Dry hatching

[KemzWade19]

Hey guys I heard dry hatching has more of a success rate? Is this true? I am trying dry hatching for the first time, and I’m just asking if yall could tell me about your experiences with dry hatching and if yall like it better or not. (Maybe leave tips if wanted)

 

[LaurenRitz]

From what I have seen, dry hatching works best in a high humidity environment. I had planned to try a dry hatch this winter, but my furnace reduces humidity to almost nothing and I didn't want to risk it.

The hatching itself raises humidity when it gets to that point, so I don't see the increase in humidity for hatch to be an issue.

 

[Obsessed With Silkies]

I have tried many ways to find the best hatch rate and after tons of research, I have found what works for me. Dry hatching or close to it I have found to be more successful because with other hatch methods, the humidity is too high and then it gets raised in lockdown which can drown or shrink wrap the chick as it is too much of a sudden change in humidity. I have found that if you keep the temperature at 99.5 degrees and 40-45% humidity the whole way through, I have gotten the highest hatch rates. I live in Louisiana so it may differ from where you are but in my experience, this has worked the best.

 

[LaurenRitz]

I also kept humidity between 40 and 45 most of the time. Each time a chick hatched humidity jumped briefly, then dropped back to 60ish for a while.

 

[NatJ]

Hey guys I heard dry hatching has more of a success rate? Is this true? I am trying dry hatching for the first time, and I’m just asking if yall could tell me about your experiences with dry hatching and if yall like it better or not. (Maybe leave tips if wanted)

If by "dry hatching" you mean not adding any water to the incubator during most of the incubation time: it works very well, or very badly, or somewhere in between. The difference is what climate each person is in, and what humidity is already present in the room with the incubator.

Some people live in a desert-- they usually need to add a lot of water to their incubators.

Some people live in very humid climates-- they often do better without adding water to incubators ("dry"), and I have read of a few that need to run a dehumidifier in the same room with the incubator as well as not adding water to the incubator.

Some people live in climates that are not extremely dry or humid, and they often do well with some water in the incubator, but may also do well with no water in the incubator.

Experimenting with your own conditions is one of the best ways to learn what works for you. It can be useful to keep notes on what you do, and how well it works, and anything else that might change the results (different time of year, or very different weather, or eggs that are shipped vs. local, etc.)