Humidity Question - Dry Incubation

[Reyvaughn]

See? Your 38/42 and 16/42 is why I decided to go the dry incubation method. The hatch rates just seem higher and I am sorry, but if I am going to drop a ton of money on a bunch of eggs, I'd like to hatch out as many as possible. Maybe I'm wrong and maybe I should follow the incubator instructions (it's a LG), but I'm not.

I am not saying your way is wrong, jm93030, and I value everyone's opinions. So far the facts are telling me not to worry about the humidity unless it goes below 25%.

I just wanted to make sure 30-32% wasn't to low.

 

[jm93030]

Quote:
Sounds very good

keep us posted

Is ur hydrometer calibrated or checked?

 

[Reyvaughn]

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I have no idea how to check. What is wet bulb? How do I calibrate? I guess I should search the forums.
I had a coil type hydrometer in with this new digital and both were reading the same.

 

[CatDaddyAlbert]

Quote:
I am glad ChooksChick chimed in here. This is the article I mentioned about using dry air incubators. I have two friends that use them and have followed her directions and are doing really well. I just could not get it to work for me.....but that is just me. Leonard and Chris do really well thanks in most part to ChooksChick's great article. She knows!!!. I would suggest following her on the water issue as well as you are using dry air.

BEST of Luck

 

[valley ranch]

On this site and on google you can find how to calibrate with salt, do a search.

I find 45% is good for days 1 to 18 during lockdown I try to keep it 55-60%. I think you said you temp is 100 degrees that should be good it will vary through the day. I think you will learn much with this hatch. Keep a record so you can look back to your humidity and temp. Have fun.

 

[eggbuster]

I have had some pretty poor hatches this spring then I forgot all about one hatch because of haying. It was the best hatch ever. I set another batch and decided to forget it on purpose except that this time, I knew when they were due to hatch. Last time I didn't.

I did not add water, I did not use a hygrometer, or look at the temp. although I did keep a thermometer in the bator. Lock down is tomorrow night. I went to the big city today, and just got home, it is 1.30 am; I left at 6 pm. I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and there are 13 chicks riding the turner with 9 more pipped. Half way through the hatch and its looking good 3 days early. Big, dry, noisy chicks. Unplugged the turner and left them to it since they have managed so far without any in- put from me. My conclusion is that temp. variations occur but things even out over time, humidity is not that big a deal, less is better even for lock down. I think enough moisture builds up when the first eggs hatch and nothing else is needed unless you live in a very dry zone. I feel more chicks were dying from drowning then I previously realized.

 

[Reyvaughn]

I decided to play with the water, just to see. No point in having an incubator and not be able to play! I put about 1/2 a tblsp in the channel and it went up to 42% humidity. It was 28% before I put water in it and both plugs were out. So, I know that if I remove a plug, it means a 2-4% drop in humidity. I'll let the water evaporate and put a plug back in, as I have it set up for a plug already. I don't feel like messing with the temps again - I finally got it back to 100 degrees.

My eggs were shipped today, so I should have them Monday or Tuesday. Yay! We are getting close!

Thanks for the input! I appreciate it all!

 

[Griffin Nest]

ehh.. i tried dry incubation. I set 8 fertile eggs and 4 hatched, 3 of which had a very hard time coming out because their membrane was dried. i dont know. maybe I did it wrong

 

[Christie Rhae]

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did you up the humidity at the end? at lockdown?

 

[quintinp]

go with 30% for the first 18 days, and 50 the last three,,,, humidity DOES matter, and so does the temp, but humidity is a priority, with dry incubation you want to keep humidity low so the water in the egg can be absorbed by the chick, if there is too much humidity then the the egg absorbs too much water, and when the chick pips the inner membrane, then if the humidity has been too high, the water absorbed into the egg will drown the chick