New meaning to DRY HATCH!!!...Question???

[tail_feather]

I have a GQF 1588 incubator and I set my chicken eggs on May 30th. Thought I would experiment and not add ANY water all til day 18 which was yesterday. The humidity stayed at 13-15% through day 18 (yesterday). I added water and locked down yesterday at 60% humidity. So far no activity. I was just curious if anyone else had done this before? If so, what were your results? Thanks!

 

[tail_feather]

Anyone?

 

[LuvMyBLR]

Well, I'm using it right now on my first hatch and it's going BRILLIANTLY! But here in NH it stays in the 20's and 30's. Especially the last couple days because it's been raining. Maybe, since I see you are in AL, you should add like a tablespoon of water every once in a while during incubation(Like once every 3 or 4 days)? That way, no drowning chicks, but still a little more moisture sometimes to lessen the drying. Then again, you're only on 19, so I could be completely wrong!

Hope it goes well!

 

[tail_feather]

Awesome! Thank you!

 

[cashdl]

60% may be a little high and can cause the eggs to soak up moisture and drown chicks, but just my thought. I usually set at 24% which is our natural humidity here in Northern CA, and when I move them to the hatcher, I have the humidity set at 45% no higher. It will go up naturally as each chick hatches and usually stabilize of its own accord thru hatching at about 50%.

Lanae

 

[tail_feather]

Thank you. I just hope I didn't totally dry them out somewhere in the first 18 days... This was Totally an experiment. I normally keep the eggs at 30% for the first 18 and 50 to 55% for lockdown and do great.

 

[LilMissPetie]

I have done 2 hatches with the dry method. worked well for me both times. Added no water until lockdown, which ended up being a 2 days before planned, cause they wanted to come early. I had the humidity at 55% at lock down and then increased it to 65% at first pip. Good Luck

 

[al6517]

I don't like to keep the humidity that low during a dry hatch which is my prefered method of hatching. I keep mine between 20-30% day 1-18 then only raise it to 45-50% at hatch time.