humidity?

[candm]

I have a question.I made a home-made incubator.the temp stays at 99.5 to 100 but my humidity stays at 70% tops thats with 2 3"x 6" sponges in it.it hatches great but the chicks are laying on there backs.could this be due to the humidity not being hight enought?the chicks act like thay have ran a marathon and there beaks are flat like thay have strugeld real hard.if the sponges arnt working i thought abought useing a new kerosene heater wicke.do yall think this willhelp.i can send a email with picters if nescarry.all input would be appriecated.       thanks michael

[chizekfarm]

how big is your incub.?  is it a cabnet style?   what im using to raise the humidity is a warm air humidifier.  with a water tray.    i dont have any trouble getting 80% .  i pipe into the cabnet with pvc pipe.

[stewaw]

I also have a homemade bator made from an old refrigerator. Even after adding multiple water pans I found that I couldn't maintain a high enough humidity. Since humidity is directly related to surface area of water and you say that you've added sponges here is a trick you might try.  Use a fish aquarium air pump to pump air into your water pans.  I did this after thinking that perhaps my chicks weren't getting enough oxygen from the holes I had drilled.  My intent was to simply provide more oxygen but as a side benefit, it raised the humidity about 7%.  Your idea about a wick will also increase surface area and should raise the humidity slightly.

David