Dry vs Wet hatch

[Normy84]

I have heard rumors that hatch rates are typically higher with a dry hatch. We have a small Hova-Bator incubator and have had hatch rates on average between 50-70%. fo the 4 hatches we did. We started hatching late Aug thru to October I understand there tends to be lower fertility rate this time of year. All hatching eggs were bought locally, Temp was always 99-101, 50-60% humidity using 4 thermometers in the hova-bator. We will be hatching our own eggs this year and am curious about the process of a dry hatch is and what y'all found works best.

Thanks

 

[JaeG]

Dry hatching as I understand it is keeping the humidity around 25-30%. Whether that means you need to add a small reservoir of water to your incubator or not depends on your climate, the number of eggs incubated and your incubator itself.

Another method you can try is weighing the eggs and tracking their weight loss. Eggs need to lose 12-16% of their start weight by day 18. You can take the average rather than weigh each egg individually if you have quite a few. If you know the weight of your incubator tray that the eggs sit in you can weigh it with the eggs in it, subtract the tray weight and divide the remaining number by the number of eggs you have. By taking the average it doesn't matter if eggs have to be removed because they aren't developing or have stopped.

Fresh eggs need to lose a little more moisture than older eggs.

You can make a simple line graph with days 0-18 along the bottom and the weight range you need up the side. On day 0 mark the average start weight. Work out how much weight loss you are aiming for, and subtract that from the start weight (there are handy percentage calculators online if you aren't mathematically inclined). Mark that weight on day 18. Draw a straight line from the mark on day 0 to the one on day 18 and at any point during incubation you can reweigh them and see if they are matching up to the day they are on, or whether you need to adjust the humidity up for less weight loss, or reduce it for more.