Operation Dry Hatch

[ChickensInMyYard]

I'm hatching orpingtons and some buttercup eggs. And my air cells did look like the above diagram. I raised the humidity for the last 4 days. I do have a hard time resisting from trying to intervene when I feel a chick may be in trouble. This time I'll leave the house at hatch time.
Maybe.

 

[Frost Homestead]

did you calibrate your hygrometer?

my DH did it for me. I have a simple dial hygrometer, not a digital one

 

[chiknaddiction]

Mohillbilly, do you have a hygrometer you'd recommend? I'm on my second one (a free replacement for my first) and it too is off by at least 11% and has no calibration feature. At least now I know it's reading way low so I haven't had to add any water due to the humidity being so high in MO the last few days.

 

[mohillbilly]

i use a wet bulb hygrometer and mines 40 years old

 

[wholewheatchicken]

i use a wet bulb hygrometer and mines 40 years old

What do you keep your wet bulb reading at? I want to make one, but am having a hard time finding an old fashioned thermometer. I did buy one at TSC, but it is encased in something so I haven't strung it up yet to test it out.

 

[mohillbilly]

cutler supply has one like mine with dual thermometers and a vial with a wick in the center it comes with a chart for you to use to figure your humidity .
i will have to look up my notes and tell you later as i cant remember off the top of my head now.
Must be old age setting in

 

[NYRIR]

Wow,guys...good thread!
I too am having bad hatch rates this spring...it's so frustrating to see them make it to day 18....then pip (if anything) and not hatch! It was downright depressing me!! I toyed with the idea of never hatching again!Between bad hatches and getting shipped chicks and losing half of the 25...I felt horrible!!
Now, though, I am determined to find the right humidity for my bator....
One hatch I KNOW was too wet as the humidity spiked to over 80 %...well, lets just say I had one very sticky chick hatch(of 38 eggs)...and on day 24 I had another hatch with a bit of unabsorbed yolk.I had unplugged the bator and was giving up on it...then I thought I heard a peep...from the bator...not the brooder in my room where I have some shipped chicks being doctored right now

..and there was a chick that had pipped 2 DAYS AGO peeping as it got cold! I panicked, helped it out of the shell

like I know I shouldn't!! Anyway, when I left for work tonight it was peeping and in the bator...plugged back in of course!

I will be trying my humidity at a level in between dry and "normal"...I think around 35-40% for incubation and up it to 55% for hatch.
What I don't understand is...my VERY first hatch I had 13 eggs make it to lockdown and I got 9 chicks...I had NO hygrometer, I just followed my friends advice and filled the water halfway for days 1-18, filled it all the way for hatching and ran the temp at about 100 with the thermometer on the floor of the bator!.Seriously, this worked better than since I have been trying to follow directions from the incubators.

I currently have 4 LG Still Airs....one is a hatcher, and one is getting a new fan if these eggs ever get out of it!! I have 2 new Digital Button Thermometer/Hygrometers...I calibrated them both but one is still really low even though I changed the dial when I calibrated it....grrr....I'm gonna try calibrating them both again but right now they are in use in the bators.

I also wondered, does anyone know if you line your bator with tin foil (shiny side down) does it affect the humidity reading??It seemed to when I had my thermometer/hygrometer right above the foil...it read 35%...when i moved it to the center of the bator and only over foam...it read 54%...or does it fluctuate that much in different areas of the bator without a fan??

Anyway, good reading guys...hope we can all find the right humidity for our situation...I thought hatching was easy since the first time I did it 2 years ago I had good rates!

 

[rgvchicks]

hello....i'm a newbie and used the dry method twice and it worked just fine on my side....first hatch was 100% 20 chicks out of 20 left on lockdown back on feb 20.....2nd hatch just couple days ago on march 15 got 24 chicks out of 30....the last 6 eggs had stopped developing somewhere on the 2nd week (they were dark eggs so couldn't see that well on candle) anyway, my humidity on homemade icechest without adding anything to it runs at 30%-34% and temp at a constant 100 degrees....at day 19 i add a small tray with hot water and boom humidity blasts to around 75% and withholds it the remaining 3 days going down to around 60% on the last day this time around.....last time went down to around 50%, i just replaced the water with more hot water and did the trick and went up again to around 70% real quick.

 

[mohillbilly]

that's what I like about my incubators , I don't add hot water I use room temp water and regulate my humidity with vents and surface area and give it a day to come up instead of rapidly bringing it up ..I don't like doing anything rapid as it isn't natural and I think it effects the hatch rate.

 

[NYRIR]

that's what I like about my incubators , I don't add hot water I use room temp water and regulate my humidity with vents and surface area and give it a day to come up instead of rapidly bringing it up ..I don't like doing anything rapid as it isn't natural and I think it effects the hatch rate.

I always wondered that too...I wouldn't think bumping it up super fast would be good at all....