difference in the air temperature inside the incubator as compared to the temperature of the plastic/glass/Perspex your incubator is made of. This is called 'dew point': https://www.livescience.com/43269-what-is-dew-point.html

How warm is the room your incubator is in? Sounds like it's too cold.

A hygrometer is definitely needed to track the humidity during incubation.

Our incubator is a plastic tub in our basement.

 

[CastleCoop]

Inside it will be fine but it could be that the temperature outside of the incubator is cooling the plastic tub enough to cause condensation to form when the hot air inside the incubator hits it.

What are you hatching? Hatching is a lot of fun so I'm sending lots of good luck your way.

Okay, that makes sense. Is it bad for the eggs?

 

[JaeG]

Okay, that makes sense. Is it bad for the eggs?

It would only be a concern if there were water drops on the ceiling of the incubator and the eggs were pipping. There's a risk that the water drops could drip down onto the eggs and end up in the pip holes.

 

[CastleCoop]

I

It would only be a concern if there were water drops on the ceiling of the incubator and the eggs were pipping. There's a risk that the water drops could drip down onto the eggs and end up in the pip holes.

I think they should be fine because there is a small towel folded over the eggs, unless it needs to be taken off during lockdown. Sorry, it's my first time doing this.

 

[mdees88]

Okay, that makes sense. Is it bad for the eggs?

It's not so much that the water droplets are bad for the eggs but more likely the excessively high humidity (that's causing the water droplets) that can be bad for the eggs. You really need a hygrometer in there to see what's going on. I have several of these and they work great....

https://www.amazon.com/ThermoPro-TP...y&sr=1-1-1d681f00-aa3b-4998-8623-d15510bb6bb5