To dry hatch or to not?

[remicuties]

I have a NR 360 and each time I’ve done chicken eggs it’s always been adding water, I live in a humid area and wondered if dry hatching was a safe option or not, I always need refreshed on what the best humidity level is on my incubator and right now it was 37% I just set these eggs on 8/5 I hope that it wasn’t too low and that I killed them

I added a bit of water now it’s 42% I hope that still isn’t too low.

I need a refresher course lol

 

[SnackMeat]

I think it's worth trying both ways and it depends on the eggs. I started off dry and nuked some bantam eggs, so for me, bantams are a no. Regular chicken eggs I'm iffy on-- like it is probably fine but humidity is also fine.

Where dry hatching is a must is when it comes to duck eggs.


Good God the amount of duck eggs that didn't lose enough weight because I was using my failures with chicken eggs and applying them to duck eggs.


Highly recommend weighing your eggs before starting, and then weekly. Mark them in grams and then do the math to try to hit 2.8% or so per week. If you lose too much weight or not enough, lean in the other direction regarding humid or dry.

 

[kattabelly]

I live in a humid area and generally dry incubate up until the last few days, when I'll add water because hatching chicks don't seem to up the humidity enough themselves (it's a forced air incubator, which might be a factor there). Generally the incubator claims to sit at around 40% humidity but I don't use a separate hygrometer to double check that the way I do for temperature - I go off how the air cell looks, or sometimes egg weight if I can be bothered doing that. If I think they're losing a bit too much at two weeks, I'll just bump up the humidity a few days earlier - when this has happened it's been with eggs that were on the smaller side to begin with, or looked quite porous when I candled them before setting.

 

[Ridgerunner]

My suggestion is to try something. Be consistent and see what your results are. If it works, fine. If you need to tweak it, then try something else.

Different humidities work for different ones of us. Some people do great at 30%, some do better at 50%. I have no idea what is best for you.

 

[remicuties]

Thanks for all the info but I remembered how I usually hatched eggs and I dub it the “lazy method” I remember now I usually only added water if it got to like 20 something maybe even 30 something % and kept it below 50 literally did nothing else if it was above 50 I think I also just ignored it unless it was extremely high or something
I think I’m gonna let these eggs do what they’re gonna do and hang out in the incubator

 

[Tex452]

I live in Texas and I dry hatch.
I do 100% dry hatch and would not do it any other way, my hatches have been great.
My cousin has been trying to incubate using water, the chicks develop and drown when they attempt to hatch, the same thing happened to my son.
My cousin is now dry hatching and having a lot better luck, she was fixing to give up completely before I told her to try dry hatching,she is doing good now.

 

[remicuties]

I live in Texas and I dry hatch.
I do 100% dry hatch and would not do it any other way, my hatches have been great.
My cousin has been trying to incubate using water, the chicks develop and drown when they attempt to hatch, the same thing happened to my son.
My cousin is now dry hatching and having a lot better luck, she was fixing to give up completely before I told her to try dry hatching,she is doing good now.

I am in tx too maybe I should try it I just don’t want my eggs to dry out

 

[Tex452]

I think it's worth trying both ways and it depends on the eggs. I started off dry and nuked some bantam eggs, so for me, bantams are a no. Regular chicken eggs I'm iffy on-- like it is probably fine but humidity is also fine.

Where dry hatching is a must is when it comes to duck eggs.


Good God the amount of duck eggs that didn't lose enough weight because I was using my failures with chicken eggs and applying them to duck eggs.


Highly recommend weighing your eggs before starting, and then weekly. Mark them in grams and then do the math to try to hit 2.8% or so per week. If you lose too much weight or not enough, lean in the other direction regarding humid or dry.

I think it's worth trying both ways and it depends on the eggs. I started off dry and nuked some bantam eggs, so for me, bantams are a no. Regular chicken eggs I'm iffy on-- like it is probably fine but humidity is also fine.

Where dry hatching is a must is when it comes to duck eggs.


Good God the amount of duck eggs that didn't lose enough weight because I was using my failures with chicken eggs and applying them to duck eggs.


Highly recommend weighing your eggs before starting, and then weekly. Mark them in grams and then do the math to try to hit 2.8% or so per week. If you lose too much weight or not enough, lean in the other direction regarding humid or dry.

I dry hatch chickens guineas and quail, the humidity jumps way up when they start hatching, they hatch fast and easy, and are very healthy, I’ve even dry hatched bantams.
I’ve had so much luck that I’m running out of room, I gave 16 pullets to my son and I have another set of pullets to give to my sister as soon as she gets her coop up, I’ve butchered 10 cockerels and am planning on butchering more this weekend.
I have 90 quail and 30 chicken eggs set now.
It’s an addiction.

 

[Tex452]

I am in tx too maybe I should try it I just don’t want my eggs to dry out

I wouldn’t dream of doing it any other way, it works great for me, the chicks hatch easy ,fast and are very healthy, I’m in the Bryan area, our humidity stays high most of the time.
My main concern is temperature, I check the temperature every time I set a new batch of eggs, sometimes I have to adjust a little, but most of the time I don’t, but temperature is the most important thing to me, I got to where I don’t check the humidity anymore.

 

[remicuties]

I wouldn’t dream of doing it any other way, it works great for me, the chicks hatch easy ,fast and are very healthy, I’m in the Bryan area, our humidity stays high most of the time.
My main concern is temperature, I check the temperature every time I set a new batch of eggs, sometimes I have to adjust a little, but most of the time I don’t, but temperature is the most important thing to me, I got to where I don’t check the humidity anymore.

I’m in Dallas area we just got a fat rainstorm in humidity has been in the 70s