Question, Need Advice

[Mike32]

My empty bator right now with no water in it has been holding at 20% humidity. The last couple batches didn't hatch very well so I wanted to try the dry hatch method of using no water. My main question is will this humidity level be sufficient? Also I have some eggs ready to go in today but am waiting on some more that will hopefully be in soon. When it comes time to lockdown the first ones will the higher humidity during lockdown hurt the second set? Or because of the low humidity for days 1-18 dry them out enough not to drown them. My plan was not to do a staggered hatch but one seller on ebay didn't ship like their auction stated. Thanks for your help.


ps I have a hovabator with turner and fan if you need that info.

 

[chick4smiles]

Quote:
I certainly don't have enough experience to give you any solid advice, but what I can tell you is that one of my several "mistakes" with my first incubation was a staggered set. I literally added eggs just about every day for nearly two weeks! At any rate, I put the incubator in "lockdown" status to prepare for the first round of hatching (upped humidity to 70%, it was previously at 45%)...this meant that the rest of the eggs, some of which were at day 11 and had 10 days to go, were at a higher than suggested humidity. Regardless, the eggs are still hatching! It's not the best hatching rate in the world, but based on the drowning stories I read here, I was convinced that I wouldn't get any chicks from the remaining eggs.

Perhaps someone with more experience could offer advice on whether it's better to wait an extra day or so to set (depending on how "old" the eggs are at this point) or to do a staggered set and risk drowning the still-developing eggs?

 

[Gypsy07]

If there's only a day or two between both sets of eggs then the higher humidity at lockdown for the first set really shouldn't harm the second set at all. Two extra days of high humidity, say from day 16 onwards, really won't make much of a difference if everything else throughout the incubation has been good...

 

[Mike32]

Ok I'm confident about the lockdown question but now I just want to confirm that 20% humidity will be ok. Thanks for the responses.

 

[Gypsy07]

Quote:
It's honestly impossible to say for definite. 20% will work for some people and not for others. It depends on a lot of factors including your local climate and what kind of bator you're using. People with still air bators generally seem to have better results with dry hatching than those with fan assisted bators, probably cause the moisture can just kinda hang in the air without a fan whooshing it around and driying it up.

Eggs lose moisture (and therefore weight) throughout the incubation period, and the ideal weight loss over the first 18 days is 11-15%. Your ideal humidity is the one that will produce this weight loss in your eggs, and if you want to figure it out for sure, the best way is to weigh your eggs. Anything else will be guesswork and trial & error.