First time hatching chicken eggs. First time dry hatching. Hoping for the best lol

[PhantomSlayer]

I have 2 years under my belt of goose egg incubation. This year went badly for goslings though. So after a good sanitization with bleach. I am gonna try chicken eggs. Unfortunately I leave today for 9 days but I decided instead of our regular hatching method. Lets try a dry hatch. I've heard alot of people say they prefer it but I didn't want to attempt it with goose eggs since we only get so many in a year.

I've set 12 chicken eggs. None should be older than a week.

My mother will be checking in on the incubator while I'm away. However note to self if this dry hatch has a good success rate. I'm gonna need to consider a incubator that doesn't have a low water alarm. The alarm is driving me nuts after only a few hours lol.

So the reason for this post. First I want to share the experience as it happens. I'll be candling on day 9 or 10. I'll update then on progress.

Second reason. I will probably be in the market for a new incubator that'll work with dry hatching. If it doesn't turn out to good. I'm not gonna give up. Might try a second time and also compare to a normal hatch. But I'm still probably going to want another incubator. I had a terrible time this year because we added a second goose into our flock. To many goose eggs our incubator wasn't able to keep up.

So affordable incubator recommendations please!

Preferences: Capable of auto turning goose eggs. Around $100 (A little over is okay but only if its worth it). Our current fits 12 goose eggs with the auto rollers and we bought it 2 years ago for like $70-$80. Our current Incubator. (Front screen lies its only in Celsius lol) What I use as a hatcher cause I have to do staggered hatches.

Bonus: No low water alarm or atleast the ability to turn it off? If that exists?

 

[Tex452]

I have two NR 360 incubators, they are not made for goose eggs I’m sure.
I do 100% dry hatch and have had really good luck.
I bought mine at TSC and they were $170ish, there’s no humidity alarm.
The trouble I’ve been having lately, is eggs not being fertile, even with enough roosters/hen, I get eggs from family and friends, so I really don’t know how they are taken care of.
I hatched out ten last week, and I have some pipping now.
I set the empty incubator with Guinea eggs this week also.
This probably won’t help you much, I just wanted you to know that I have had good luck dry hatching.
I don’t candle until day 18, when I lock them down, that’s the only thing I open the incubator until they hatch.

 

[Susan Skylark]

I left for a week and my humidity was 20% and I got 10/15 on quail, 1 dead in shell all others early quitters (day2-5), so died before I left. Not as good as usual but not bad for a vacation hatch! I love dry hatching, the chicks just fly out of the shell, but not usually that dry!

 

[PhantomSlayer]

I have two NR 360 incubators, they are not made for goose eggs I’m sure.
I do 100% dry hatch and have had really good luck.
I bought mine at TSC and they were $170ish, there’s no humidity alarm.
The trouble I’ve been having lately, is eggs not being fertile, even with enough roosters/hen, I get eggs from family and friends, so I really don’t know how they are taken care of.
I hatched out ten last week, and I have some pipping now.
I set the empty incubator with Guinea eggs this week also.
This probably won’t help you much, I just wanted you to know that I have had good luck dry hatching.
I don’t candle until day 18, when I lock them down, that’s the only thing I open the incubator until they hatch.

I'm to impatient for a single candling lol. Yeah I heard alot about dry hatching goslings but I didn't want to risk it with goose eggs so I had planned to do a few hatches this year of chicks. Not only to try the dry vs regular hatching. But because I need to expand our flock a bit.

What would you say your dry hatching rate is?

 

[PhantomSlayer]

I left for a week and my humidity was 20% and I got 10/15 on quail, 1 dead in shell all others early quitters (day2-5), so died before I left. Not as good as usual but not bad for a vacation hatch! I love dry hatching, the chicks just fly out of the shell, but not usually that dry!

Yeah our incubators humidity read is higher than the little hygrometers I bought a few months ago. The meters are reading 27% and the incubator is 37%.

I would like to get the best hatch rate that I can if possible.

We haven't had the best and especially now that we have a second laying goose. Last year we hatched 6 with only 1 death after an assisted hatch out of 25 eggs. This year in total 8 hatched out of like 50-60 eggs. Unfortunately 4 of them were hatched indoors but died within a week after hatching. The other 4 our older goose hatched. She had competition though as our younger goose went broody as well after like a week but she kept stealing the eggs and leaving the nest more often so I'm sure things would have gone better had she been able to be alone and not have a younger goose stealing.

And we almost lost the first two goslings because that younger goose started attacking them. So yeah.. I need to change things so I can continue onto my plan to hatch, expand and sell.

 

[Tex452]

I'm to impatient for a single candling lol. Yeah I heard alot about dry hatching goslings but I didn't want to risk it with goose eggs so I had planned to do a few hatches this year of chicks. Not only to try the dry vs regular hatching. But because I need to expand our flock a bit.

What would you say your dry hatching rate is?

It’s been about 95%.
I have Guinea eggs set now and am concerned about the dry hatch method because of the length of time it takes to hatch Guinea eggs, I will see in about a month.
Humidity has been holding about 40%.

 

[PhantomSlayer]

It’s been about 95%.
I have Guinea eggs set now and am concerned about the dry hatch method because of the length of time it takes to hatch Guinea eggs, I will see in about a month.
Humidity has been holding about 40%.

95% is awesome lol. And here I am just hoping for 50% on 12 chicken eggs XD

 

[Tex452]

95% is awesome lol. And here I am just hoping for 50% on 12 chicken eggs XD

Chicks started hatching last night, 4 have hatched so far.
A few more are pipping.