Chook Me!

Is the humidity set too high in my incubator?

I am incubating duck eggs. My humidity gauge broke. Where I am at, it is to late to go out and get another one. I will go in the morning. Condensation is forming on the sides of the incubator and on the eggs. I am afraid their is to much humidity and the eggs will die. Do you think there is to much? If so, how do I reduce it? Thanks! Yes, but does it seem to have to much humidity? That's my question.

Public Comments

1. It is possible for the bird or embryo to drown within the egg if the humidity level within the incubator is maintained to high. Drowning occurs because the pores of the egg shell cannot evaporate enough water contained within the egg. You can try to increase the air flow within an incubator to remove the moister. You can slow down the water flow to the incubator or even take the water out. When I incubated eggs I had a pan in the incubator with water in it. This seemed to work. You sure don't want water to sit on your eggs. To check if the correct level of humidity is being provided to the egg during the incubating process an egg can be candled to inspect the size of the air sack. An air sack is formed in all bird eggs and this pocket of air will increase or decrease during incubation. If the air sack is to large this may indicate the level of humidity within the bird egg incubator is to low. A smaller air cell than normal may indicate a humidity level that is to high when using a bird egg incubator.
2. if you are using a hovabator incubator . they have humidity plugs on the side if the unit for you to regulate the amount of moisture in