Anyone ever try the dry hatch method before?

[scatteredeggs]

Quote:
hi quintinp,

can u explain further about quail hatching. i just had a dismal result of my two hatches. i hv a DIY styrofoam incubator.

first hatch - 9 out of 60 shipped eggs. was opening incubator to turn, 50% humidity for the first 14 days, 70% during lockdown.
second hatch - 8 out of 100. turned eggs without opening incubator. tried dry hatch - had 35% hum during first 14 days, 70+ during lockdown.

in both cases, they hatched during the 15th day and was over in 24 hours.
during the second hatch, temp was erratic during lockdown, a couple of times shooting to 105 for some hours. i think i fried most eggs.
i want to try my 3rd hatch, altho i told dh i will just hatch my own eggs. but if i made the big mistake of trying dry incubation, i'd like to try again, coz i re designed my incubator after the first and i want to test it correctly.

your thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

 

[loopy119]

I use an LG to incubate too then put the chicken eggs in a homemade bator to hatch with a bowl of water, and keep the quail eggs in the LG with water in the bottom container thing. I monitor the humidity the whole hatch, but don't add water until the end. The humidity is usually around 30%-40% during the incubation period, and 60%-70% after lockdown.

Oh! And I also have a dimmer knob on my LG bator's temp stem to fine-tune the temperature. I saw to do that on a BYC thread, but I have since lost the link....

 

[scatteredeggs]

Quote:
were you hatching quails with "humidity is usually around 30%-40% during the incubation period, and 60%-70% after lockdown"? what was your hatch rate? how many hatched out of how many eggs? did u hatch your own eggs or were they shipped?

 

[quintinp]

Quote:
hi quintinp,

can u explain further about quail hatching. i just had a dismal result of my two hatches. i hv a DIY styrofoam incubator.

first hatch - 9 out of 60 shipped eggs. was opening incubator to turn, 50% humidity for the first 14 days, 70% during lockdown.
second hatch - 8 out of 100. turned eggs without opening incubator. tried dry hatch - had 35% hum during first 14 days, 70+ during lockdown.

in both cases, they hatched during the 15th day and was over in 24 hours.
during the second hatch, temp was erratic during lockdown, a couple of times shooting to 105 for some hours. i think i fried most eggs.
i want to try my 3rd hatch, altho i told dh i will just hatch my own eggs. but if i made the big mistake of trying dry incubation, i'd like to try again, coz i re designed my incubator after the first and i want to test it correctly.

your thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

Right now I am keeping the humidity at 45% in the incubator, and it refuses to go any higher, but I am not gonna mess with that stuff until lockdown.

 

[alaina]

Best results so far with dry incubation, adding water at day 18 (or 19 if its real humid to start) QUESTION to hot2pot; are those splash polish in your photo?? I would be interested in some of those I think, nice!!!

@ GrannyPat; you added NO water at all? Not even at the end?? Wow!!

 

[m.r.heavenlyhens]

I am so glad that you posted the info about the dry hatch method. The stuff that I could find in the archives were from a few years ago and no one could say from own experience. I have tried several hatches with the instructions for keeping the humidity high. I followed it to a t and still had aonly 6 hatch out of 40.
The next time i had only three hatch. It seemed that the chicks were very wet and they would dry with their feathers all stuck to them. I live in south Texas and it is humid most of the time. I think that I had been drowning these poor babies. When I would open shells-all had formed chicks. I have been trying to read and learn as much as I can about it and I am going to try it. What I read said that you would keep an eye on the huumidity and not let it get over 25.

 

[quintinp]

m.r.heavenlyhens :

I am so glad that you posted the info about the dry hatch method. The stuff that I could find in the archives were from a few years ago and no one could say from own experience. I have tried several hatches with the instructions for keeping the humidity high. I followed it to a t and still had aonly 6 hatch out of 40.
The next time i had only three hatch. It seemed that the chicks were very wet and they would dry with their feathers all stuck to them. I live in south Texas and it is humid most of the time. I think that I had been drowning these poor babies. When I would open shells-all had formed chicks. I have been trying to read and learn as much as I can about it and I am going to try it. What I read said that you would keep an eye on the humidity and not let it get over 25.

Yep, you want a digital hygrometer/thermometer, the hygrometer is very great to have.​

 

[alaina]

ya, the info I got on here was "ignore humidity completely until day 18" then bring it to 70-80% for the 3 days.

 

[quintinp]

Quote:
That's exactly what I do, my last hatch I got a 100% hatch rate.

 

[hmlongino]

Okay, I needed this post, too!

Since the summer hit, my hatch rates have gone completely downhill. I am thinking I should try this with our final attempt.

Those who have had success.... I'm guessing location and time of year also plays a role? I'm in the hot humid muggy south! I'm sure it makes a difference...