Nurture right dry hatch vent position

[BradD20]

i currently have a dozen BCM eggs, and 8 ameracauna eggs in my nurture right. I am doing a dry hatch. I live in east TN, the humidity in my house is 50%, my NR says 31 and my Govee in the incubator reads 24. They’re set at 99.5. My question is, if i close my vent to keep the humidity up around 30%, will the eggs get sufficient air flow?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't have a Nurture Right. What does the instructions that come with it say about the vent position during dry hatch? Probably nothing. You could send the manufacturer an email and see what they recommend. I would not expect much.

I don't do dry hatches but I know several people on this forum are firm believers in that process. Hopefully someone of them will see your question and respond. Maybe my bump will help.

In general the eggs do not need much if any fresh air during the first week or so of incubation. But as the embryo grows its requirement for fresh air grows. It does not happen often but occasionally you'll read about embryos or newly hatched chicks dying by asphyxiation, they do not get enough fresh air to maintain life. That's one reason for the vents. Let bad air out and good air in. The risk is probably less in an incubator with a fan than a still air but I'd think the risk is not zero, especially at the end of the hatch.

I think your definition of dry hatch is a humidity of 30%, it is for some people. Hopefully someone with experience chimes in but my suggestion would be to run the incubator at the lower humidity until lockdown and see what results you get or determine a way to raise the humidity a little to where you want it.

 

[Debbie292d]

I do have a NR360 I don't use anymore but that vent on there I kept nearly closed all the time (cracked open) until they started hatching as it was hard for me to maintain the 50% humidity I wanted if it was open more than that.

I do not dry hatch either, but believe you're going to have to play with that dial and the amount, if any, of distilled water you put into A or B port to achieve your 30% without sacrificing by closing the vent off.

 

[SweetieChicken234]

I have a Nurture Right 360 and the dry incubations that I did I kept the window about 1/3 open til hatch. I'm in Florida and the humidity is awful. It stayed about mid 30% the entire time.
I'm doing a dry quail incubation now. I have the window just cracked a little bit. We have a short cold front passing over and the dry air caused the humidity to drop to about 22%. I'm considering closing the window just for a couple days until the normal Florida humidity returns.

 

[Susan Skylark]

I used an nr369 for my first two hatches and now have a brand less Amazon thing with no vent at all! But I also hand turn or candle my eggs a ton so am always opening the incubator so lots of fresh air. I’m not sure a 6 percent difference in humidity will affect you hatch, I’ve done successful hatches at 10 and 80 (quail) but the chicks were more vigorous with the dry hatch. I’d lean towards more air and not worry too much about the humidity until lockdown.