[Kate and her Ducks]

Agree.

[too many girls]

how do you know what the humidity is? mine has a built in thermostar and a themometer, but i've no idea about humidity
.

[chooknewbie]

what a nightmare...i have put in an egg cup with some cottonwool (only at day 16 so not expecting any chicks to come along and want to eat it) to try and boost the humidity as it was sitting at just within the 40 to 50 range (on the 40 side) and it has gone up to about 44!, and thats with one vent closed...(it has two and directions say leave other open always)...how the heck and i going to get humidity up to 65% for hatching!!? :?:  :?:

[WR1]

I agree choocknewbie how do you ?? :?

I will be thinking of you on monday too hehe


Many thanks for the help

Catii

[Vember]

The only other way to get your humidity up apart from pot fulls of water etc is by Spraying a fine mist of water into the incy every so often.

The other thing I did was lower the temp a couple of notches lower than recommended, I did that with my duck eggs and all was well BUT I was around 24/7 and kept constant checks.

The Incy I used is the Rcom3 and I've had a good hatch rate, but like I said earlyier very limited experience only got it in may and it's bin a  case of trial & error, and luck seems to have been on my side

[WR1]

On the top of the incubator [brinsea ocotagon 20] there is a small vent does anyone know if this should be open or closed ? If i do close it do you think this would increase / decrease the humidity?

Thanks
Geoff

[Vember]

I'm really not sure

if it's the only vent then I would say leave it open

I've had a look at a photo of one and can't tell from looking :?

[WR1]

Thanks vember, the incubator weve borrowed off a friend and he has gone to america for 3 weeks so we can'nt ask him. may be half way open is best.

[chooknewbie]

http://www.brinsea.co.uk/information/free-downloads/39/

lets see if this comes up as a link...

should be a link to a pdf file on how to use the octagon 20 and the others, just pick which one is yours from the list

[Vember]

Well found Chucknewbie  

[chooknewbie]

just returning the favour that TMG (i think) did for me a while back with my last batch.....couldnt find my instructions....(have done now but a fat lot of good its doing me with the humidity...lol)

[sheridal]

I've borrowed an octagon 20 as well. The first run of chicks, I followed the incubator instructions but did add a wet sponge for the last 3 days. We had 2 out of 5 chicks hatch, with a further 2 still births (So possible incorrect humidity?)

I have bought a hygrometer (digital) to see what the humidity is. It is coming up at 39%, that is with a wet sponge present. The temperature on it is coming up 0.6 degC less than the incubator thermometer, and 1.4 less than a medical thermometer that I have used. Seeing as the temperature seems inaccurate, is there any way that I can tell if the hygrometer is reading correctly?

Cheers

[Vember]

from what i've read regarding incys an humidity is always add an extra sponge as the incy never seems to get high enough humidity for hatching.

I would suspect that your new hygrometer is correct.

Not sure how to test it maybe by putting it in airring cupboard then the bathroom??/

[sheridal]

Cheers Vember, the only problem is that we don't have any shelves (hence washing) in our airing cupboard, so the humidity in there won;t really tell me anything. As I have a wet sponge in the incubator, not sure what else I can do, Are the digital hygrometers as accurate as the analogue ones?

[Vember]

I'm really not sure:?

Have you added another couple of damp sponges to see if humidity goes up any?

The othert problem of course is keeping the sponges wet, as it's so warm in incy they dry out very quickly

Think somewhere higher up in this post Kate suggested using a towel as a wick to keep it moist