Operation Dry Hatch

[wholewheatchicken]

Okay, chickens, I'm confused. Do you do 60% for dry hatch? I did the dry hatch and my humidity was in the 20s range. I am going to go between 40 - 45 for this next batch. I am almost ready to set eggs. I turned the fan on in the bator today and waiting for it to stabilize and the humidity to come down a little. It is at 55% right now. I think I may need to adjust the thermostat a slight bit to bump up the temps. I think I will leave the air vents open this time as I did that starting day 15 on the last hatch and I thought the humidity was more stable at that point than it ever had been. I would like to set eggs tonight, but I don't know if that is going to work. May have to wait until tomorrow. I wanted them to hatch on a Saturday so whatever happens I have time to deal with it.
Mohillbilly, you've obviously hatched so many times you know what a good air cell looks like, but how does a newbie know what to look for on too big/small? And I'm going to set LF eggs and banty eggs this time together. I want to know if what I do will work across the board for both sizes. Maybe I should buy a scale to weigh them to get to the proper 12 - 14% weight reduction? Has anyone tried that?
Thanks,
Kim

 

[OkChickens]

This technique is actually called "Dry Incubation" not dry hatch. meaning little to no water is added while incubation and then on day 18 the humidity is increased in order for the chicks to hatch. It is as simple as what ever the humidity is when there in the room you are incubating is no water added to the incubator to use that. Then add water to the Hatcher to what ever humidity you prefer to hatch with. I incubate around 15-20% and hatch around 30% humidity most of the times. This works well for me. I would advise to not open the door for ANY reason if you want the humidity to stay high. I have also mainly incubated LF Eggs so far. With the exception of my English Chocolate Orpington Bantams. I have Chocolate Orpington Eggs from my Breeding Pair and they are growing good so far. I do not know what the differences would be with American bantams. I have hatched many chicks this way and I would encourage you to try it. I would try it with cheap eggs first to make sure you like the results. Thanks

Nate

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Fortunately we have chickens so all the eggs are free.....
Maybe it's where you live, although I think for the fall - spring months you and I have comparable humidity. OK definitely wins hands down for the summer months. I am putting eggs in tonight and am going to try 40-ish% humidity and see if that works better.
I have a broody hen and when I candled tonight I checked under her wondering how humid it was and it didn't feel humid at all!

 

[mohillbilly]

Okay, chickens, I'm confused. Do you do 60% for dry hatch? I did the dry hatch and my humidity was in the 20s range. I am going to go between 40 - 45 for this next batch. I am almost ready to set eggs. I turned the fan on in the bator today and waiting for it to stabilize and the humidity to come down a little. It is at 55% right now. I think I may need to adjust the thermostat a slight bit to bump up the temps. I think I will leave the air vents open this time as I did that starting day 15 on the last hatch and I thought the humidity was more stable at that point than it ever had been. I would like to set eggs tonight, but I don't know if that is going to work. May have to wait until tomorrow. I wanted them to hatch on a Saturday so whatever happens I have time to deal with it.
Mohillbilly, you've obviously hatched so many times you know what a good air cell looks like, but how does a newbie know what to look for on too big/small? And I'm going to set LF eggs and banty eggs this time together. I want to know if what I do will work across the board for both sizes. Maybe I should buy a scale to weigh them to get to the proper 12 - 14% weight reduction? Has anyone tried that?
Thanks,
Kim

using a scale and then candling them when they have lost the correct weight will teach you what the air cells should look like. i had someone teach me.

 

[OkChickens]

I am not exactly sure on how accurate my hydrometer is with my humidity either. It is a few years old maybe 4-5. It came with my incubator and I haven't ever calibrated it either. Who knows it might be right or wrong. I might borrow one from someone to see if it is right. During the spring the humidity is high here due to a lot of rain and The incubator might be at 30% and hatcher at 50% sometimes. It is kinda up to mother nature on humidity and weather conditions. I also keep most of the vents closed on the back side of my Cabinet Incubator and all of the top vents opened in the Cabinet hatcher.

Nate

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Thanks for mentioning the scale. I was right in the middle of making my list for the store and I will pick one up while I am there and weigh before I put the eggs in the bator. Do you agree with 12 - 14% weight loss by day 18? That is what I have read.

 

[mohillbilly]

yes

 

[wholewheatchicken]

mohillbilly, I see you run 45 - 55% during incubation. Do you think it makes a difference what kind of chicken egg it is; i.e. banty chicken like serama or silky versus LF like a RIR, or is a chicken egg just a chicken egg regardless of the breed and size and all eggs need to lose that 12 - 14% weight by day 18?

 

[mohillbilly]

no it makes no difference, they all need to lose 12-14%

 

[vanalpaca]

Mohillbilly,

I have a question for you as you have built incubators for so long and have good experience hatching. I read this whole thread and the dry incubation article here on BYC.

I have a custom incubator with hatching drawer, 3 shelves and above that are 2 100 watt light bulbs in front 2 fans in back and at the back between the fans is the thermostat. There is a shelf at the bottom of the fans and it holds the water cup for humidity. Has it's own access door above it for adding water, a small hole in back for the turner cords to go out and that is covered with plexiglass but not screwed down tight, so gets a wee bit of air into the system there. Its at customincubators.com I believe.

So I have the bottom 2 shelves with egg turners running and put about 20 eggs centered on each shelf. Temps appear correct between all the thermometers, going for 101.5 for LF eggs?

After running it all day with the eggs in, finally got a humidity gauge in it and it measured 45%.

House temps run 62 at night up to 66 in the daytime and the bator is in an interior very small room corner with pass through open doorways.

Eggs were on turners for the past 10 days or so, been collecting them for 3 weeks at least until my bator got fixed and running. So maybe some of them are already are 'old'.

I will try running the bator for the first 18 days at 45% humidity, turning off the turners when they are level, stuffing any 'holes' along the sides with papertoweling so no one falls through to a different shelf.

I will increase humidity to 65%?? What would you advise? This is only about a 2 feet high bator by 17x17 or so, just enough to accomodate the turners deep and wide.

I will leave the temps alone and let them run as shown. Front to back and up to down, temps are at the back wall under the fans and the front viewing door and mostly Accurite thermo's, the only one showing 'high' is the fish tank gauge at 103, the one suctioned to the door is 99 and the back one reading at the bottom is 101.5. Since eggs are centered in the unit away from fans and light, I am hoping the eggs are at the right temp.

I will repost here my hatch rate for it's actually 39 eggs. They were all 1.9 to 2.0 ounce eggs.

Last year in this bator, with the unit outside in the garage in JUNE, I ran higher humidity I am thinking, temps were good, had 36 rockers on day 18 and 10 hatched. I'm thinking they were big butted 'wet' chicks mostly.

Is it ok to just turn off the turners and let them hatch there. I think taking them out and shifting them sideways on racks on day 18 helped mess up last year's hatch. This is a test hatch of the bator since a Silky Roo and 3 Welsummer Roos are all in with the Welsummer hens. He leaves TODAY to a 4-H home and in 3 weeks I will be able to reset the bator with pure Wellie eggs.

ALL ADVICE WELCOME!

Bonnie in NW Ohio