Dry hatch attempt

[mikewcgy]

We are on our 3rd round of hatching, for 1 and 2 we had about a 50% hatch rate. Read some posts about dry hatches and decided to give it a try.

We just entered lock down and upon candling every. single. egg seems to have some activity. Normally we would expect to remove atleast 10/41 with either nothing or a blood ring.

Exciting. Going to be a busy hatch day! Will update the post with the final results but I think we will do this from now on if all goes well!

 

[DougVC]

What is a dry hatch?

 

[nuthatched]

What is a dry hatch?

It's when your humidity in your incubator is about 30%-45%, traditional rule of thumb is about 50%-60% humidity but more people have success with dry hatching poultry

 

[mikewcgy]

It's when your humidity in your incubator is about 30%-45%, traditional rule of thumb is about 50%-60% humidity but more people have success with dry hatching poultry

Yup! from lockdown day on we are still cranking up the humidity though as normal

 

[Nero70002]

Keep us updated on how it goes.

 

[mikewcgy]

Hey everyone. So the chicks started hatching yesterday. As of this moment we hatched 23/41 or 56%, our prior best was 16/41. The biggest difference was that all the eggs made it past the candling check on lockdown day. The prior attempt for example we removed 10 eggs as "apparently non fertile". Could just be a coincidence.

Unfortunately one of our later hatchlings seems to have a case of umbilical hernia. This is the first time we are facing the prospect of culling. I have done a bunch of reading but as this chick hatched hours ago now I fear we may have missed our opportunity to try chick surgery. We are going to face this after supper and will inspect him to be sure it is what it looks like. But dont have a ton of hope. The bits this chick is carrying around is way larger than anything Ive seen and has been bleeding quite a bit as well.

On a happier note here is a pic of the crew from last night. As well as one of them who needed a nap mid hatch

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Give it a few days sometimes those heal on their own. You can also just put a small bandage over the umbilicus. Sometimes this happens if your incubating temperature is a little bit too high. Not saying that’s the reason but just offering it as a possible explanation. I dry incubate sometimes as low as 25% with good results.

 

[DougVC]

Very cool. Congrats on the hatch. I have yet to do a hatch, have had chickens for 5 years now. Did day old chicks last year and we have more coming this year. I am thinking we may try out hands at hatching some out next year, so I appreciate the information.