Operation Dry Hatch

[coz74]

Once the eggs start hatching, the humidity should jump way up. With my Genesis the I had a hard time getting into the 60% range, but when hatching started it jumped into the high 70's.

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Once the eggs start hatching, the humidity should jump way up. With my Genesis the I had a hard time getting into the 60% range, but when hatching started it jumped into the high 70's.

That's why I decided to just leave it alone. It's not budging and when they start hatching they will make some more humidity. I'm just tickled some of them are coming along.
Do you use a Hovabator? Do you like it? Do you get good hatch rates? Can you stack eggs in it?

 

[coz74]

That's why I decided to just leave it alone. It's not budging and when they start hatching they will make some more humidity. I'm just tickled some of them are coming along.
Do you use a Hovabator? Do you like it? Do you get good hatch rates? Can you stack eggs in it?

Yes I have a Hovabator Genesis 1588. I purchased it about two months ago. I ran it for a test hatch with some eggs that were given to me and put in 21 eggs. Only 11 eggs developed. Some of the eggs were very porous, and I was told some of the roos were really young. Out of the 11, 8 hatched- two quit and 1 was fully developed but never pipped. I did use the dry hatch method, more or less. I added water to the #1 trough on day one. Humidity was 35-40% and by the end of the week it dropped to 17-20%. Start of week 2 I added water again and it went up to 35% and by the end of week was back down to 17-20%. Start of week 3 same thing until lock down. For lockdown I filled up all the trays and also added a small bowl of water placed on the corner just to get it to 60-65%. Once the hatching started, the humidity spiked. One thing I noticed with my current batch is more eggs = more humidity. My humidity has remained much higher so far. I added water on day 1, but have not added water again. Initially humidity stayed around 35% and that was with 50 eggs in the incubator. Today is day 10 and humidity is 25%, but I only have 37 eggs in now. I discarded 13 eggs that were clear, most likely due to
shipping.

Here it is with 50 eggs- stacked.








Here it is now with 37 eggs.

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Yes I have a Hovabator Genesis 1588. I purchased it about two months ago. I ran it for a test hatch with some eggs that were given to me and put in 21 eggs. Only 11 eggs developed. Some of the eggs were very porous, and I was told some of the roos were really young. Out of the 11, 8 hatched- two quit and 1 was fully developed but never pipped. I did use the dry hatch method, more or less. I added water to the #1 trough on day one. Humidity was 35-40% and by the end of the week it dropped to 17-20%. Start of week 2 I added water again and it went up to 35% and by the end of week was back down to 17-20%. Start of week 3 same thing until lock down. For lockdown I filled up all the trays and also added a small bowl of water placed on the corner just to get it to 60-65%. Once the hatching started, the humidity spiked. One thing I noticed with my current batch is more eggs = more humidity. My humidity has remained much higher so far. I added water on day 1, but have not added water again. Initially humidity stayed around 35% and that was with 50 eggs in the incubator. Today is day 10 and humidity is 25%, but I only have 37 eggs in now. I discarded 13 eggs that were clear, most likely due to
shipping.

Here it is with 50 eggs- stacked.








Here it is now with 37 eggs.

Interesting. I was wondering if you could stack in it. I just bought one Saturday morning and will be anxious for it to get here. I did not buy the egg turners though.
Mohillbilly, if you read my post I want you to know my DH was sleeping at the time and while I was getting the credit card out of his wallet I did silently ask him if he wanted to buy this incubator for me and I heard him say yes, dear!
So it seems like you like the Hovabator and have had good results. I read posts on here and it was described as a plug and play.....exactly what I am looking for. And it is even more exciting as now I know my homemade incubators work so I will have two incubators and two hatching boxes. How much better could it get?

 

[mohillbilly]

Interesting. I was wondering if you could stack in it. I just bought one Saturday morning and will be anxious for it to get here. I did not buy the egg turners though.
Mohillbilly, if you read my post I want you to know my DH was sleeping at the time and while I was getting the credit card out of his wallet I did silently ask him if he wanted to buy this incubator for me and I heard him say yes, dear!
So it seems like you like the Hovabator and have had good results. I read posts on here and it was described as a plug and play.....exactly what I am looking for. And it is even more exciting as now I know my homemade incubators work so I will have two incubators and two hatching boxes. How much better could it get?

well you could own one of my incubators..

 

[wholewheatchicken]

well you could own one of my incubators..

I know!!!!! I'm working my way up to one. Give me a little time. By this time next year I am going to need to be cranking some babies out.
Have you seen I have two chicks so far? Well, one born and one working on it. This feels so good. This is the best I have ever done. I am hoping for more chicks tomorrow!

 

[destin0709]

I just tried the dry incubation for the first time too and doesn't seem that it went to well. I had 30 eggs (shipped bantam cochins and mixed chickens) and kept them in my hova bator 1588 with fan. I followed Bill Worrel and kept incubator at 99.5-99.7 temps and 50% humidity and let it drop to 20% then added water back up to 50% again and kept doing that for 1st 18 days with vent open. 7 eggs were unfertile so I took them out at day 14, some early quitters and a few days before lockdown I lost 3 more. The night before lockdown I candled and I had 2 that were rocking in turner and all had movement. The next morning (day 18) I put them in lockdown on Sunday morning and humidity stayed around 65-67% and temps went to 100.2. On Monday I didn't see the 2 eggs rocking anymore and only had 1 pipping out of the 15 left. Once the 1 egg zipped and dried I removed him to brooder and decided to check the 2 that had been rocking before lockdown. They were still alive, I put them back in and took humidity to 70% and placed a damp paper towel on top of eggs. Still no pips by Monday night and still no rocking from those 2 eggs. So I took 1 out and poked hole in airspace and looked in and saw that it was white and dry but was still peeping so I think they were starting to shrink wrap? I checked other eggs and found that 8 were no longer moving and looked sunken in and not as full when I checked them before lockdown they were dead. When I opened the dead ones some still had their egg sacs and a couple had their beaks threw the white but that was as far as they went before dying. I don't know what went wrong, should I turn the fan off at lockdown? I have 2 chicks in the brooder and I know your not supposed to open the incubator but I don't think the last ones were going to make it unless I helped. They are resting now in the bator and hopefully all make it. I want to hatch more bantams but I don't know what went wrong and don't want to get more til I figure it out. I had the same problem last summer hatching 24 shipped duck eggs all made it to lockdown 8 hatched, the rest never pipped the shell but made it threw the lining. When I looked inside those they also had a white dry lining I hatched them the normal hatch not the dry hatch. Any help on what I'm doing wrong?

 

[immyjay54]

I just tried the dry incubation for the first time too and doesn't seem that it went to well. I had 30 eggs (shipped bantam cochins and mixed chickens) and kept them in my hova bator 1588 with fan. I followed Bill Worrel and kept incubator at 99.5-99.7 temps and 50% humidity and let it drop to 20% then added water back up to 50% again and kept doing that for 1st 18 days with vent open. 7 eggs were unfertile so I took them out at day 14, some early quitters and a few days before lockdown I lost 3 more. The night before lockdown I candled and I had 2 that were rocking in turner and all had movement. The next morning (day 18) I put them in lockdown on Sunday morning and humidity stayed around 65-67% and temps went to 100.2. On Monday I didn't see the 2 eggs rocking anymore and only had 1 pipping out of the 15 left. Once the 1 egg zipped and dried I removed him to brooder and decided to check the 2 that had been rocking before lockdown. They were still alive, I put them back in and took humidity to 70% and placed a damp paper towel on top of eggs. Still no pips by Monday night and still no rocking from those 2 eggs. So I took 1 out and poked hole in airspace and looked in and saw that it was white and dry but was still peeping so I think they were starting to shrink wrap? I checked other eggs and found that 8 were no longer moving and looked sunken in and not as full when I checked them before lockdown they were dead. When I opened the dead ones some still had their egg sacs and a couple had their beaks threw the white but that was as far as they went before dying. I don't know what went wrong, should I turn the fan off at lockdown? I have 2 chicks in the brooder and I know your not supposed to open the incubator but I don't think the last ones were going to make it unless I helped. They are resting now in the bator and hopefully all make it. I want to hatch more bantams but I don't know what went wrong and don't want to get more til I figure it out. I had the same problem last summer hatching 24 shipped duck eggs all made it to lockdown 8 hatched, the rest never pipped the shell but made it threw the lining. When I looked inside those they also had a white dry lining I hatched them the normal hatch not the dry hatch. Any help on what I'm doing wrong?

Destin,
Incubation is a very tricky thing. Once you get with it, it is a lot of fun but until you get what works for you it is very depressing loosing all those babies. I tried the dry hatch once and it didn't work at all for me. Once I put my eggs in lock down, I do not open my bator till day 21 or later. Depending on the hatch. You may not be doing anything wrong, chicks can die in shell at any time. I've learned that even the big time breeders have problems sometimes. I'm going to put this just to give you an idea of hatch rates. I received 7 eggs (shipped) only had 2 hatch. I received 8 eggs (shipped 6 hatched) received 15 eggs 5 hatched, received 9 eggs 6 hatched, received 18 eggs 7 hatched and last received 15 eggs 10 hatched. Now figure that, we never know what we are going to get with shipped eggs. This has all been just since January 5. I have eggs in bator right now and candled them a few days ago and it doesn't look to good with this batch. If you have any of your own chickens or know anyone close to you where you can pick up just a few. Do this and see what your hatch rate is. I have super luck with non shipped eggs. This will let you know if you are doing something wrong or if it is just the eggs. Trial and error is hard sometimes. BUT experience is your best teacher. Don't give up, just try the learning experience with cheap non shipped eggs and see how things go.
I sincerely hope that this helps. A lot of folks have been at this a long time and no matter how much advice we give anyone, it is still on an individual bases. What works for me may never work for you. I try to stick to what the old hens do and follow their lead. lol

 

[wholewheatchicken]

I tried the Bill Worrell dry hatch method too and I got the exact same results you are describing. Those poor chicks were so shrink wrapped in their shells it was very sad. This is my third time to try incubation and I kept the H around 50% the whole way through. I was very worried at the end because I thought maybe the air cells weren't big enough, but I must have gotten it right. Yesterday was day 21 and I have three chicks out of the shells and five great pips going on. I learned a lot by doing the eggtopsies on the first two hatches and tried to adjust from there. I agree that humidity seems to be individualized somewhat and seems to based on all the factors going on at one's own house. I am closer to Cincinnati, Ohio and I used 50-ish%, but I met someone on here and she is closer to the Great Lakes and uses closer to 30% and does great. That's a big difference, as our other friend pointed out.
Sorry to hear of your losses. If you're like me, you will adjust and have a great hatch next time. And I do agree, big difference in shipped and not shipped eggs. Have some shipped eggs in the bator right now and they have looked challenging and interesting from the minute I laid my eyes on them.

 

[destin0709]

Out of my 14 shipped eggs so far 4 are living don't know if all are going to make it but I have my fingers crossed. They seem to be getting a little spunk. I lost my calico's, mottled, and 1 silver laced that I was really hoping hatched.

I hope that I got a rooster I have 2 female cochins had 3 but hawk just recently killed one. The other 13 eggs were my sister in law from her chickens so not shipped other than the drive to my house and some of them did same thing, 4 waiting on 2 have heads out and 1 of them my chick pecked at and I see yellow liquid inside don't think it's gonna make it very weak. And 2 still pipping. The rest died right before or during lockdown. I have my own duck eggs in due next week I'll see how that turns out. Was debating on whether to turn off fan or keep in on during lockdown to see if that does anything different.