Dry hatching quail

[Micket]

I am talking about coturnix quail not button ,although the outside temperature varys in the uk
I was basing my dry hatch on the more constant temperature found in my home which is around 20c at night to 26c during the day humidity of around 40-50%

 

[MontiSage]

I have found that many breeders advocating for a "dry hatch" don't mention their ambient, natural relative humidity. That leads to confusion and lower hatch rates because "normal" humidity for one person may be completely different for another person.

One of my hatching egg sources reminded me that quail are typically a desert bird. They thrive in lower humidity. That's why I stopped chasing a magic RH number by adding water.

My hatch rates went up when I just set the eggs and left them alone. No added water. My unmanipulated incubations typically run 21-25% RH. The first chick* to hatch naturally brings the humidity up in the incubator. I allow hatched chicks to bring humidity up to about 60%. Then I open vents to exchange air and control humidity, as I never want humidity to be as high as 65-70% RH.

*The interesting thing to me is that the first chick always hatches on its own in a <30% RH environment. Because of this fact, I'm going to experiment with holding RH below 50% for the whole hatch to see if my hatch numbers come up a little more.