First clutch of eggs due any day

My humidity is 86% in the egg tub. Is this ok? Temp is 88-89.

Congrats on your first clutch! My first clutch is currently 6 days overdue and the other is 5 days until due date.

Temps sound good but humidity could be highter. Are you using a light grate or plan on putting the eggs in the substrate. Also, what type of tub are you using?

I'm using vermiculite & water. 1:1 by weight. I had a problem with water dripping from the lid. So I added more vermiculite to stop that. It still clumps when I squeeze it.

Any feedback would be great. Like I said this is my 1st clutch so I'm open to helpful information.

It's a homemade cooler incubator.

I'm not using a light grate. Any reason I should use it?

I'm using the same method as you (no light grate) and I think too much water is probably worse than too little.

Are you using press & seal to hold humidity? I get condensation in the tubs but water seems to collect at the edges of the seal.

If the vermiculite is still clumping up and breaking apart easily, it sounds fine. If it's too dry the eggs will dimple up a bit within the first week or so, so you can add more water. Hope that helps!

I haven't used press & seal. Will this help me? I was just using the lid before and humidity was 96% but water would slowly drip from the lid.

Vermiculite is still staying together after I squeeze it and no water comes out. But it looks dry but feels moist

So right now. I should add press and seal to raise the humidity?

I actually redid the vermiculite and it's 1:1 ratio with water by weight. That will raise the humidity but how do I stop it from building condensation on the lid?

I use press-n-seal. This will drastically help raise humidity. You will get condensation though. I usually open the tubs once a week and wipe off the condensation. It shouldn't be so much that its dripping though. Sometimes when I open them, some water will drip on the eggs but I just wipe them off too.

I also like to candle them quickly to monitor the development when I open the tubs.