Is Dry Hatching really a thing?!

[Ridgerunner]

I am on day two of my current incubation run. I have mostly maintained humidity between 45 - 55, with some time reaching 60 or falling to 35. Would it be ok to let the humidity drop to 30, and try to maintain 30-45%?
I live in a city with dessert climate.

Dry hatching means different things to different people. To some it means do not add any water at all. To some it means keeping the humidity lower than generally recommended. I've seen some people suggest 30% humidity for that. I do not dry hatch myself, with either definition.

For an egg to hatch it needs to lose a certain amount of moisture. There is a fairly wide window that works but if you are outside of that window you can have issues.

Some studies have shown that broody hens can affect humidity levels. Some broody hens pluck a lot of their breast feathers, others don't. Isn't nature marvelous and mysterious?

Not all of us need to use the same humidities, we have different equipment and different conditions. Differences in forced air or still air incubators, temperature and humidity in the air where they are being incubated, and amount of ventilation of the incubator can affect what is the "best" humidity to use.

Differences in the eggs or how and how long they have been stored can affect what is the best humidity level for that specific egg. They lose moisture while being stored before incubation starts. They do not all start on the same base as to how much moisture they still need to lose.

My suggestion on how to find what humidity works best for you in your unique situation is to be as consistent as you can. Keep notes and try a specific humidity. After hatch, open the unhatched eggs and evaluate what happened. There are other things than humidity that affect hatch rate but do the best you can. My goal is not to find the perfect humidity to assure that every egg will hatch, since different eggs have different requirements they need different humidities. My goal is to find the humidity where the most eggs hatch. After about 5 or 6 different incubations I settled on 40% being the best for me. For some people 30% or less may be best. For some, it may be 55%.

BTW, the original point of this thread was to know whether it'd be ok if my humidity occasionally dropped to 30%, while actively trying to maintain 45-55%. However, it seems people recommending dry hatch would rather it always be around 30-40%.

Glad you posted this because I missed it. What we are talking about is average humidity. The average humidity is what controls the total amount of moisture lost throughout the incubation. I don't know how you control humidity levels in your incubator. In mine I use different sized reservoirs in the bottom. Total wet surface area is what control humidity.

If I spill water when filling one of those reservoirs the humidity will spike until it dries up. When a reservoir runs dry the humidity will drop until I refill it. These time spans are fairly short so they don't affect the average that much. But that is why I keep records. If it runs high or low for a while I can adjust to balance it out.

There is a window that works well so I don't worry about being really precise. But I do have a target and try to keep it close.

Good luck!

 

[Island Coppers]

soxirella,​

I think you'll be fine, if not it won't be because the humidity dropped to 30% a few times. Where I am the outside humidity is often high and it can be difficult to keep the humidity down in the incubator. But during a recent cold snap the humidity in the incubator with my BCM's dropped to 19% a few times. The power went out too, but still there was a fairly good hatch rate.

 

[soxirella]

Dry hatching means different things to different people...
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Good luck!

This reply really clarified many things for me, thank you.

Since I live in a dessert climate, night temperatures drop sharply, and humidity drop was a lot faster than day time. Hence, on my first run, I overcompensated and kept a high humidity to keep the low humidity alarm from beeping.

I set my humidity alarm to 30 now and will try to maintain 40-50% humidity while awake, won't be bothered about it going below 40 in the night, and will candle my eggs and adjust accordingly.

 

[talkinboutchickens]

BTW, the original point of this thread was to know whether it'd be ok if my humidity occasionally dropped to 30%, while actively trying to maintain 45-55%. However, it seems people recommending dry hatch would rather it always be around 30-40%.

I guess that'll be OK as long as you try to keep that range and not let it go up and down drastically too much (try putting towels on your bator and that will help maintain the temp and humidity..It really works.)

 

[soxirella]

Hey folks quick update. I got done 14th day candling today. On my first attempt at incubating eggs last month, I had four quit on me by day 14.

This time, I let the humidity hover around 30-40% and used to top up a bit during the night, fearing it would go below 30%. On candling on day 7, the moisture loss was still a bit less than ideal. Hence, I only topped up if humidity actually went down to 25% - about 3-4 times in the entire week. The moisture loss rate seems to have improved, but now I have a different problem.

All my fertile eggs still have veins, instead of a mass floating on top (like in given up eggs). However, while some eggs have progressed well and have the chicken take up 3/4th of the egg (dark and no light passing through), many others still have a light, but dark red appearance. Some of these have something floating, but I do see veins in those eggs and none of the eggs smell rotten.

Will check all of them again on day 18. However, should I leave the eggs longer on the automated egg turner, or should I initiate lock down as soon as it hits day 18?

What could I be doing wrong and how can I prevent / improve my situation? I have the following incubator.

https://www.incubatoregg.com/egg-incubator-wonegg-roller-32-eggs-incubator-for-personal-use-product/

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'd lock down as normal.

 

[soxirella]

Do all eggs that give up smell rotten? The ones that were infertile smell the same as the others. On day 18, would I discard eggs that have veins, but not a dark mass covering 3/4th of the egg (fully formed chicen), or should I just keep it around until day 22 or later?

 

[Yardmom]

Im not sure why some eggs have a different appearance, but anything with veins likely contains a growing chick inside.

 

[McChooky]

I never heard of fry hatching. If incubator hatching is working, why change to dry? Fertilized and non Fertilized are the only issue we have. I think out of 18 there was 3 not Fertilized

We are on 2nd batch with new incubator that does it all. I'm very happy with it so far. Currently 1st chick hatched 20 minutes ago.

In a humid climate adding water can be trickier .Get the humidity too high you drown the chicks (the dry hatch method is easier in a humid climate)

 

[Ridgerunner]

Do all eggs that give up smell rotten?

No, not at all. What causes an egg to smell rotten is that bacteria gets inside and multiplies. That has nothing to do with whether the egg is fertile or not.

If bacteria gets inside and the temperature is warm enough for it to multiply the egg will turn rotten whether there is a chick in there or not. If bacteria does not get inside the egg will not turn rotten.