The too dry hatch?

[Susan Skylark]

I have yet to discover the means of ruining a quail hatch: 80 percent humidity, shipped eggs, in the fridge for a week…nothing phases the little fluff balls! I know a lot of people dry hatch quail, so nothing new here except my incubator runs 20 percent humidity or so. I’ll add water at lockdown (day 14) but not until. We’ll see if there is such a thing as too dry!

Day 0: 9 fresh eggs in the incubator (only want to hatch 6, so will be culling a few as we go). Incubator running 99.5 and 20-25 percent humidity.

 

[Debbie292d]

This will be interesting!

I just won't try dry hatching but love hearing about people who do. It's amazing the various conditions eggs can go through and still be viable and hatch!

 

[mcdze]

probably not such a thing .. in the wild, conditions can be arid and cool -20% humidity or warm and tropical 90% humidity and birds thrive ..i think the key is 'steady' .. rapid or huge changes at the wrong time can gum up the works so to speak. for instance, opening the bator at 70% humidity and ac air hits the eggs at 30% can cause an issue ..

 

[Susan Skylark]

Day 3: everything seems to be developing, humidity apparently a steady 15 percent, air cells not yet noticeable (more than usual)

 

[Susan Skylark]

Day 6: air cells look like they usually do at lockdown! Will cull 3 eggs between today and tomorrow (6 is my indoor brooder capacity with winter coming). First egg I cracked candled fine but was a day 3 quitter (good choice!). Egg number 2 developing normally. Will do another tomorrow.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Day 12:

The green line is the air cell, larger than normal at this point but significantly so? 6 developing eggs, temp stable, humidity 10 percent consistently. Will add moisture Day 14 or so as we hit lockdown and pipping starts so nothing shrink wraps.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Day 15: one pipped yesterday, hatch day possibly tomorrow but most likely the day after. Spiked humidity to 55-75 percent on day 14 for lockdown.

 

[Susan Skylark]

What a hatch! All six popped right out, perky and active and no trouble at all. I’m not sure I’ve ever had such perky chicks (probably just me finally chill-axing and getting used to this whole incubation thing!). All six hatched great day 16/17 and doing well in brooder. I won’t recommend this as a hatching strategy but I think maybe novice incubators can relax a bit if their humidity isn’t perfect. Also would be interesting to know how this affects eggs with longer incubation periods (and no I won’t be doing that study!). Does a duck egg have more complications than a quail egg as the incubation period is so much longer? But I do like dry hatch and think it will take a bit of stress and fuss out of incubation hence forth.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

View attachment 3973318
What a hatch! All six popped right out, perky and active and no trouble at all. I’m not sure I’ve ever had such perky chicks (probably just me finally chill-axing and getting used to this whole incubation thing!). All six hatched great day 16/17 and doing well in brooder. I won’t recommend this as a hatching strategy but I think maybe novice incubators can relax a bit if their humidity isn’t perfect. Also would be interesting to know how this affects eggs with longer incubation periods (and no I won’t be doing that study!). Does a duck egg have more complications than a quail egg as the incubation period is so much longer? But I do like dry hatch and think it will take a bit of stress and fuss out of incubation hence forth.

I hatch all of my eggs including duck with the dry hatch method. I placed a hygrometer under broody hens to test just how much their body moisture changes the humidity compared to the ambient outdoor air. Every time the difference was minuscule at best. I also end up with seemingly more active brighter chicks using the dry hatch with less instances of goopy eggs and egg yolks not fully absorbed at hatch.

 

[Susan Skylark]

My incubator runs either 10 or 80 percent humidity, the least bit of moisture spikes the humidity to a ridiculous level. I’ve now run a hatch at both extremes. 100 percent hatch rate on both but moist chicks were definitely longer in hatching, less vigorous, and just took longer to get perky. I do have to remove them to the brooder to dry because the humidity is so high but they actually seem to do better with a quick removal rather than moping around the incubator for 24 hours. At least there is minimal danger of shrink wrapping! Definitely like the dry hatch though that extreme probably isn’t recommended for routine hatching!