Chickens in Your Backyard, Newly Revised and Updated by Gail Damerow & Rick Luttmann

Author:Gail Damerow & Rick Luttmann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale
Published: 2018-05-15T04:00:00+00:00

Incubator thermometer

INCUBATION HUMIDITY

Proper humidity during incubation prevents excess loss of natural moisture from within the eggs. Most incubators have a water pan from which moisture evaporates to regulate humidity. Some pans are divided into sections; the more sections you fill, the more the surface area is increased from which evaporation occurs, and vice versa. Other incubators use humidity pads to help regulate humidity. A few select models have built-in humidity regulators that work automatically, as long as water is available in a provided container.

The drier the air inside the incubator, the faster moisture will evaporate from the eggs through their shells. Conversely, the moister the air, the slower moisture will evaporate from the eggs. Too high or too low humidity can prevent chicks from emerging from the shell during the hatch or cause abnormalities in those that do manage to hatch.

Low humidity may result from a too-small water container or opening the incubator too often. During the hatch, it may occur when the water’s surface gets coated with chick fluff, impeding evaporation. High humidity most often results from either poor incubator ventilation or high ambient humidity. If droplets of water accumulate on the incubator’s observation window, the humidity is too high.

A digital incubator generally indicates the humidity level in an LED display. Less-expensive models do not have a built-in hygrometer, in which case, the changing size of air cells in the eggs may be used as a moisture indicator, as explained on this page. The proper humidity level at various stages of incubation for your particular incubator should be explained in the model’s instruction sheet.

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