Wrong Moisture Climate? Help!

[ENGEC35]

Hello! We are on Day 13 of our first hatch, and we have 7 fertile (and very active) speckled Sussex in our incubator.

Our incubator did not come with a humidity gauge, so until yesterday we were just guessing the amount of water to keep in the water dish.

We bought a gauge! Now, I know the humidity was wrong.

All this time, they have been growing at 75-90% humidity.

We had to remove ALL water from the incubator in order to correct this.

It is now empty of water and humidity is at 30%

Are the chicks OK? Will this have effected them negatively?

 

[naf_appaz]

Look at the air cell in your eggs compared to a development chart. Humidity has an accumulitive affect on eggs over entire incubation period. If your air cells are on schedule you will be alright. If they are to small come hatching time you will have problems. May be to late at this point in the game, all you can do is run dry until lockdown. If it were me and air cells looked smaller than they should be at normal lock down day I would postpone lockdown for an extra day to get air cells a bit bigger. Good luck!

 

[ENGEC35]

How can I lower the humidity if the incubator is completely empty of water already and still at 30% ?

 

[naf_appaz]

30 should be low enough depends on your air cell development if its to late to save this hatch. I live in a very humid environment and found nothing would work to lower my humidity to where I wanted it except a room dehumidifier. I tried desicant packs and rice with very limited success there is a product called damp rid that works better but it was a mess and had to be changed every other day. If you can keep it at 30 throughout the first 18 days then increase to 70 to 80 at lockdown you should be fine. As far as this hatch goes depends where your air cells are at, if they appear to be small I would leave it dry until day 19 0r even 20 add water if they start to pip early. Hatching eggs with to little aircell will drown the chicks. When you do add water make sure it is as warm as incubator. You can find an air cell chart if you search on this site or google it.