Dry Incubation VS. Wet

[AreYouLoved]

I have heard people who had great hatch rates using no water in the incubator and great hatch rates from people who used water.

For the wet incubators I have heard various results between 20% humidity and 65% humidity and how much humidity should be the first 18 days and last 3 days of incubation.

What is your method and why do you choose it?

Samantha in OK

 

[thebanthams]

This is my third time trying ! the first two times I lost them all during lockdown, possible humidty was too high 71% . this time I am going for the dry method. Hopefully I will have little chickies soon !!

 

[hdowden]

lockdown i have my humidity at 60-70% i had a great 2nd hatch. dry hatching is not adding any water for the first 18 days and i have done great with this better than i did when i was keeping the humidity at 30-35% (wet incubation)

This is my third time trying ! the first two times I lost them all during lockdown, possible humidty was too high 71% . this time I am going for the dry method. Hopefully I will have little chickies soon !!

 

[juliechick]

I just did a hatch with dry incubation. The humidity stayed at 20% for 18 days (at least that is what my hygrometer read) At 18 days, I got it up to around 30%. 6 out of 7 chicks hatched very cleanly with no problems. It is very humid here this time of year, so I think the reading on the hygrometer may be a bit off.

 

[Pele]

I did a ton of research before heading into my first incubation, and there was so much positive information about the dry method that it is what I ended up using.

I got about a 50% hatch out of shipped eggs on my very first try at incubating! Because I live in such an arid climate, I had to add water to keep the humidity out of the teens (kept it at about 20 to 30% until day 18).

2 of the eggs that didn't make it weren't fertile, and 3 didn't make it due to being dirty/bacterial infection. So I know that the humidity situation played no part in the ones that didn't make it. I had a very clean hatch, and very healthy chicks afterwards.

 

[OkChickens]

I only Dry Incubate now. My humidity is 16% in my incubator for the first 18 days and on day 19 I place them in my hatcher which is between 25-30% humidity. I used wet incubation when I first started hatching but I have found that dry incubation is must easier. I place a tub of water on the top shelf of my hatcher and i fill it up *** needed. (usually twice a week). I have ever really had any problems with chicks getting stuck in the eggs either. When the chicks hatch they release a lot of moisture in the air and this increases the humidity as well. What type of incubator do you have?

Nate

 

[thebanthams]

I am doing dry incubating method. Right now its on 2nd day, humidty reads 16% temps is 100 I cant keep it at 99.5 !! Hopefully I will have better luck hatching this time..

 

[cjhubbs]

This is interesting! I have been reading a bit about dry incubation vs. wet incubation methods but haven't come to a consensus what I will use for my next incubation. I was wondering what qualifies for a hatch method to be"dry" vs. wet? My house tends to be very dry in the winter, the humidity is 10% right now, I was wondering how low the humidity should be in the incubator before it gets to low? Thanks so much for the help!

 

[thebanthams]

I am doing dry incubating method. Right now its on 2nd day, humidty reads 16% temps is 100 I cant keep it at 99.5 !! Hopefully I will have better luck hatching this time..

my hatching was sucessful, I like the dry incubating better

 

[esoaksranch]

. When the chicks hatch they release a lot of moisture in the air and this increases the humidity as well.

Interesting, I didn't know this.