Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am setting up my incubator at the moment and read in the ball manual the humidity should be high but it don't give a range? Could someone please help me?

above 80% is good. The last 2 weeks the egg dimple so dont try and raise the humidity. Hope this helps

Condensation running down the walls is good...

if it is happening earlier your temps aren't even in your incubator you need to circulate the air more.

...the condensation forms on the walls because of a couple of reasons:
1) The walls are cooler than the warm air circulating in the incubator. This is due to the fact that the walls are not insulated with masses of insulation. If the walls were insulated to the maximum extent theoretically possible, there would be no heat loss through the walls...the walls would be at the same temperature as the recirculating air...and condensation would be less likely to form.
2) The walls provide a means for condensation to form. If I remember my physics correctly (which, I admit, I may not... ), without some kind of "seed area" for condensation to form, you just wouldn't get condensation. I seem to recall that this "seed area" can be pretty much anything...dust, dirt, surface irregularities, etc.

With our incubators, the primary reason for condensation on the walls is reason #1. It doesn't really matter how much I circulate the air since the walls will always be cooler than the circulating air...and condensation will form on the walls (as long as the air is sufficiently humid).

I'm wondering if you are thinking of condensation forming on the insides of the egg chambers...which seems to increase during the last couple of weeks of incubation.

One of the reasons why I am happy to see condensation on the walls is that then I know that the air is pretty much as humid as I can get it.

You cannot simply say that "condensation = uneven temps" and "no condensation = even temps". There are other possibilities. Much depends upon the design and insulation properties of your incubators. In my experience with our incubators, "no condensation on the walls of the incubator" means one thing and one thing only...the humidity in the incubator is too low.

Why would you care about the humidity in the incubator it ony act as a buffer to the temps when you OPEN the incubator. The guy that started the thread is ony concerned about the humudity in the egg chamber since that is what affects the eggs.

Regarding your first sentence:
"Why would you care about the humidity in the incubator it ony act as a buffer to the temps when you OPEN the incubator".
I'm not really sure what you mean by this...it doesn't make sense to me...sorry.

Regarding your second sentence:
"The guy that started the thread is ony concerned about the humudity in the egg chamber since that is what affects the eggs".
1) The original poster never mentioned egg chambers.
2) If egg chambers are used inside an incubator, the only way that the humidity inside the egg chambers will vary significantly from the humidity inside the incubator (outside of the egg chambers) is if the egg chambers are hermetically sealed.

Your earlier response that condensation running down the walls is indicative of uneven temperatures in the incubator is simply an incorrect assertion; my earlier post explains why.

Before this thread becomes a mammoth "this is why I am right and you are wrong" series of posts and responses, let's just leave it where it is. You stay with your view that dry incubator walls mean nice, even temperatures; I'll stay with my view that dry incubator walls mean that the humidity is lower than I want it to be.

I aim for over 90 percent in the closed egg boxes (no holes in them, but I usually open each one and check on the contents every few days). To be honest, last season was the first where I actually left a sensor in one of the boxes, even though it wasn’t a type intended for that high a humidity. It usually registered around 95 percent. Of course, now it seems to be permanently damaged, so who knows for sure?

You have to go by your particular set-up regarding visual clues, but in mine, a little condensation at one end of each egg box is always a good sign. My incubator is a large container made out of plywood. I have no idea what the humidity in it is (it wouldn’t matter if it was 10 percent) because all I ask of it is to maintain a stable temperature. The secondary egg boxes hold the moisture and buffer temperature swings, as well.

-Joan