Dry hatch question

[kopeck]

So I'm giving dry hatch a go for the first time. From what I gather from doing a bit of reading here 35% - 40% seems to be the sweat spot for this method. I got my Hovabator setup a week before I was going set eggs and with out any water in the tray and the humidity was in the 20s, so I played with it a bit and ended up filling the tray as I normally would but then covered 75% of it with some tin foil and after a bit of fussing I got it to hold right around 35%-37%. I let it sit this way for a few days until I set my eggs.

Well, I set them and the humidity has risen to 42%-44%.

I first reaction of course was to try and adjust the foil but I've resisted and deiced if I did anything I would do it on day seven when I candled them. Of course I could also go to far in the other direction so who knows.

I guess what I'm asking is am I to wet to be dry and should I be monkeying with things?

K

 

[cashdl]

I could be wrong but I thought depending on where you live dry hatch was having your incubator humidity the same as the humidity that the room it sits in is at with no added water. But again I could be wrong.

35% does not seem like a dry hatch to me.


I just do my own type of hatching that works for me. I do not add any water in my incubator at all. It is a dry incubator ( no water added ever) and it stays at 20 to 25% humidity with 1 vent open. I have a Dickeys cabinet incubator.

Now the hatcher is set at 60% humidity always and it goes up naturally when the chicks hatch but I don't mess with it except to make sure I keep the water pan full.

My hatch rates are running about 75% to 95% and this is hatching araucana chicks which are one of the top 3 most difficult breeds to get a good hatch rate on.

Lanae

 

[kopeck]

Dang, serves me right for writing that being tired. I mean dry incubation, not dry hatch. Blah, anyway...

Thanks for getting back to me. From what I read you don't want to let the incubator to fall below 25% and that 35% - 40% is the ideal range. They don't talk about adding water to the incubator BUT bringing the room humidity up to 40% - 50%. Right now my house is under 30%.

I know using the "wet" method (the tray being full for the full incubation period it ran 65%-70%.

I also have the plug out of the vent hole.

Maybe I should move the foil when I get home, it should only take a few seconds.

Thanks,

K

 

[Pele]

There is a lot of material out there, all with different numbers (of course). I know because I had to read through 90% of it when I was researching the dry method.

Your numbers are closer to a halfway between percentage, neither dry nor wet. Moist perhaps?

Wet incubation usually has people holding their humidity at anywhere from 40 to 60% until lockdown, then progressing to 70 to 80%.

Dry incubation is much much lower. It has you keep your humidity above the teens, but below 30% ( I have had mind yoyo from 18 to 30% because of having to add water daily in my climate). Then at lockdown, you raise it up to 70 or 80%. This gives the egg beautiful an controlled evaporation, which gives the chick a nice large aircell to break out of. It also reduces the chances that the chick is too swollen with water to hatch.

 

[kopeck]

Well, sounds like I'll be adjusting tonight.

Right now my turner is at one extreme so I'm waiting to get back towards the center.

K

 

[kopeck]

Just moved my foil, only a bit of water is exposed now. I hope a bit of fluctuation isn't going to hurt anything.

I've never had my turner this full before and of course the wire hung up as I was moving it. Man, I thought I was going to loose it for a moment.

I may not be completely dry as I still have some water exposed but it's really dry here right now, if I can get it in the 30s I'll be happy.

K