Lowering Humidity

hi has any one got any idea of how to lower humidity as the hovabator that ive got has now got32 chickens eggs and 72 quails and no water at all, but the humidty is nearly 60 how can i lower it thanks.
Hudgellboy

There is no easy way of lowering the humidity. Are you sure your humidity reading is correct? What are you using to measure humidity? ...bear in mind you should measure humidity in the incubator and not outside it (just thought I'd double check this very obvious point).

You can use desicant crystals or a dehumidifier. However, dehumidifiers are quite big and expensive (£200 plus for a good one). Unless you've got water in your incy, your humidity should be around 30%

my incubator dial is fine its worked for me al the time shall i open the plug hole vents
hudgellboy

ahh, you're using a dial then. Well they can work fine for a while and fail. I had one that used to be fairly acurate till I got it all wet, then it kept reading humidity more than twice of what it should be.

Put it in your other incy and compare the readings

yeah ive done that and its reading about 35
hudgellboy

Ok, then it must be some trapped moisture somewhere in your incy. Have you tried taking the lid off for a few seconds (also fan the eggs a bit), just to get some fresh air in. Leave the vents open for a few minutes. Then wait a while for another reading.

kk just done that i will wait about 10 minutes and post its next reading.
Hudgellboy

its now on 55 but its not going any lower shall i shut the windows in my room and turn the heating onto make it more hotter as in east london its very cold and wet outside

Increasing the temp in your room shouldn't make any difference.

If you're absoloutely sure there is no water sitting around in your incubator, then I'd check that your eggs aren't cracked. Eggs shouldn't affect the humidity by that much.

none are cracked ive checked, it said something about fiy our humidity is too high put some tin foil over the water resoivior to stop it evaportaing would that mak a difference although there is no waer i rang the guy up and he said the hovabator is known to be affected by outside temperatures and weather.
Hudgellboy

If you don't have any water in your reservoir, then covering it will not make any difference. Doublecheck your incubator temperature also. If the temperature is too low, the humidity reading will be high.

p.s. it's similarly cold and wet here. I'm not that far from you. I'm running my DIY styrofoam box, which can't be that much different from a hovabator box. It hasn't gone above 30% humidity since I started incubating last Friday.

yeah mine is styrofoam ill double check the temp now so if its like 38 the humidity will be lower

as i have my eggs in there bottom part of their eggs cases which i find helps with turning and ive had successful hatch rates with that would the egg boxes make a difference to the humidty?
Hudgellboy

Egg boxes should not affect humidity unless they are damp. If they are bone dry, then there shouldn't be any problem with that. Wait a couple of hours, then open the box and fan the eggs a couple more times to get some fresh air in it and release the moisture. There must have been something wet in there. Perhaps the styrofoam box was washed and not dried out properly.

i havent washed it and it was dry when i received it, as its on 55 i know it should be about 3-40 but if i got it down to 50 would everything go well or not as i done that by mistake on my first CPQ ever and i had like 30 hatch out of 70

i think ive solved the problem as if you were to put cold eggs in an incubator, the chicken eggs i had in the incubator were under a laminated thermometer and it was covering like 10 eggs and i didnt realize i felt the eggs and they were a bit cold ive took them out and put them in my other incubator to warm them and incubate them but would cold eggs make the humidity high?
Hudgellboy

if your hygrometer is in a cold spot it will have a higher humidity reading. In higher temperatures with no additional water, humidity will drop quite a bit (usually inside your incubator will be half the humidity of the room).

E.g. room 20C and humidity of 80%, then incy should be around 37C with 35% humidity

ive just done a full check and all the eggs are not warm but not cold they are room temperature and not warm so theyve all been moved about and ive just moved the temp up to 39
Hudgellboy

sounds like your incubator thermostat has stopped working Ronnie. I'd put your more valuable eggs into your other incubator.

ive managed to keep a stable constant temp of 38' and i will check the eggs in about half an hour so i can give it time to get used to it lol, its very temperamental i flciedk it with my finger and it just conked out lol

ive finally figured it out wit the temperature, i was constantly reducing and increaasing the temp everytime the light went off but i was doing it wrong so my dad has helped me now and i know what to do, the humidity is something we still need to sort out but that should be no problem with my dad lol.
Hudgellboy

he he, well once you've sorted out the temperature, I'm pretty sure that your humidity will drop. As long as you don't add water; higher temp --> lower humidity

weve worked out all the temperature settings but humidity is still a problem all of the eggs must be making the moisure in the air because there is not one bit or drip of water or any cracked eggs, so the amount of eggs is making the humidity higher.
Hudgellboy

and the temperature is definitely 37C or there abouts?

Humidity definitely goes down as temperature increases as long as there is no additional water in the equation. The only exception to this is if there is a difference in atmospheric pressure between your incubator and your room, which there shouldn't be.

Have you got another hygrometer?

no weve checked that one and its working fine at my room is 60 and the dining room is 75 near the garden and the garden is 85 so its definetly working but hopefully overnight it will sort the humidity out itself.
Hudgellboy