We have only done hatching in SC where the humidity was always pretty high in the room. I am wondering what you folks do that live in the drier areas of the world? We are in CO now and the humidity in our living room where we will be incubating is about 40% at 69 degrees F. The humidity in the 'bator is showing about 8 % without water so I ahve added some- but how much and what humidity am I aiming for? I am trying to decide whether it is even an option to do the dry incubation method here? Not wanting chick jerky ... share your experiences with me? Also, it has been so long since I actually used our incubator (we have had a lot of devoted broodies so I have forgotten all I learned in the early days!) How long do I let the incubator run before I put the egss in? I want to put the eggs in the 'bator before I put them under the broody since the eggs under the broody always seem to hatch first and I want to put all the chicks with the same momma once hatched...
Dry incubating doesn't really mean it's good for any and all climates. It means more that for the people who live in an area where the humidity is suitable, they can incubate without adding water, and that if they DO add water, they'll likely be over-humidifying their eggs. If your bator is showing 8% humidity, your eggs would most likely end up dessicated. Personally, I don't think dry incubating is even remotely an option for you. Successful humidities will vary a lot from bator to bator and from person to person, but a good basic starting point is 35-40% for the first 18 days. You're wanting your eggs to lose about 13% of their starting weight by the time they go into lockdown, so if you want to be precise about it, you can weigh them throughout the incubation and check that you're on track. That's what I do, cause I've found that different batches of eggs lose weight at a different rate depending on their size and their shell quality. So what works for me with one incubation might well be a little bit off for the next incubation. But like I said, 35-40% is a good place to start.
We actually just moved from Colorado to Florida and I personally had great luck with dry incubation. As a matter of fact I didn't even monitor humidity. I put my eggs in my Brinsea Octagon Eco but added no water until lockdown. At lockdown I added humidity until the windows started getting just a tiny bit of mist on them and then added water every day/every other day to keep it at that level. One hatch I even forgot about and left the eggs turning and didn't add any water the whole time and the eggs were turned the whole time. Most were infertile eggs from my pullets but I actually had a chick hatch out even under those conditions. I used to stress and stress and monitor constantly and was always messing with things and had terrible hatches but once I relaxed and left the eggs alone I started getting 85% or so on shipped eggs. I am sure this would not work for everyone but it is just my personal experience. Whatever the method you choose to use I wish you a great hatch!
