dry incubation

[emmaellis111]

hi all, im trying out the dry incubation method, would a humidity between 25%-35% work? my temperature is at a constant 35.7c, any help or advice? x

 

[kuchchicks]

hi all, im trying out the dry incubation method, would a humidity between 25%-35% work? my temperature is at a constant 35.7c, any help or advice? x

I think you will be happy with the results that you get from that method. That is exactly where I run my humidity during days 1-17. Then during lock down I bump it to 75%. BUT with all of that said, you still need to monitor your air cells. Depending on where you live, your elevation, your ambient humidity, you may need to tweak it a bit. Check your air cells on days 7 and 14. If they are off you will still have time to make adjustments. You just don't want to leave it all the way to lock down and realize that either your cells are too big or too small.



Your temp however is a bit low. Depending on what type of incubator you are using you are going to need to raise it. If you are using a forced air incubator you need to raise it to 37.5 C (99.5F) or if you are using still air you need to raise it to 38-39C (102F) at the TOP of your eggs. With the temp that you are running at I think you will get eggs to start to develop but I do not believe they will hatch. If they did hatch they would most definitely hatch late and very likely with some problems.

Good luck! Happy hatching!

 

[emmaellis111]

I am sorry I got the 5 and 7 mixed up,, the temperature is 37.5 lol, the only problem i have is that my husband put another egg in the incubator on day 3, I dont have a clue what to do when it comes to lock down! if at day 17-18 I higher the humidity won't it drown the other egg that my husband put in?

im so confused

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I am sorry I got the 5 and 7 mixed up,, the temperature is 37.5 lol, the only problem i have is that my husband put another egg in the incubator on day 3, I dont have a clue what to do when it comes to lock down! if at day 17-18 I higher the humidity won't it drown the other egg that my husband put in?

im so confused

I use 30% as well. Here's some more about the method kuchchicks and I use if you are interested: http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity

As for staggard hatches, yes the raising of humidity can greatly affect eggs that are added later. When you raise the humidity it will slow/stop the other egg from loosing moisture during that time. However, you adjust for the majority of your eggs, not the minority. You don't want to loose a dozen to save one. How many days are there between the first eggs set and the one that was added?

 

[emmaellis111]

thank you for that thread very very useful!, the first eggs were put in on when I turned the incubator on, and the egg my husband put in my incubator said day 3?, xx

 

[AmyLynn2374]

thank you for that thread very very useful!, the first eggs were put in on when I turned the incubator on, and the egg my husband put in my incubator said day 3?, xx

That's not too bad, three days behind. If it looses enough moisture the first 15 days it should be ok. If the air cell looks a bit small at hatch pop it in a carton cup and let it hatch upright.

 

[emmaellis111]

so it might be fine? this is my 2nd attempt of hatching eggs,first batch drowned as I had massive humidity spikes in the first 17 days (I think anyway), and it was a bugger to try and keep the rigjt humidity,but with low humidity it is very stable that's y im trying the dry incubation method, hopefully this will work,! god I do hope it works i was gutted with when I lost the 1st batch, I saw the chick move and everything, this is gonna sound weird but I had a bond like feeling, so yeah I was VERY upset, HOPE THIS WORKS XX

 

[AmyLynn2374]

so it might be fine? this is my 2nd attempt of hatching eggs,first batch drowned as I had massive humidity spikes in the first 17 days (I think anyway), and it was a bugger to try and keep the rigjt humidity,but with low humidity it is very stable that's y im trying the dry incubation method, hopefully this will work,! god I do hope it works i was gutted with when I lost the 1st batch, I saw the chick move and everything, this is gonna sound weird but I had a bond like feeling, so yeah I was VERY upset, HOPE THIS WORKS XX

I totally know what you mean. My very first hatch I borrowed the incubator from my sister and had to buy a thermometer/hygrometer because she didn't have a working one. I never checked the thermometer for accuracy. I just stuck it in there. I had 17 eggs going into lockdown. They were lively and all moving. I was so excited. I thought they looked a little behind, but was hoping it was just inexperience. Day 21 came and went, so did 22, at the end of 23 I actually had a pip. Chick hatched day 24 and one other pipped and hatched day 25, but died. The rest were all DIS. So dissapopinted. Someone told me to check my thermometer, so I did. It was reading 6 degrees higher than it actually was so my bator was running 6 degrees low the entire time. That is a big part of why I try to help when I can. I know what it feels like to have that dissapointed hatch. Plus, I was using 60%+ for humidity because that's what the book said, so I'm sure if the temps didn't get them, the drowning did.
I gave it another try a few weeks later, this time with 3 thermometers that were accurate and after researching "dry" incubation. I haven't had a bad hatch since and actually had 100% on my last hatch last season.

 

[emmaellis111]

I bet u were devastated!, my incubator is a pain when it comes to adding water, you could grantee the alarm would go off 5am because the humidity had dropped again!, bare in mind i have 3 kids under the age of 4, god the **** things noisy so no sleep for me, but so far I haven't had to add any water and has kept a pretty consistent humidity at 30%
the lowest its dropped was to 27%, so hopefully the silly alarm won't go off,

, I am so so hoping that this batch works, so hopefully in a couple of weeks i'll have some baby d'uccles

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I bet u were devastated!, my incubator is a pain when it comes to adding water, you could grantee the alarm would go off 5am because the humidity had dropped again!, bare in mind i have 3 kids under the age of 4, god the **** things noisy so no sleep for me, but so far I haven't had to add any water and has kept a pretty consistent humidity at 30%
the lowest its dropped was to 27%, so hopefully the silly alarm won't go off,

, I am so so hoping that this batch works, so hopefully in a couple of weeks i'll have some baby d'uccles

Best of luck! Hope to hear good things.