Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My beardie laid 21 eggs yesterday and I had the incubator ready to go. I filled the channels up with hot water and allowed ample time for the temp to get set. I had it up at 86% humidity but that was from the hot water and now its down to 56%. The temp went up to 90 because I thought raising the temp would inherently cause more humidity but I am going to keep it around 84-86. How do I raise the humidity inside the incubator? I cant add any more water to the channels without it coming above the wire mesh. What can I do????

It sounds like you might be opening the incubator to check it to often. This will create a good amound of air exchange and drop humidity. Also check ventilation holes... if they are to large or numerous you might want to close a few off.
If this isn't the problem, you can increase the water surface area as water/air exchange is what really causes humidity. You can add a wet sponge or even a wet towel into the incubator in such a way that it remains wet, but is mostly out of the water.

Lastly, how the incubator is heated has an effect on humidity. Underwater heaters or undertank type heaters will have less of a drying effect than an overhead heater (as found in hovabaters). With that said, many, many people use hovabators without problem, so perhaps this is a mute point.

Ian

I think I figured it out. Its been holding between 80 and 90% since last night and the eggs all look pretty good. The temp is spot on at 84. I just need to maintain the water level. Last time I only had a bowl of water in there and thats why my eggs didn't make it. It was only staying at around 40-50% humidity. Now, it pretty much stays right where I need it to. I plugged a few of the holes on the top and all day today, things seem to be good.