Dry Hatching Guinea Fowl

[danielle2003]

I need some advice from anyone using the dry hatch method for guinea fowl.
The eggs go into lockdown tomorrow, and I am confused as to how to go about that.
I've heard two different methods of dry hatching, each with their risks.
1- Add water at the very end to help with hatching.
2- Don't add water, even at lockdown, because is can shock the egg, by going from 30% to 65-70% so quickly, and cause drowning in the egg.
Since guinea egg shells are thicker, should I add water at the end or not?
I really want this to be a good hatch. For the whole duration of incubation, the humidity has been at 20-30%.

 

[R2elk]

I need some advice from anyone using the dry hatch method for guinea fowl.
The eggs go into lockdown tomorrow, and I am confused as to how to go about that.
I've heard two different methods of dry hatching, each with their risks.
1- Add water at the very end to help with hatching.
2- Don't add water, even at lockdown, because is can shock the egg, by going from 30% to 65-70% so quickly, and cause drowning in the egg.
Since guinea egg shells are thicker, should I add water at the end or not?
I really want this to be a good hatch. For the whole duration of incubation, the humidity has been at 20-30%.

People are often confused and think dry incubating is without any added water. I have an ambient humidity of 20% at this time of year. I have to add water to brink the humidity up to 30% humidity. When the swamp cooler is running, I have an ambient humidity of 60%. At that time of the year I do not add any water.

While it is possible to hatch without raising the humidity at lock down, doing so can cause a lot of shrink wrapping especially if using a forced air incubator or hatcher.

2- Don't add water, even at lockdown, because is can shock the egg, by going from 30% to 65-70% so quickly, and cause drowning in the egg.

Drowning in the egg is caused by too high humidity during the incubation phase. There is insufficient moisture loss which allows the keet to grow too big and not a large enough air cell for them to have air to breathe after internally pipping.

I normally incubate at 30% to 35% humidity and lockdown at 65% to 70% humidity.

Since most inexpensive hygrometers will not read below 20% humidity, it is possible that you don't know what your incubation humidity actually was. Depending on what your ambient humidity is, getting down to 20% humidity may or may not have been a bad thing. If you have a high ambient humidity to start with it may be okay. If you had a low ambient humidity to start with, it is probably a bad thing.

Knowing what the actual humidity is during hatching is nowhere near as important as knowing the progress your egg is making with its air cell either by weight loss or following the air cell growth.

 

[danielle2003]

People are often confused and think dry incubating is without any added water. I have an ambient humidity of 20% at this time of year. I have to add water to brink the humidity up to 30% humidity. When the swamp cooler is running, I have an ambient humidity of 60%. At that time of the year I do not add any water.

While it is possible to hatch without raising the humidity at lock down, doing so can cause a lot of shrink wrapping especially if using a forced air incubator or hatcher.

Drowning in the egg is caused by too high humidity during the incubation phase. There is insufficient moisture loss which allows the keet to grow too big and not a large enough air cell for them to have air to breathe after internally pipping.

I normally incubate at 30% to 35% humidity and lockdown at 65% to 70% humidity.

Since most inexpensive hygrometers will not read below 20% humidity, it is possible that you don't know what your incubation humidity actually was. Depending on what your ambient humidity is, getting down to 20% humidity may or may not have been a bad thing. If you have a high ambient humidity to start with it may be okay. If you had a low ambient humidity to start with, it is probably a bad thing.

Knowing what the actual humidity is during hatching is nowhere near as important as knowing the progress your egg is making with its air cell either by weight loss or following the air cell growth.

Okay. They're in lockdown now. It's day 25. Humidity is at 30%. It will raise naturally as they hatch, right?

 

[R2elk]

Okay. They're in lockdown now. It's day 25. Humidity is at 30%. It will raise naturally as they hatch, right?

I would not try to hatch guinea eggs at 30% humidity.

 

[danielle2003]

I would not try to hatch guinea eggs at 30%humidity

I added some water, and got it up to 52% . I don't want to raise it to quickly, so it doesn't shock or drown them. No pips, just peeping. When I see the first pip, should I raise it a little more?

 

[R2elk]

I added some water, and got it up to 52% . I don't want to raise it to quickly, so it doesn't shock or drown them. No pips, just peeping. When I see the first pip, should I raise it a little more?

Believe me rasising their humidity fast will not shock the eggs.

 

[Sydney65]

Be;ieve me rsising ther humidity fast will not shock the eggs.

@danielle2003 -trust what R2 says.