Dry hatching questions

[SweetieChicken234]

Yup.. so I figured out the issue here. The house was built to be efficient and my AC is running less. I moved my Govee to another room off the main house and turned the air a bit lower and sure enough the humidity is dropping. So my higher humidity is because my AC is not running as often.

In theory.. as long as I keep my AC at 74 it will run less and I should be able to completely dry hatch these chicks straight through. As soon as the first chicks pips the humidity should rise more.
Edit:
I noticed the lower AC caused my incubator Govee to report 32.7% inside. That's almost a 2% drop in humidity by lower my AC a little.

 

[McChooky]

Oh this is exciting!! I hope they all hatch. I wonder if maybe I need to move the incubator come hatch time. It's on my bathroom counter and seems it's staying humid in there even with no one using it. I bet the main house is less humid. We will see come time to hatch what is the case. I feel like if I took a shower in there that's all it would take to raise the humidity for hatching hahaha

I would keep it in the bathroom. As I understood with a dry hatch you get humidity from the environment (FL hot). Apparently my HVAC is working overtime and keeping my house dry, which ia what you typically want to prevent must and mildew.

We have a lot of rain in West Virginia so it would probably work good here as well.

 

[SweetieChicken234]

Florida is ridiculous. So basically I can put the incubator outside and dry hatch no problem!! The humidity is insane. Yes.. I am joking.

 

[Yardmom]

I live in northwest PA. (Micro ecosystem off lake Erie) Our temps are moderate, so no AC in our house. The humidity in my house is usually over 80 in spring and summer. I don't add any water the first 18 days and the incubator can be as high as 45. For hatch I put in just a bit of water to raise humidity over 60.

Yes AC is going to affect how you handle humidity.

Just a note it is possible to get to much humidity at hatch. During a stretch of rain at hatch I got a nasty green slime on muscovies that seemed to be connected to the humidity.

 

[Eggs_Over_EZ]

In North Central FL which is very humid. I did not add water for 18 days and humidity stayed around 25%. (The incubator is in our home which keeps the humidity low.) Finally added water and the humidity started at 40% and is up at 66% and one chick is out (first to pip). Several others have broken through their shell. I do have concern with one as it pipped at the wrong end and it looks like it hit a blood vessel. Not sure that it will make it out.

 

[Eggs_Over_EZ]

We now have 5 hatched chicks now. (Make that 6) One is zipping but the others keep turning it around and it’s opening is facing down. We have two more that have pipped. The one that pipped at the wrong end looked like it was still trying but maybe not going to get out. I tried loading a video but it would not allow me.

 

[SweetieChicken234]

We now have 5 hatched chicks now. (Make that 6) One is zipping but the others keep turning it around and it’s opening is facing down. We have two more that have pipped. The one that pipped at the wrong end looked like it was still trying but maybe not going to get out. I tried loading a video but it would not allow me.

That is so cute and yay!! Baby chicks! How much did the humidity jump after the first chick pipped?

 

[Eggs_Over_EZ]

So far the highest humidity was 79% and that is when we had two chicks hatch at once time. The first chick raised it to 62%. I knew it would increase as they hatched. One thing I did do is add warm water instead of just room temp which did cause an increase faster. I did that earlier this morning. I just had to open my incubator to remove shells as the hatched chicks was pushing one egg around and the chick was working on zipping but got stuck inside of one of the hatched chicks shells. We are still waiting for the chick. Still have a couple of eggs that pipped but not sure if they have given up or just taking a rest.

 

[SweetieChicken234]

So far the highest humidity was 79% and that is when we had two chicks hatch at once time. The first chick raised it to 62%. I knew it would increase as they hatched. One thing I did do is add warm water instead of just room temp which did cause an increase faster. I did that earlier this morning. I just had to open my incubator to remove shells as the hatched chicks was pushing one egg around and the chick was working on zipping but got stuck inside of one of the hatched chicks shells. We are still waiting for the chick. Still have a couple of eggs that pipped but not sure if they have given up or just taking a rest.

Wow thanks for the updated information. I'm still trying to decide if I will add water or try for a total dry hatch. I know that chicks hatching will increase the humidity but my bathroom seems to be really holding the humidity. It may cause it to be too high and I don't want that. If I closed my AC vents then probably it would be into the 60% range.

 

[Eggs_Over_EZ]

If you humidity is high the one concern would be if the air cell is getting big enough. Just keep and eye on that. You can find drawings of what that would look like when candling. As I understand too humid can make is so the air cell is not getting big enough. Someone here should correct me if I am not saying it correctly. LOL. I have two eggs we are waiting on now. The others do not seem to be doing anything. If we accomplish to get 8 to hatch we would have 60%. I was hoping for a minimum of 9. Time will tell.