Why is humidity so important during lock-down?

[ashem0]

Why is humidity so important during the lock-down phase of incubating? Mother-hen is not able to change the level of humidity for her clutch, so why is it so important in the 'artificial' method of hatching chickies?

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

You can hatch without raising it, but it can result in shrink wrapped chicks.
As for hen, not sure. Nature is odd about this, artificial anything is typically different natural.

 

[ashem0]

Hi Cochinbrahmalover - I thought shrink-wrapping occurred when humidity varied too much, or was too high?

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Shrink wrap is if the humidity is too low or drops suddenly, the chicks membrane dries out and sticks to it, making getting out impossible.
Too high humidity can cause the chick to drown

 

[ashem0]

Yes, I thought so... but how does the Mumma hen control that? If she can't, then theoretically surely it shouldn't matter in an incubator either, so long as it doesn't fluctuate?

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

She doesn't. That's the funny thing. I should check to see the humidity under a hen. It's probably about 55-65, which when a staggered hatch has occurred, would yield best results w/o harming the non-hatching chicks.