Operation Dry Hatch

[wholewheatchicken]

I hate humidity....it's so hard to figure out. Shrink wrapped means too low and wet chicks means too high....so what do you do when you get both????
How did you do in the past with your foam bators? I just set my third batch tonight and in the first two batches I had 28 eggs and only one chick lived. I shrink wrapped mine.
Do you have eggs in now and when is your hatching date?

 

[mohillbilly]

when you get both you may need more or less air circulation

 

[wholewheatchicken]

when you get both you may need more or less air circulation

That's interesting. I never thought of that.
I set my eggs tonight. Here's hoping to more humidity will unshrink-wrapped the chicks.

 

[m.r.heavenlyhens]

Hi all, I just want to add a little of my own experience. I am one of those who bought a incubator. I made sure it had the fan and egg turner. It is a styrofoam model. I tried several hatches with my own eggs. I followed the instructions carefully and bought a digital Hygrometer and thermometer. Out of two hatches of 35 eggs, I ended up with 7 chicks. So I read up on this site everything I could about dry incubation and dry hatch. Soo.... I gathered up eggs over a few days and set 35 again, only this time for dry incubation. I decided to go with the easiest option. One of the writers said to set the eggs and forget untill day 18. Well, my turner stopped so I had to turn them daily. I also picked up some inexpensive thermometers and hygrometers at Pet Smart. They are made for fish aquariums. Before I set the eggs I had folded up paper towels and set them in the water channels in the bottom of the bator. I set a long paper towel on floor of screen under eggs. I opened it daily and made sure there was no smell (bad eggs) but I did not candle. On day 18, I heated water in pyrex measuring cup to hot and added it to bottom, paper towels. Humidity had been 20 to 25. Now it came up to 55 to 65. By the way the cheap meters worked more accurately than the digital. Ended up hatching 22 out of the 35. Much better than wet hatch. I do think it has something to do with the humidity here in Texas, but I am sold on the dry hatch.

 

[wholewheatchicken]

See, that's why humidity is such an interesting issue. I've read even that what will work for you in the winter may not be the same for summer. I did the dry like you just tried and lost them for too low humidity. This time I'm trying for roughly 50%. I'll know in three weeks if it's going to work!

 

[vanalpaca]

I just read pete55 thread post on the goose thread and his incubation report was published this winter in the UK poultry magazine. Most of it is on his thread.

Lots of photos of developing eggs, air sacs and explanations of what is going on inside the egg.

The only part I don't really understand is the 'cooling down and misting' of the eggs, but he has superior hatches and good explanations. If you haven't read it yet, you really should. I'll look up the link for you all.

It's so nice to understand some of the things going on inside that egg!!

 

[vanalpaca]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/491013/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed

What goes on internally applies to all and he throws in a couple things to the chicken people so we aren't being ignored. Very nice photos of inside of eggs from candling!!

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Very interesting article and thank you for posting it. He makes it sound so easy. Wish he lived around the corner from me and offered a hands-on class!

 

[azhenhouse]

I have nearly three dozen Buff Orpington Bantam eggs in my new Hova-Bator 1588, and I can't keep the humidity up to the recommended 45% to 55%. It is staying at a steady 38% with temps at 99 to 100 degrees. I removed the red vent plug per GQF's directions for higher altitudes, I am at 7400 above sea level, and that is when the humidity levels dropped from 46% to the 38%. The room temperature stays at 71 degrees, and I have humidifiers throughout the house because of our dry southwest climate, but I don't know what the humidity level is in the house. My skins is not dry so there has to be some moisture in the air.

Should I just let it be, and keep the humidity level at 38% until day eighteen? Then, do I put the plug back in and increase humidity to the recommended 55% to 65%? By the way, this is our first attempt at hatching eggs, and it would be nice to have some success. We had a broody hen hatch chicks last year and she was up and down from her eggs all the time. It was during the spring, and daytime temperatures are around 65-70 degrees, with occasional snow storms dropping the temps lower. I really didn't think they would hatch because she was gone so much. She even got locked out of the coop by accident one day, and yet they all hatched.

 

[wholewheatchicken]

I have nearly three dozen Buff Orpington Bantam eggs in my new Hova-Bator 1588, and I can't keep the humidity up to the recommended 45% to 55%. It is staying at a steady 38% with temps at 99 to 100 degrees. I removed the red vent plug per GQF's directions for higher altitudes, I am at 7400 above sea level, and that is when the humidity levels dropped from 46% to the 38%. The room temperature stays at 71 degrees, and I have humidifiers throughout the house because of our dry southwest climate, but I don't know what the humidity level is in the house. My skins is not dry so there has to be some moisture in the air.

Should I just let it be, and keep the humidity level at 38% until day eighteen? Then, do I put the plug back in and increase humidity to the recommended 55% to 65%? By the way, this is our first attempt at hatching eggs, and it would be nice to have some success. We had a broody hen hatch chicks last year and she was up and down from her eggs all the time. It was during the spring, and daytime temperatures are around 65-70 degrees, with occasional snow storms dropping the temps lower. I really didn't think they would hatch because she was gone so much. She even got locked out of the coop by accident one day, and yet they all hatched.

I have no advice to give because I haven't had a successful hatch yet. And I don't understand because I did the dry hatch method and my chicks were shrink wrapped and couldn't pip and others do it lower than I had my humidity and they have great hatch rates. Then some people say keep it high and others say they do and their chicks drowned. Very confusing. This time I am shooting for humidity in the upper 40s, but I also bought a scale and weighed them before putting them in and will weigh once a week to check progress. I am thinking this time I will have a perfect hatch, not because I am upping my humidity, but because I can't get the temperature to stabilize very well, even though the last two times I used the incubator it was fine, I can't get my humiidity quite right. Then I set the eggs on Monday and on Tuesday decided to put more in there and on Wednesday got scared that I wouldn't be able to find a home for them and took a bunch back out and today I thought putting the eggs in the styrofoam egg carton wasn't working as well as I thought so I took that out and laid them flat and will just hand turn 3X a day and then my temps were wonky again......so since it's so bad right now and I could never replicate all this action going on, I think I will have a perfect hatch. And I hear you on the whole broody hen thing....I brought my last broody in the house since it was so cold outside and she was happy as anything to be the center of attention in the bathroom while she sat on the eggs. When they started to hatch I moved her downstairs to a bedroom and I would go in and sit for hours with her and watch her take care of her eggs/chicks. She got up several times to show the little ones how to eat, she turned her eggs still at the end and one night she moved the whole nest from one end of the crate I had her in to the opposite end, I assume to get the little ones away from the broken shells after they hatched. It's been five weeks since then and she is still with her babies in my basement having a wonderful time with them. She did everything we're not supposed to do and still had little chicks so I'm with you