Dry incubation humidity question - Page 7

My hen has started ( What we call lock down ) I felt under her to candle her eggs she is humid under there sweating like a pig and has plucked away all her belly feathers so to raise the humidity for her babies. She is sopping wet under there I just hope we dont get any more cold fronts cause all that moisture after chicks hatch and cold air surely isnt good for them.

Again I think it depends where you live and how dry your area is inside your home. We use space heaters when it gets cold, and that makes it really dry inside on top of the already dry air outside.

I have always wondered how a hen gets humidity up... I am still waiting on one of mine to go broody..

I just had to comment to the comment (had several shrink wrap chicks lol) that is what happen to all but three of my babies the last time. I am trying again and watching humidity and temp like a mama hen. Pray no shrink wrap this time. We will know in couple of weeks.

I use a sponge to control my humidity. It is working for me pretty good.

How does one tell if their unhatched chicks have 'drowned'?
I am currently hatching out my second attempt. My first attempt I had 7 eggs, 6 made it to lock down. All 6 looked good on candling day 18... but only four hatched.
So far, on my second attempt, I set 35 eggs, lost several prior to lockdown, I think 27 made it to lock down. So far I only have 4 live, 2 pipped, 1 zipped.... and I think the one zipped was shrink wrapped until I put some extra moisture in there.... wrapped the egg up in a damp paper towel. He finally zipped within an hour of me placing the paper towel, after sitting at second stage pip'ness for about 40 hours.

Anyway, I'm wondering about this 'dry incubation'... had never heard of it, and wonder if that will help me not lose as many so late in the game??

Cathy

Hey there every one. I run a poultry concern, mainly show birds in South Africa. I ive on the coast where the humidity is sometimes higher outside the incubator than inside. I read an article some time back about dry incubation and have had major success in this. I start off my machine with no humidity at all. what is in the machine is what the eggs start with. Then after 5 days I start at 20%. I increase slowly every day until i reach about 40%. this stays at 40% until day 18 when I increase to 55%. I find doing it this way the embryo gets the humidity it needs when hatching, but when the embryo is developing it is not a good idea to have high humidity. The embryo actually drowns. Martine

When you dry incubate, which I do, the first 18 days are when the incubation is "dry".  I do not check humidity in my incubator at all anymore.  Every couple of days, I partially fill a small container of water and it evaporates over a day or two.  I have looked at the hygrometer a couple of times and it said 22%. 

BUT....at 18 days I transfer them to my hatcher and the humidity runs around 70-75% from 18 to hatch.  THAT is the time that you want the humidity to be as high as possible.  Chicks cannot "drown" if they have incubate at a low humidity and have lost the appropriate amount of water over the first 18 days. 

Believe it or not...since I went back to dry incubating with high humidity from 18-21 days my hatch rate has gone up over 50% more than what it was when keeping humidity at 45% during incubation. 

And I'm hatching silkies only...the hardest to hatch IMO. 

What incubators are you guys using? have you tried using a hospital drip system for humidity? You make a small hole top of the incubator and feed in a small tube, the size they use in aquariums. The other end of the tube is attached to the part of the drip assembly where the needle usually goes. You attach the end of that tube to the bottom of a plastic 2 litre bottle, and hang the bottle with the top firmly screwed on, to a hook above your machine. Have a small container inside the incubator top or bottom where the end of the tube will sit. You release the clip on the drip tube when you need more water but you dont have to open the box. Martine

I do the same thing. If I keep the humidity where the incubator manuals tell me to, the eggs don't lose enough moisture. So i've stopped adding water, but I will mist the eggs a couple times during incubation. Humdity stays around 17-22%. But it works.



Martine: I use a Brinsea Octagon 40, 2 Genesis 1588's and a Dickey.

I'm confused, alot of you say that you DRY INCUBATE but have water in the bator all the time, then bump the humidity at day 18. Is this considered dry incubating? doesn't sound like it. I just finished a disasterist hatch, 0 for 24 chicken eggs, in a homemade bator. The temps were perfect, the humidity was perfect, at day 18 I could not raise the humidity no matter what I tried. It didn't matter because I struck out on the hatch, apparently the eggs weren't fertile. I've got some duck eggs on the way and will try a dry hatch, and see what happens.