Dry Incubation, 25% or 50%humidity???

bald k9

Songster
10 Years
Sep 5, 2009
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Rural Edwardsville
Ok I have spent the past four days searching the web, and I amm still confused , I read that some dont add water at all and some add water but they dont really state what the actual % is inside the incubator,,I understand room, ambient temp,region, placement, but what is the acutal % humidtity for dry hatch ,25% 30% 50%75% 0% 10% And how low is too low , I have a Brower 846 round metal still air ,and WOW does it hold things steady, I plugged it in for a couple days and played with it 101 even and constant 25% humidity with NO water at all [no eggs yet]! thanks for all the advise
 
Dry incubation refers to folks who dont add water to the incubator during incubation. Dry incubation is only truly successful for folks who live in places where ambient (room) humidity is already high. The inside of the incubator has a 45-50% humidity naturally. People who "dry incubate" often add water during lockdown.


I live in a desert, where the ambient humidity has been 1% and 2% several times this spring & summer. Even in the winter, average humidity ~10-15%. Even if I add water to the 'bator EVERYDAY, complete with bowls and sponges, sopping wet wash cloths, etc---it is almost impossible for me to get over 55% humidity.


People like me joke we are doing a "dry incubation"...but my broodies, outside, still manage to be successful all by themselves
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You want your humidty ~30% or higher during incubation. Then you need to bump it up over 70% during lockdown.

I don't know what the ambient humidity is for IL.
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I have my incubators in the basement (LG's) and use the "dry-hatch" method and with no water added the humidity averages 45-50%. At lockdown I boost it up to approx. 70% using wet sponges and paper towels. Normally have good hatches. The humidity mentioned is assuming my hygrometer is sot-on? Charlie
 
Well im in Florida and i keep the hum at 30% for the first 18 days and then lockdown i try not to get it past 55% cause then i have seen it starting to get really humidty in there and can see liquid coming out of the egg
 
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If you see the humidity and liquid coming out of the eggs, your humidity is not 55% ,it is closer to 80%. You should calibrate it, its probably lying to you. I calibrated mine and it was 15% off. If windows of the incubator are fogged up then humidity is high.
 
I struggled with "what %RH" too and researched this ONE subject endlessly; why so many different answers. First of all, I realized not all those who provided a %RH had really good hatches; then I finally stumbled upon the real reasons for regulating the humidity. THe egg needs to decrease in moisture and grow its air cell to a specific size and then jack up the humidity during pip and zip to prevent the membranes from drying before the fuzz ball wiggles out. ( Turkeys need over 80%RH at lockdown)

THis was my experience: I put water in my LG and candled at 7 days--No increase in the air cell! I sopped up all the water, and the moisture absorbed into the foam took a few more days to dryout and now these poor eggs are way behind in moisture loss. Dry incubating put my %RH at 35ish; by 4 days before lockdown the air cell is still too big and the chicks will drown. Enter the airconditioner to dryout the air; %RH ran at 27-30 until lock down when at least some of the eggs had appropriate size air cells. THis is my first attempt at incubating. I will dry hatch from the beginning next time and shoot for 40%RH and again adjust the %RH based on the size of the growing air cell. THis is a diagram like the one I used:

http://www.poultryconnection.com/quackers/aircell.html
 

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