best incubator humidity for hatching chickens

When air is dry, it has low humidity and will absorb moisture from the surroundings through evaporation. Humidity is the amount of moisture that is in the air. In short, proper humidity can save the lives of hatchlings and ensure healthy embryos.This post may contain affiliate links. The egg incubation process depends on precise air flow, temperature, and air moisture conditions to help embryos thrive during the growth and development process, as well as protection from risks to health. Condair can provide the optimal solution in the form of various humidifiers of different load capacities and specializations, including electric and adiabatic models which will ensure you egg incubator is performing properly. As soon as you take a natural process and introduce it to an interior space, problems with air quality, dryness, and overly moist conditions can surface without proper optimization through humidification. Proper humidity with 50-60% RH will not only protect the chicks during the hatching process and prevent the shell from sticking to their own, but it will also force airborne particles and dust to fall more quickly, greatly reducing the risk of airborne-based infections that could negatively impact hatchling health.Įnvironments that rely on proper humidity control to encourage optimal incubation and hatching conditions depend on consistently regulated air moisturization. When conditions are uncontrolled in regard to RH levels, dust and airborne particles can freely float through the atmosphere, easily interacting with chicks in the same space. Like human infants, newly hatched chicks are easily susceptible to airborne-based infections and viruses. Regulated humidification, such as with one of Condair’s humidifiers, is the most efficient and reliable way of achieving this or any consistent RH percentage levels.ĭecrease Airborne Infection Potentialities Making sure your egg incubator is being serviced regularly is a good way to ensure your humidity levels are staying consistent.

To protect against these issues and ensure that you have healthy hatchlings, it is important to keep your relative humidity levels at between 50-60% RH. These small lesions result in leg weakness. Another condition tied to unhealthy embryo development pertains to the hocks of the chick, which could become swollen and red. Unhealed or wet navels on newly hatched chicks are the result of unhealthy development, and such conditions can result in painful infections as well as mortality in many cases. Make Environments Healthy for Development Ensuring your egg incubator is properly maintained is a good way to be certain this process is occurring the way it should be. This will ensure that once hatched, the chick will have regular motor functions and behave normally if it can breathe the required amounts of oxygen. Environments with conditions of 50-60% RH are optimal for the healthy-sized embryo, as these conditions allow the airspace to develop to the correct size, which allows the embryo’s lungs to develop correctly after internal piping. Proper egg incubator usage is the most important part of ensuring this doesn’t happen.ĭuring the incubation process, the amount of air that is allowed to enter an egg has a major influence on the healthy growth of the embryo. Otherwise, poorly humidified conditions could result in dehydrated albumen and the embryo being significantly damaged. At this time, it is important that your relative humidity is consistently regulated at 50-60% RH to keep moisture levels balanced and prevent against excessive moisture loss. With proper humidity control of 70-80% RH for the first seven days and 80-88% RH for each pre-incubation day afterward, the eggs will receive the proper amount of air moisture required to begin the early incubation process. During this time in areas without proper humidification, eggs are highly susceptible to drying out. The pre-incubation storage process can last for seven days or more. Therefore, maintaining proper humidification control through the use of key egg incubator methods is crucial. Very specific relative humidity (RH) levels are required to maintain the precise conditions needed to encourage the healthy growth and hatching of chicks in artificial spaces, unlike outdoors where nature helps to maintain the best conditions. In egg hatcheries, broiler houses and other environments that depend on proper egg incubation, proper humidity plays a crucial role in safeguarding the lives of the chicks hatched in them. 4 Egg Incubator Trends to Decrease Chick Mortality

Best incubator humidity for hatching chickens