Wet vs Dry Hatch

[TinyHandsHomestead105]

Anyone have better luck with dry hatching than wet? I've been doing some research and want actual thoughts from some that have done both methods.

 

[BantyChooks]

Dry hatching - meaning that you maintain the same humidity level during hatch as incubation?
I've done it by accident a few times. It works well for vigorous chicks that aren't malpositioned but if a chick is struggling to hatch, is slow, or has a weird air cell, I have much better luck keeping humidity high. Also, notably, quail seem to do very well with this method and now I only raise humidity slightly for them. Overall if you don't need to assist at all it can work. I would consider it to be a higher risk hatching strategy. It seems to depend on your ambient conditions and incubator as well.

 

[sdm111]

I have always had much better hatch rates doing dry about 25 to 30% humidity in Styrofoam incubators till day 18 then filled the channels with water. It's been about 10 or so years since I've done it. The problem with high humidity during 1 through 18 is the chick grows too big and can't zip the shell so it pips the shell and dies in that position. Also if they do hatch they were usually mushy and not active (had no vigor). Ihave since been hatching with brooding hens.
I also live in a humidity climate so even with no water and a heated (drying) environment it never went below about 25%

 

[TinyHandsHomestead105]

Dry hatching - meaning that you maintain the same humidity level during hatch as incubation?
I've done it by accident a few times. It works well for vigorous chicks that aren't malpositioned but if a chick is struggling to hatch, is slow, or has a weird air cell, I have much better luck keeping humidity high. Also, notably, quail seem to do very well with this method and now I only raise humidity slightly for them. Overall if you don't need to assist at all it can work. I would consider it to be a higher risk hatching strategy. It seems to depend on your ambient conditions and incubator as well.

The dry hatch I've been researching still states to bump humidity up to 65%-75% at hatch. But to keep 15%-30% throughout and not adding water. Not sure how it works honestly. Just have done basic research at this point.

 

[TinyHandsHomestead105]

I have always had much better hatch rates doing dry about 25 to 30% humidity in Styrofoam incubators till day 18 then filled the channels with water. It's been about 10 or so years since I've done it. The problem with high humidity during 1 through 18 is the chick grows too big and can't zip the shell so it pips the shell and dies in that position. Also if they do hatch they were usually mushy and not active (had no vigor). Ihave since been hatching with brooding hens.
I also live in a humidity climate so even with no water and a heated (drying) environment it never went below about 25%

I live in a fairly humid area, so I thought about trying it as I had quite a few fully developed chicks that did not hatch. Heard it can improve rates if you have that issue.

 

[Debbie292d]

I've heard of it but not sure either why people do not do it the traditional tried and true way. They'll tell you they have better hatch rates than before. Well, then what were they doing wrong before is my thought as the vast majority of us who do it the traditional way are getting great hatch rates, so why change?

In researching hatching silkie eggs, their shells are akin to porcelain and harder to break through if dry. Having the higher humidity helps them hatch better. Since that's all I hatch for the most part, I'll just stick to 45-50% until lockdown then 65-70%. Yet, I'll find someone who dry-hatches silkie eggs just fine too.

I think a lot depends upon the climate where you live and/or the humidity in your house. Too low and you'll dry them out. Too high, you'll drown them. Thus, we have the traditional methods that if we stick to them, it'll prevent both from happening. To each their own though. If their way works, more power to 'em!

 

[sdm111]

The dry hatch I've been researching still states to bump humidity up to 65%-75% at hatch. But to keep 15%-30% throughout and not adding water. Not sure how it works honestly. Just have done basic research at this point.

I would try to if I were you. I think you would be happy with the outcome

 

[Yardmom]

I do the dry hatch that you are referring to. It definitely depends on your relative humidity. Took me a bit to realize that incubator directions do work for those in drier environments because they don't work here. I don't place any water in the incubator until day 18. Most of the time with our humid environment humidity in the incubator is on target and the eggs loose a proper amount of moisture (watch air cell size). Bring the humidity up for hatch, but if your relative humidity is like mine (80-90 if not winter) and your incubator holds moisture well it won't take much water. Make sure you have a good hydrometer or make sure there is not excessive condensation.

 

[BantyChooks]

The dry hatch I've been researching still states to bump humidity up to 65%-75% at hatch. But to keep 15%-30% throughout and not adding water. Not sure how it works honestly. Just have done basic research at this point.

I see. I personally add water until I reach 25-30% humidity because going much lower than that causes the eggs to essentially desiccate and can actually interfere with albumen absorption in my experience. Whether you can get away without adding water is almost certainly dependent on ambient conditions, as @Yardmom said. Ultimately, whether you add water or not is a bit of a misleading metric as what you're really going after is an appropriate rate of fluid loss from the egg as indicated by air cell size. Whatever gets you good air cell sizes with vigorous, non-mushy chicks at hatch is going to be your best bet, and this varies by incubator model, climate, altitude, shell porosity, etc. For some climates and situations, this may indicate a "dry" hatch. For others, it may not.

I live in a fairly humid area, so I thought about trying it as I had quite a few fully developed chicks that did not hatch. Heard it can improve rates if you have that issue.

The issue is that there are many, many reasons why eggs may quit near hatching time, not all of which include humidity. I wouldn't necessarily jump to that as a first line of reasoning unless you're having large, mushy chicks and small air cells.
Also, do calibrate your hygrometers. They can be off by a significant amount. Once you've done a few dozen hatches in the same incubator the accuracy of the hygrometer matters much less as it becomes more of an intuitive process but if you're trying to figure out an issue I do find it helpful to calibrate.

 

[Birdinhand]

I’ve hatched a lot of chicks over the years and I think as a concept dry hatch is interesting but mainly to illustrate how humidity influences development and how it’s worth keeping an eye on volume in the egg via candling and adjusting up or down to fine tune the process so you are not too dry or too wet. Either extreme can be bad. What works is going to be determined by several factors, your incubator, how you run it and the baseline climate/humidity where you live and where the incubator is actually placed. There are some good explanations/charts of the ideal egg volume at various stages out there to use as guides for adjusting humidity up or down to find the sweet spot.