Dry Incubation Method = Some of Our Best Hatches

[CityGirlintheCountry]

So to clarify the dry hatch method, you keep the humidity between 35% and 50% the first 18 days and than what last few days? My last couple of hatches have been horrible. Eggs did great up until day 18 and then they all died. I think they are drowning. The embyos are fully formed, but have not absorbed all the yolk sak. They didn't pip or do anything. They just stopped developing. Day 18 is when I up the humidity usually and lock the bator down. The last couple of hatches I had humidities at 75-85% once I added water to the wells. A dozen chicks dead in the shell on the first bad hatch and 10 or so dead in the shell the last. I did have three make it out alive this last time, but it was a struggle for two of them.

Any thoughts on how to improve this? This round has had humidity of 35-45% for two weeks. I go to lockdown on Tuesday. I really want this lot to make it out! I had great hatches all summer until right here at the end. Humidity is all I can figure out that I'm doing wrong.

 

[PunkinPeep]

Quote:
The last three days, i try to keep it between 50 and 55%. Not much of a rise at all.

And while we're talking about it, i'll share something i've started doing with the dry hatches. In one of the big posts about dry hatching, the person said that he lets it dry out a little before adding water...but i was having a horrible time doing anything dependable with the dang water troughs in my hovabator. Oh, and for clarification, i incubate and hatch in egg carton bottoms. Anyway, i started using thin kitchen wash rags. I put in two warm, soaked but not dripping, rags at the beginning, and i re-wet them only when they dry out almost completely. I put them right on top of the grate, in the corners of the 'bator. At that point (when they're dried out), the humidity is usually about 30%. When they're wet, the humidity is about 50%. Then at lockdown, i put in a third wet washrag, and i put that one in the middle, right under the middle vent hole so i can squirt water on it if it starts drying out in there. I take out the hygrometer to leave more room for hatching chicks, and i just go by how much condensation is on the windows, to decide whether to add water.

I have used this method for my last two hatches and hatched 23 out of 24 eggs both times.

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Quote:
The last three days, i try to keep it between 50 and 55%. Not much of a rise at all.

And while we're talking about it, i'll share something i've started doing with the dry hatches. In one of the big posts about dry hatching, the person said that he lets it dry out a little before adding water...but i was having a horrible time doing anything dependable with the dang water troughs in my hovabator. Oh, and for clarification, i incubate and hatch in egg carton bottoms. Anyway, i started using thin kitchen wash rags. I put in two warm, soaked but not dripping, rags at the beginning, and i re-wet them only when they dry out almost completely. I put them right on top of the grate, in the corners of the 'bator. At that point (when they're dried out), the humidity is usually about 30%. When they're wet, the humidity is about 50%. Then at lockdown, i put in a third wet washrag, and i put that one in the middle, right under the middle vent hole so i can squirt water on it if it starts drying out in there. I take out the hygrometer to leave more room for hatching chicks, and i just go by how much condensation is on the windows, to decide whether to add water.

I have used this method for my last two hatches and hatched 23 out of 24 eggs both times.

Yes. I don't even have a hygrometer or a temp gauge that tells humidity anymore. It was distracting to me. Once it was gone and I started the "benign neglect" idea, my hatches improved.