Dry Incubation **NOW WITH PHOTOS!** - How Low is Too Low? 10% Humidity**ANSWERED: NO.**

[ChaddiX]

Thanks everyone for your input! I've read up and added a bit of water to get it up to 35% (12 days in). I go into lockdown on JAN 23rd and hopefully PiP on JAN 26th. I'll keep everyone posted.

R/

CHAD CARREON

 

[aaggjg]

How do you get humidity down if you aren't even adding water? No water in the bator but my humidity is sitting at 37% ????

I was wondering the same thing! I have not added water at all and my humidity went up from 37% to 42%!!! I am in southern california so its not like I'm in a humid environment

 

[thebanthams]

some one on the other thread says to put rice in the incubatator to lower the humidity..

 

[aaggjg]

some one on the other thread says to put rice in the incubatator to lower the humidity..

Ooh that is interesting.... They use rice to keep salt dry in the tropics so that makes total sense! Thanks for the tip. What is the other thread you're reading?

 

[thebanthams]

I cant remember where I found that thread, but i am sure it was under incubating and hatching eggs. I am always reading too many posts !! I am new at hatching Jan 28th. so justing learning lots of new things !!

Ooh that is interesting.... They use rice to keep salt dry in the tropics so that makes total sense! Thanks for the tip. What is the other thread you're reading?

 

[sheboyganjohn]

I cant remember where I found that thread, but i am sure it was under incubating and hatching eggs.   I am always  reading too many posts !!    I am new at hatching Jan 28th.  so    justing learning lots of new things !!

 

I believe its the "Please someone help me!!!" thread. It's on page 2 right now, or search for threads I have posted on.

 

[ChaddiX]

Thanks everyone for your input! I've read up and added a bit of water to get it up to 35% (12 days in). I go into lockdown on JAN 23rd and hopefully PiP on JAN 26th. I'll keep everyone posted.

R/

CHAD CARREON

JAN 23: I put 6 bantam eggs in lockdown. Temp 99.9. Humidity 75%
Below is the lockdown incubator. I should have bought the STILL air to help prevent sticky chicks to the shell, perhaps the higher humidity will allow them to shift about and PiP at the correct angle. Eggs on their side with the bigger side slightly raised. I used toothpicks to keep the egg carton top up to minimize eggs exposed to blowing air.


Below is the incubator with egg turner for eggs on Day 0 - Day 18. Using this hygrometer it seems I'm having to put two teaspoons of water a day to keep humidity between 25-35%. I use a syringe to flush water down a straw (through the hole on the right)


Thoughts? Your Experiences? I live in Northern California, if I put no water at all, the hygrometer reads 10% - Thanks!

 

[ChaddiX]

So the answer in my particular scenario is: "NO." No 10% Humidity is NOT too low for the first ten days in the incubator. 3 of 6 eggs (so far) hatched today. More than 24 hours early btw.

Please check out the babies on this thread

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/623321/1st-time-hatching-ever-but-1-day-early-pictures

 

[quintinp]

For standard chicken eggs. I use 30% humidity the first 18 days. I use 75% the last 3 days. I have had great luck with dry incubation! I got a 100% hatch rate the first "Dry Hatch" I did.

 

[AllenWMiller]

Okay so I’ve read all the posts in this string so now let an old man put his two cents into the mix.

First let’s get some terminologies ironed out. Understand that there is no such thing as “dry method” incubation. It is out and out impossible. If it were, a vulture egg in the driest desert would have no need for the female to tend the egg it would simply hatch from the heat. But it is tended and cooled and heated and humidity is monitored constantly by the female. (Remember humidity is one of the four critical factors for embryonic incubation.)

Second the method being referred to by some folks is referred to as “low declination humidity method” or LDH. And this idea is certainly not new to the poultry world. But in today’s world it has no place.

LDH was a methodology used in the 19th and early 20th century as a means to out gas incubators. Realize that the heat source for early incubators was fuel oil or kerosene. As a result if you ran the humidity too high the noxious gases could accumulate and suffocate the developing embryo whereas the lower the humidity the easier any trapped gas could be expelled via ventilation holes.

This type of incubation was complicated and time consuming and hatch results were terrible even by today’s hobbyist standards (50% or less to be precise). My forefathers used these units and their journals tell the tales of their successes and failures with them.

This lower humidity method ran the units in the 25 to 35% humidity range ramping up to 50% or so at hatch.

Today proper humidity management is as follows:

Room temperature/humidity: 70f plus or minus 2 degrees with relative humidity at 70% plus or minus 5% (this is the room where the incubator will operate)

Incubator values: 99.5f forced air plus or minus .1 degree 100.5 still air plus or minus .1 degree.
1st to 18th day 60% plus or minus 5%
18th to 19th day 65% plus or minus 5% (some will skip this step and go to 70% on the 18th day. I have had good success with this extra step)
19th to 21st day 70% plus or minus 5%

I have had friends and colleagues who use old redwood incubators tell me they have had great success running their humidity at values around 75-80% humidity. Wrong. They had great success because redwood incubators are the best units at absorbing and releasing water much in the same way a tree transpires naturally. In a redwood incubator the wood itself wicks away moisture and releases it back as the air in the incubator becomes dry. A lot like the wood expanding and contracting in our homes during various seasons.

And I have been chided for such hard and fast rules but they work. Can you tweak them? Yes. Can you tweak them to drastic levels? No. And here’s why.

First most of us have experienced drown chicks in the egg from too high humidity and chicks stuck in the egg from too low humidity. But how many actually understand the nature of the humidity in relation to the development of the chick itself?

Do we just assume it’s natural and that’s it? No. Humidity places a key and vital role in the development of the embryo. In fact, I see it as akin to a second womb for the egg. Proper humidity allows the easy exchange of air flow through the shell making it much easier for the developing chick to breath. Look at it this way, when the air is dry in winter doesn’t your skin dry out and your nose dry up when breathing the cold, dry air? Ever notice how much easier you breathe at the beach? (This is another old method of salting the water in an incubator but I will go into that in a later string)

Humidity is vital to the development of a chick much in the same way drinking water is a necessity for any living creature.