Dry incubation.

[PD-Riverman]

Please can someone tell me what the temperature should be for lockdown for dry incubation? Not sure if it's at all different than the temperature for wet incubation? And also what humidity does anybody aim for? Not sure if we'll be able to control it much, but I'd like to know what other people think is okay? Thanks.

As stated the temp should be the same for lock-down as the incubation. 65% is a good standard. I had better hatches at 75% in my area.

 

[LittleMoss]

Hi,
We're towards the end of day 20 now. When I came down this morning, the first one had hatched and another had pipped - yay! Since then, two more have hatched, but the one that had pipped this morning hasn't made loads of progress. We have seen its beak, but most of what we can see through the hole it's made is its feet! Is this normal? Or is it in a bad position and therefore making very little progress?
The Bill Worrell article says to leave the incubator closed for 5 full days from lockdown - is this what you all do?
Thanks for your help.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Hi,
We're towards the end of day 20 now. When I came down this morning, the first one had hatched and another had pipped - yay! Since then, two more have hatched, but the one that had pipped this morning hasn't made loads of progress. We have seen its beak, but most of what we can see through the hole it's made is its feet! Is this normal? Or is it in a bad position and therefore making very little progress?
The Bill Worrell article says to leave the incubator closed for 5 full days from lockdown - is this what you all do?
Thanks for your help.

People talk about bad position a lot caused some not to hatch or it pipped on the wrong end. I hatched 1000's and 1000's and if any pipped the wrong end or were bad positioned I did not know it caused they hatched.

As far as 5 days after lock down---I think is great advise---me if you tried to open my incubators before day 22 for ANYTHING(if it needs water you better add it through a vent hole) I would break your arm---LOL.

 

[LittleMoss]

The one that had pipped and not made much progress has hatched now - once it got going again it was pretty fast. No others yet, but this is day 21. Keeping the lid on!

 

[BobDBirdDog]

Hi,
We're just incubating for the second time, the first time went badly, and now we're trying dry incubation. We'd read about 30-40% humidity for incubation and 60%+ for hatching. Our incubator is fan-operated, and we don't seem to be able to achieve 30-40% - if we put the smallest amount of water in it goes up to about 60% and then comes down after a while. Otherwise it's about 27%. Is this okay? I'm worried we're going to have another bad hatch, but with different problems from last time...
Thanks for any reassurance or advice!

I don't know if anyone responded to this but If I can throw in 2 cents worth of opinion/ theory/ practice. (BTW I never dry incubate)

I know you said your goal is to dry incubate but the reason your humidity is most likely floating around and never steady is because of the air flow and new air from the vents.

When you toss a couple of spoons full of water in, the air flow moves it around and uses it up (evaporates), then the humidity goes back down. If you want to dry incubated, the fan should be turned off if the incubator allows that and can function in that manner of incubation. Some cabinet incubators cant operate that way as the fan must run to move the heat.

The better option is to fill the water reservoir and keep it full and adjust the humidity settings after it steadies out. If your goal is 35-40%, cover the tray so most of the water is not evaporating as fast. It may take a few hours to get it right, then you can start your next incubation.

I use two small thin pieces of aluminum flashing as to cover my water tray, sliding the top portion to either expose more of the water tray or less, this helps to control how much humidity evaporates and is released. The excess cant escape quick enough, condensates and drips back into the pan because of the aluminum flashing.

 

[LittleMoss]

Thanks for replying - glad you've explained all that, it really makes sense. I had wondered if our incubator wasn't really suitable for dry incubation. It's a small cheap one which we've borrowed. We're in the UK, and I wasn't sure whether all the people on here who talk about dry incubation were using a different kind of incubator. Anyway, we're on day 21 now and four out of nine hatched on day 20. But now there's been rather a long pause, so I'm wondering if that's it...
Not sure what we'll do if we decide to hatch again one day (we just wanted to hatch a few extra birds for our little backyard). Maybe buy our own incubator!
I did weigh our eggs before and during incubation, and noticed that the percentage weight loss was rather high - maybe they were a little too dry with the fan going? Anyway, we're glad we've got four chicks who look happy and healthy.

 

[LittleMoss]

Hi,
We had four hatch on day 20, but none now on day 21 - there are five eggs left. Could it be the high humidity when the others hatched was bad for the others? It seems weird that some should be early and then nothing else (at least so far - nearly the end of day 21)

 

[LittleMoss]

Here is a picture of three of our chicks! We are not sure what kind they are. They hatched out of white eggs, and the person we got them from mentioned White Star and Buff. They also keep marans... so we're not really sure, but we're glad to have some healthy little chicks anyway.

 

[Bantu]

Here is a picture of three of our chicks! We are not sure what kind they are. They hatched out of white eggs, and the person we got them from mentioned White Star and Buff. They also keep marans... so we're not really sure, but we're glad to have some healthy little chicks anyway.

Beautiful babies! One looks like a brown Leghorn.

 

[Bantu]

Incubator has 17 in it now.