Dry incubation problems

[gimmie birdies]

on day 19 you would see a slope if you candled. I have hatched enough I don't need to. to know it is there.

 

[gimmie birdies]

2 that are fluffing and waiting for others.

 

[Farmer Viola]

I have had great success with dry incubating, but am now having a large amount of chicks make it to lockdown but never pip.

This has happened for my last three hatches. Humidity during days 1-17 stays around 25% and is increased to 65% for lockdown. Could it be because of the changes in the weather? I'm very disappointed with only 5 out of 11 Silkies hatching... Even of they were from shipped eggs since all of the others had fully developed chicks inside Any help is greatly appreciated!

It could be the weather change for sure.. I live in Oregon and it is usually 50% humidity, but we recently had a week of frozen temperatures and I saw the humidity in my house drop to 25% (a first in over 2 years). so it is helpful to know the room humidity and to notice dips/spikes...

I also use the dry incubation method, but I try to go for a little more than 25% humidity.. I use a small piece of sponge that I cut up to add a little water at a time during day 1-17, I try to keep it between 25-45%, lower near the start, and ramping up slowly to 45% near the end before lockdown (65%). this is just what I do hope it helps!

 

[Farmer Viola]

this is a good resource for troubleshooting what went wrong:
http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/trouble.html

also by performing an eggtopsy you can see at what stage the chick died which might give you some clue (eg, fully developed or not, yolk absorbed or not, etc)

lastly, shipped eggs are expected to have a hatch rate of 50%, anything more than that is just icing in the cake

 

[CarolinaHen]

I think we have figured out what went wrong with the last two hatches. I say "wrong" in that we are used to getting super high hatch rates since we switched to the dry method, and the last two were more like what we used to get when we kept the humidity up throughout the 21 days. Due to all of the weather changes the humidity in our house has been fluctuating more than normal, so we have kept the vents closed during the day while we are at work to try and keep the humidity inside somewhat stable during lockdown. The ones that didn't make it were all viable on day 18, so it had to be the lack of airflow. We shall find out on New Year's day if that's what it is as we have leghorns due to hatch then. Not shipped ones though

 

[gimmie birdies]

one more 1/2 hatched besides these

 

[CarolinaHen]

one more 1/2 hatched besides these

They are adorable! What breed? I have leghorns and RIR in the incubator right now. I usually just hatch out my Silkies and Polish, but our laying flock is getting older and we will use these as replacement layers.

 

[gimmie birdies]

those above are cochin bantam mixes that were spares from a friends fridge to befriend this hatching egg which is full sized and taking longer day 22.
I was worried last night then it pipped,( the one next to it with out a pip was fully formed,peeping last night, but this morning was gone.)
the one with the pip late day 21 pipped and it had poke a blood vein. so it was not ready to hatch just wanted air.and is still cooking.
this is the mom to above egg.

that was a small batch I threw together to see her egg hatch.

 

[CarolinaHen]

She's gorgeous!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

The cooler the air the less moisture it can hold. So yes cooler air outside of your incubator this time of year may result in more water loss from your eggs, or less humidity entering the incubator. Don't say that is the problem, but I feel you are on the right track.

You may also may need to check the accuracy of your thermometer, thermostat, hygrometer, or psychrometer. I use both a hygrometer and a psychrometer to keep up with the RH. To use a psychrometer you need a water source inside the incubator so it's use helps keep the humidity up. If you don't already have one, go on line, download and print off the chart that tells you how to read the humidity using the differences in temperatures between a wet bulb and a dry bulb thermometer, and keep that chart close.