Whats wrong with my humidity gauges Brinsea Octo Eco 20

[madelynbelle]

I am so confused. I set my eggs on Monday afternoon. I used one of the humidity gagues you get from Petco that is not digital its reading 37 percent. I also bought a Springfield from Walmart and one from Radio Shack and they are both saying its 51 percent humidity. The instructions with the Brinsea say to fill one water trough for the humidity until day 18 and then fill the other for increased humidity. I have tried opening the vent all the way and the humidity on the petco one decreases a little but the other two digital ones read 51 percent. Mind you we live in Seattle area and so the air humidity in my basement says its 61 percent. Should I take the water out of the trough and let it run dry. Can the eggs be giving off enough water to keep the humidity stable without needing additional water. Could the humidity outside the incubator be affecting the inside of it also. I dont know what to do and I dont want to lose my eggs. Any help would be greatly apprecitated. I got this model because I heard great things about not having to mess with anything....the temperature on it is great but the humidity is killing me

 

[madelynbelle]

I called Brinsea and they said since my humidity outside is 50 degrees it will be so inside. They said I could get a dehumidifier but that was about it. They also said the hatch range is 40-50 percent for humidity for chicken eggs. With my humidity staying constant at 51 percent what are the chances of having a hatch? I know I can increase the humidity the last 3 days just worried about the high humidity the first 18 days.

Thanks for any input anyone has on this. Its really frustrating

 

[AnconaDuck]

We have our incubator downstairs (granted, this is MI!) and have not had any problems with humidity. When I called Brinsea (we have teh same model) about positioning the vent, the lady I talked to was not very helpful. So, I can only offer you my humble opinion

 

[madelynbelle]

I am thinking I will buy a dehumidifier if this batch does not turn out. Makes me sick as they cost me 120.00 for the eggs and I had to beg borrow and short of steal to pay for them. Cant afford to think about replacing them if they dont hatch. I have wanted my Black Copper Marans for so long. You would think they would be more helpful since they are in the incubator business. I know they sell a humidity pump module but dont know if it would help as I still have the humidity in the house to deal with. I wonder how people that live down south and in Florida hatch eggs since they are so much more humid than the Puget Sound area. Maybe I am just worried and it will all turn out fine in the end

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

surely at $129.00 you could have bought a trio of the chickens
and with the humidity too high it will make the eggs drown
but brensia is a very expensive incubator
I missed the part where the company told you what the humidity should be
so many folks complain about humidity being too low
What is happening to the imcubator now
humidity does play a large part in hatching
much success in the valued eggs

Incubation and Hatching effect of humidity
Glenda L Heywood

Here some facts on hatching and humidity as told to me by a friend.

The hatcher and Incubators setting in a house is in a low humidity area. Your air conditioner pulls the moisture out of your house and that makes the house have a lower humidity. If you take your Incubator to a bath room you will have a higher humidity than say in the bed room. But your

AC is designed to remove humidity from your house. Your heater will also remove humidity from your house. That is why lots of people put in line humidifiers in the HVAC units.

If you put that Incubator/hatcher in a garage it will have more humidity due to the cooling and warming of the room. You temp will fluctuate more because of the change in temp and humidity. In an unheated
room you will have fluctuation in temps more that in a stabilized
room.

The Incubator gets its fresh air from its surrounding so if it takes in cold
air the Incubator temp will fluctuate some and the humidity will do the same.

I'm just not sold on the idea that the temperature and moisture in a room doesn't affect the moisture and temp in the Incubator.
Also the barometric pressure will have some to do with the temperature
fluctuating especially if you use the wafer control, but it doesn't seem to bother the electronic control because they don't work on a opening and closing of a wafer.

 

[Dirt Road]

Humidity is temperature dependent, meaning the humidity in a room at 70 deg. F will be much higher than in the same space when temp is 90. That is because air at 90 F can hold a lot more water than air at 70 F. Your eggs are probably evaporating enough moisture to seriously effect the humidity in the machine. MANY people in the US who sell incubators, know almost nothing about hatching eggs. That includes some who sell rather expensive machines. They can tell you which button does what, but they don't have a clue what effect that will actually have on your eggs.

Operating an incubator is almost an art form, with some people being downright gifted and others such as myself having to do it all the hard way. Egg size, number of eggs, shell thickness and other things will effect performance, especially in the small machines such as the Oct. 20. I have used several of them and hatched a lot of birds over the years but they are harder to operate than the larger machines. Since you already have the eggs in it, you don't really have time to learn how your machine's requirements will compare to the "recipe" printed in the brochure. I would suggest at this point you buy, beg, or borrow a small electronic gram scale. There are some quite good ones available at a surprisingly reasonable price. The eggs need to lose aprox 13% of their weight from setting to hatch. Using a bit of math, and adjusting the humidity as needed every few days should do the trick.

Good Luck!
Jim

 

[pascopol]

My Brinsea 20 ECO runs on the dry side.
If outside humidity is 60, Brinsea runs 40 or less.

Also credibility of hygrometers is paramount.

I always use a quality analog hygro which I calibrate regularly with water and salt method, AND confirm it,s readings with digital hygro, which readings I check also with salt method.

 

[madelynbelle]

So maybe both of my hygrometers are off then. I thought you could only calibrate thermometers not hygometers. I will have to look into it and do that then.

Thanks for the help. I havent been able to sleep worrying