Dry incubating? please share stories

[heritagebirds]

I am interested in hearing more about people's experience with dry incubating. I am using Hovabators and have chicks right at hatch. I live in a humid region, so maybe filling the tray, per the instructions, really doesn't work here. Did you get better hatch, worse hatch? Do you live in a humid/dry region? Thank you so much for your help.

 

[newdock]

I live in a fairly humid region (not tropical or anything mind you!). I had the worst luck with incubating until I tried my version of dry incubating. I just closed up the incubator and didn't open it unless I wanted to candle and then I would add a tiny bit of water. On day 18, I added more water to up the humidity for hatching.

I also left the plugs out a lot as the house humidity was high enough most of the time.

Doing this also allowed me to put the eggs in a carton and then tip the whole incubator a bit side to side as I don't have a turner. No need to open it and no worries about water sloshing around inside. I just put a 2x4 under one side of the incubator and switched it every 8 hours or so.

Voila...chicks!

 

[saladin]

Al Sanchez is the one to ask about dry incubation: by the way, he lives in Florida. saladin

 

[heritagebirds]

Thank you both, I have had some success, and I followed the directions; it just didn't seem to turn out that good with all the worrying I did.