4th Annual BYC NYD Hatch-a-long

[TMNfarm]

I think I'm getting the hang of this incubator... My temp was 99.9-100.2 even overnight!! I've been reading about the dry incubating, but I'm not sure it would work for me. We get REALLY dry here in the winter... Right now, the humidity in my incubator is between 43-55%. Is that good for the first 17 days? Seems to me from all the reading I've been doing that I should be more worried about high humidity during the first part of the hatch, rather than low?? I'm getting stressed out reading all of these threads on hatching and diseases!! I've got eggs coming from what I believe is a very reputable person (BYC member) and then I'm taking part in the mystery swap... With thet low hatch rates I'm reading about, and this being my first hatch in an incubator, I've decided to set a dozen of my own as well... I want to double my flock from 12 to 24 hens, so with a low hatch rate (hopefully not, but I'm being realistic) and then accounting for some being cockerels... I'm hoping if I set 36 eggs, I'll accomplish my goal. I've got 7 chicks from my 12 eggs with my broody right now, but I have no idea how many are roosters!

 

[Herducks]

I just had my first really dry icubation/hatch. I added no water during incubation. Humidity stayed in the 20-25% range, I added a little water for hatch keeping humidity between 35-30% I had 14 of 17 eggs hatch. I had planned on raising humidity more, but they started hatching early and were doing fine, so i decided not to mess with it.

 

[Razadia]

I literally dry hatch. I don't add water at all until day 18. The humidity in my room is so high it's noticeable in the temp and feel of the air. My first hatch went bad and all my chicks drowned because I thought my humidity was at 40%, while it was really around 60 through the whole hatch. No point in dehumidifying the air in my room when it provides worry free hatching... as long as it doesn't rain.

 

[TMNfarm]

Does it matter what the humidity in the room is if my incubator stays at 25-30%? I don't have a hygrometer for the outside of the incubator, but I suppose I could go get one. The article said to keeo the room at 50%. Pretty sure I would need to be running a humidifier to get there... I've got them in my downstairs bathroom because I need to be able to close the door to the room they are in due to my cats loving styrofoam!! The basement stays at a much steadier temp than my upstairs does.

 

[Feike]

I think most of my problem is living in a state with extremely high humidity, and I was not paying close enough attention to that fact itself. Common sense should have told me that if the humidity surrounding my incubator was so high it really didn't need to be so high inside it. I had tried what I thought was dry incubation once, but I freaked when the wells went dry, and instead of adding just a tsp or so, I filled them back up. I had over 30 perfect-looking eggs go into lockdown but only about a third hatched. I opened the remaining eggs, just to see what the problem was. All were fully formed. Several had pipped internally, but were sticky, they never made it out. The rest drowned. They were VERY wet, never turned upwards. Just drowned in all that liquid. By keeping the humidity so high, I never allowed them to lose the moisture they should have lost by that time, I think.

What article? is there a link?

 

[Lesalynn]

Does it matter what the humidity in the room is if my incubator stays at 25-30%? I don't have a hygrometer for the outside of the incubator, but I suppose I could go get one. The article said to keeo the room at 50%. Pretty sure I would need to be running a humidifier to get there... I've got them in my downstairs bathroom because I need to be able to close the door to the room they are in due to my cats loving styrofoam!! The basement stays at a much steadier temp than my upstairs does.

I really don't know. I am using one because I want to see if it does make a difference in my situation. I figure it can't hurt.

 

[Lesalynn]

What article? is there a link?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/113681/humdity-in-bator-excellent-info-here-everyone-should-read-this/20

 

[chicken fever]

Im having a really hard time keeping my humidity stable!! I've hatched several times befor n this bato and didn't have so much of an issue but now my humidity keeps dropping, so I plug her up and it rises way too high. Suggestions?

 

[mstricer]

R yall talking about the pedz? Trying to figure out what bedding I want to use in my new spacious coop. Pedz or river sand. What's Yalls opinions?
Quote: I don't know what pedz is, unless you are talking about that white stuff that you use somewhat like DE.
I used concert sand in my coop and run. This year I'm going to use fine sand.

 

[MarineCorpFarmr]

We're talking about equine pine bedding. It comes in 40# bags and you have to moisten it. When you do tho it becomes fluffy and very absorbant.