[suziequeue]

Se we bought a Brinsea Eco 20 last month and had a great hatch. Temp and humidity were easy to control once we got a proper digital monitor to put in with the eggs. Very happy all round.


With this second batch of eggs we seem to be having difficulty with the humidity which is sticking stubbornly at about 42% despite the vent being closed. Last night I filled both troughs and this morning the humidity has gone up to 46% with the vent closed……….which I'm happy about for now but it just seems so much harder this time to get the humidity up.


Mind you - last time we didn't have the RH meter until the eggs were at about this stage so we wouldn't have known if the humidity was low at the beginning of the first batch.


Is it just the eggs absorbing water from the air initially?


I am confident that the slightly lower humidity at the beginning won't harm the eggs overmuch but I was just wondering what other people's experiences were.

[chrismahon]

Eggs don't absorb humidity they lose it Suziequeue. The water content in the white is slowly lost leaving an increasing air sac and the rate of loss has to be a steady one.


I wouldn't worry that much about the humidity reading. Humidity meters are not that accurate anyway -just gives you a rough idea. I wouldn't close the vent completely as you need some air replacement I read.


You certainly shouldn't need both troughs full. With both troughs full you should be near the 65% needed at hatching? I suspect that your meter is wildly inaccurate. In England, with the air being very humid anyway, you shouldn't need to put any water in at this stage. Most people seem to run the incubator 'dry' for the first 18 days. It depends on the humidity where you have the incubator and perhaps you should check that. 80% is the norm. Over here it can be 20% and it is essential to fill one water chamber.

[Mammyshaz]

SQ we ran the incubator dry this year until day 18 as I had the same problem with humidity last year. It stays at average of 35-40 despite constantly topping the chambers. The problem last year was keeping the humidity high enough from day 18 despite the two full troughs. This year I placed a thick sheet of nappy towelling under the egg basket and added more warm fluid every day via a little bit of tubing through the air vent. The humidity stayed up nicely and there were no chicks stuck to the shell