dry incubation

[Chicken Chat]

I've only used dry incubation the last 9 yrs or so with good results. It stays about 35-40% humidity, at lockdown I go for about 60-65% depending. Have had many 100% hatch rates doing this. I also do the wt loss method and track their progress. They've always been right on track, but it really depends on your area. We are pretty humid in Southern Illinois in the summer. If I was in a dryer environment, I don't think it would work as well.

 

[hdowden]

Quote:
Firstly, what did your hygrometer say the humidity was for your last hatch?
Secondly, did you calibrate your hygrometer before using it?

Dry incubation works great for some people but it's not for everybody. I tried it once, added no water, my humidity sat just slightly above 30% the whole time, I didn't candle between days 6 and 18, and when I was ready for lockdown the air cells were easily twice as big as they should have been and my embryos were all dried out and extremely dead, which was rather horrible to see when I cracked the eggs open...

i calibrated the hygrometer and it was 6 off (30 ment 36) and the humidty according to it was 30-40%. i'm going to recalibrate it before the eggs get here and right now in just the house it says 50-55% humidity

 

[Sphinx]

I've worried about that- our humidity is very low- it's almost never over 20% humidity.

With this hatch, I've tried to keep the humidity between 30-40% humidity, but I have to add water every 2-3 days to keep it there.

 

[Arielle]

This is some information that I collected when I did my first hatch in my LG.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=541936

Three critical things to do:

Maintain constant temperature.
Turn the eggs at least 3 times a day.
Monitor the air cell development.

Air cells: Either look at the egg for development of the air cell OR monitor the weight loss. The goal of dry incubation is to attain optimal air cell development.I have added water when the RH drops below 20%; and I have opened the vent over my added PC fan to kick out more moisture when the air cells where not large enough.

See CHookschick's page on dry incubating for GREAT info on setting up the LG. I used this info to set up for dry incubating and this page gave me the courage to try incubating eggs.SHe has good success with the LG.

You need to know what size the air cell should be for the number of days into the incubation; and then adjust the moisture up or down depending on how the air cell size is developing.

GL

 

[cmom]

I do a dry hatch where I keep my humidity around 35% for the first 18 days and when I go in to lockdown on day 18 I raise the humidity to to around 75%. My hatches have gone from 60% to 65%, to 95% to 100%. This is what works for me. Good luck and have fun...

 

[dottiefoal]

Dry incubation is so easy! I might do it a little bit different because I only have a little brinsea mini eco lol....I don't have a hygrometer attatched to it. but what I do is put water in half of the well and wait until it disappears - then repeat all the way through, sometimes I wait a few days in between.
I used this method on some bantam eggs, two were infertile to start with, I dropped one ( ), and one had late death so out of ten fertile eggs I got 8 chicks, should have been 9, which I thought was very good.

I made my last incubator out of a poly box and a bulb (the old way) , it was great but the stress of trying to figure out the humidity and temp etc all the time was annoying so I got my mini x

I loved the article someone posted on here about it a few months back - that is the reason I tried it. I just cant remember who it was? it was a long one full of lovely facts and things - and I think it was destined for a magazine ? any ideas? x

regards Hayley

 

[abmaddox1981]

we are trying dry incubating for the 1'st time! my last attempt at hatching was with turkey eggs and it turned out my thermometer was waaaay off, so I ended up with soft boiled eggs instead of babies.

It drove me nuts, trying to watch the humidity and the temp, so this time I have a mercury thermometer and am going to dry hatch. should the temp be different than if I have the humidity up? we are running about 99.7ish degrees.

 

[dottiefoal]

I do it the same?
I just pop a bit in until it disappears and then add again if u know what I mean?