To Dry Incubate or Not Dry Incubate...that is the question.

katiek

Songster
11 Years
Nov 4, 2008
369
2
144
Wildwood, GA
Hey eveyone.

I am a newbie to incubating eggs. I just had my first try and only three of seven hatched. I cracked open one of the ones that didn't hatch, and it looked like a half developed chick.

I have pictures, but they are pretty graphic. Anyway, it looked like it had fuzz and pretty well developed, but just about half the size it should have been. I feel pretty guilty.

They all seemed to candle well, but I didn't check for movement in all of them.

So, what did I do wrong?

I have a still air little giant incubator. I keep the temp at 101-102. And the humidity at around 45%.

The last three days, I upped the humidity, and lowered the temp to 99-100.

What should I do differently? Does the dry incubation work well for you, and if so, what exactly does that mean?

Keep it at 25% until day 18?

Any and all suggestions would be helpful, I have 7 SLW eggs I need to put in tonight, and I don't want to mess up again.
 
Did all 4 eggs that did not hatch have underdeveloped embryo? If so, it sounds like they died during development. Possibly the parent stock was not recieving proper nutrition or some bacterial invasion of the egg. not a temp or humidity problem in this case.
 
What kind of incubator? Does it have a fan?

Humidity issues usually result in fully developed chicks that fail to hatch. Under developed chicks are a sign of temp issues. Or eggs with issues before incubation was started: week parent stock, bacteria in the egg or lethal gene combinations.
 
Yeah, that sounds like mine, I got about 50% hatch. But I dont see how the humidity would effect them during devlopment, only during the hatch. (Someone with more experience, please correct me if I'm wrong)

I decided I had nutritional problems, they were only getting layer mash when I was collecting eggs. I think temperature during early development will be more likely to cause that type of problems then humidity. (Again, correct me if I'm wroing...)
 

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