I found an article on dry incubation by Bill Worrell. It is what I have been saying all along, only he says it much better than I. If I could figure out how to add a link to it I would . But I don't so if you want to read it you will have to go to it. Following his advice your hatch rates should be around 90% average. It is on the Marans of America message board under eggs and hatching, How to's of hatching. Article title Cackles: dry incubation by Bill Worell. All I can say is it is worth all the trouble for the knowledge you can get.
I've read the article too, I played around with a semi wet incubation a few times then switched to just dry and had great results, now normally I hatch all but a few eggs without a problem.
Bill has some great information and statistics regarding The Dry Method of Incubation. I would caution anyone that lives in a dry climate to be careful especially if you are NOT using a Styrofoam incubator. Bill's observations are specifically comparing the HovaBator type incubator. I can use the dry method in the summer where I live but winter is dry here and it does not work nearly as well. No matter which method you use, it is important to compare you air cell size during the incubation process to the guidelines. I find that works great. You may have to adjust you humidity up or down depending on the amount of evaporation going on inside the egg. This diagram shows the proper air cell size during the 21 day process.
Quote:I agree, I used dry incubation this summer, but now that it has cooled down and the humidity is a lot lower I have to keep my humidity at least 45% or I loose all the eggs. I do better (right now) with the humidity over 50% for the whole time, then bumping it to 70% at the end.
Luckily I have a well insulated garage that stays about 45% so it makes it nice for me, half the time I can just take on of the plugs out the last couple of days and it will go to about 50% then i just add a touch of water and a few days later I have a bunch of fuzzballs running around
Quote:I tried it on ONE hatch-never again. Eggs dried up to about half of their original weight. NOTHING made it. Of course, we have VERY low humidity here.
