What is the damage if humidity was at 70% all along.

[ronkonkoma]

I am trying to hatch eggs for the first time and most likely last time, after all these nerves. I believe my incubator has been running at 70% humidity since May 5th. Whether the incubator has water in it or not the humidity always seems to be around 70.% If I barely cracked the top the humidity goes down into the 50% range which is what my house is at. The incubator does not have a way to regulate humidity. I keep reading about chicks drowning. What are the chances theyll make it. I have 7 silkies and 3 EE in there.

 

[JaeG]

Candle and see what the air cells look like size wise. It's important they get big enough so that there is enough air in there to sustain the chick until it can make an external pip (as opposed to the chick 'drowning').

I've incubated quail at 80% the whole time and I've never had a problem with them, but I haven't hatched chicken eggs in an incubator so I'm not sure how it would affect them. Try not to get too hung up on the numbers and keep an eye on the air cell size as a way of gauging how they are progressing. I've found with my incubator that I can't fill up even one of the wells without the humidity getting too high so I have previously used a small cup for the first phase of incubation (before I started doing staggered hatches with my quail eggs and finding humidity wasn't as essential as I'd first thought and after some research a small incubator is less affected by humidity). With higher humidity it's essential that the temperature is bang on, if not slightly higher, as the correct temperature enables to growing chick to absorb what it needs, and the egg to evaporate off what it doesn't need.

How far along are you? You could give them a few days of no water in the incubator (though the humidity should never fall below 25%). Fingers crossed for your eggs.

 

[TheRockett]

Hey also having the same problem!! Now its hatch day and one chick piped and then drowned. I candled it and saw no movement after 30 hours and it was dead and super juicy inside. Are they all doomed? What if i take away all humidity before they pip?

 

[TheRockett]

Hey also having the same problem!! Now its hatch day and one chick piped and then drowned. I candled it and saw no movement after 30 hours and it was dead and super juicy inside. Are they all doomed? What if i take away all humidity before they pip?

Also 3 of the 7 eggs i have are just going into lock down tonight. Can i save them?

 

[JaeG]

Also 3 of the 7 eggs i have are just going into lock down tonight. Can i save them?

Some people do wait until they see external pips before raising the humidity so remove all water, dry everything, put the eggs back in and cross your fingers. Someone on here had his incubator go down to 25% humidity but he still came home to an incubator full of pheasant chicks that had all hatched out just fine in such low humidity. The humidity will go up as they start hatching. High humidity can cause mushy chicks so be prepared that it may not be a good hatch. But I'd raise the temperature slightly, run it with no water and you've still got a few days to make a difference.

 

[TheRockett]

Thanks! I dried out my incubator (cooler) but the humidity here is just naturally 40% so I doubt I can get it lower. I candled all my eggs and I have 2 more that are moving and we’re due to hatch today so maybe they can live? Also one silkie egg who whet in on the 3rd so probably due soon and then the 3 other eggs that went in on the 5th.

 

[ronkonkoma]

Last night someone suggested I take the water out, so I did. I woke up this morning and the humidity was 40. I'm not sure what I should do. I go to work for 7 hours during the weekdays. They are due to hatch very soon. I would say tomorrow to Sunday sometime. I'm afraid to leave it at 40 just in case they pip right after I leave. What would you do?

 

[ronkonkoma]

When I took all the water out it went down to 40%, since I'm supposed to be now in lockdown I once again added water. It is at 65% right now. I just wish I was able to better understand and regulate it the first two weeks. If they hatch they'll be lucky little chickies.

 

[TheRockett]

When I took all the water out it went down to 40%, since I'm supposed to be now in lockdown I once again added water. It is at 65% right now. I just wish I was able to better understand and regulate it the first two weeks. If they hatch they'll be lucky little chickies.

Well I legit have zero experience but I’m praying for your chicks. 4/7of mine have died and only one made an external pip.

 

[ronkonkoma]

Well I legit have zero experience but I’m praying for your chicks. 4/7of mine have died and only one made an external pip.

Oh Im so sorry to hear that. I am a newbie too and so worried. I saw great movement day 17. Hopeful.