Dry incubation

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dordles

dordles

Hatching
11 Years
Jul 10, 2008
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Hello everyone. I read with great interest Bill Worrell's article on dry incubation.

Makes a lot of sense - has anyone tried it, if so, what was your hatch rate?

Also how do you stabilise the humidity in a room so
it's constant?

I'm about to set some rare breed eggs and am interested to see if this is a viable method.
 
I dry incubate. I pay no attention whatsoever to humidity UNTIL they hit the 'hatcher' age.

I've had no worse than 75% with shipped eggs, and 100% hatch rates with my own eggs using this method. I've hatched out several batches of shipped eggs and 10 silkies so far with this method. I also had a batch of button quail, that I got about 50% hatch rate with, shipped eggs, but my temps had a huge spike and then a power outage during that session, so I'm not surprised I didn't get a higher hatch rate with the buttons.

My incubators are kept in the house (central air/heatpump). I don't know what the ambient humidity is and only keep a hygrometer inside my hatcher.

Your mileage may vary...
 
I pretty much dry incubate. I only add some water if the humidity really gets low...around 25%...which in Florida isn't very often. I do raise the humidity to 70% on day 18. I have hatch rates no lower than 84% on shipped eggs.
 
I use the low humidity hatch too. My last 3 shipments were 86%. Room stabilization is tough if you dont have central heat and air. Spring and fall wont be a problem like summer and winter. Try it and if your thermometer is correct you will have good luck with this type hatching.
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Don't you have to live in a humid area for that method? I would do it but I know I will fail at it since I'm in the desert,
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I don't understand how thats supposed to work. Could someone explain, please? So you just don't add water at all? How can they develop the same as when you do add water? What should the humidity be for dry incubation?
 
No, you don't have to live in a humid area. What Bill Worrel says is to keep the humidity in the room about 35%. In the desert you may have to put a humidifier in the room that your incubator is in.

There is a sticky somewhere about the dry incubation method but I couldn't find it. My first hatch I kept the humidity at recommended levels and had 3 eggs that didn't lose enough water and the chicks drowned. I decided to quit worrying about the humidity and just jack it up at day 18. Next 2 hatches were great! I think the greatest danger to eggs is too much humidity...not too little.

Did you know that when hatcheries vaccinate for Marek's they vaccinate the egg prior to placement for incubation. It puts a hole in the top air cell part) of the egg...and not a needle hole size either! They don't cover the hole....they just take them directly to the incubation room.
 
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