What is your go to incubation method?

[JosieMaeChickens]

This is my fourth time incubating and I learn something new each time. However my hatch rates remains around 50-60%. I’m using a Little Giant and following I guess what you would call the “traditional” method (day 1-18 humidity between 50-60% and increasing it to 70% for the last 3 days.) I have trouble some times with humidity getting up to 65ish but it’s only for a short time before I get it back into the 50-60% range. Also during lockdown I add water and it’s hard to judge how much I need so it may get “too high” for a little bit, around 80%, until I get it corrected.

A big concern of mine was the eggs being knocked by the hatched chicks because it’s not just a gentle bump, it’s a knock that rolls the egg completely over. I may be wrong but it makes sense to me that the rolling around can cause a chick not to hatch. If it just spent the last days getting into position to hatch then it gets turned upside down it could stress and confuse it. So this last time I used cut paper towel rings for each egg to sit in. This prevented them from moving very well. I few still manage to be rolled over though.

Seems like there are so many different ways to incubate out there... I’m just looking for y’all’s experience and methods y’all use, for example traditional, dry, stacking? There maybe more I don’t know about. I’m curious to try something new or get help troubleshooting my current method.

Also I candle on days 7 and 18. On day 18, all I check for is a fully formed chick. Some of them I see move, some I don’t. But I also don’t wait around too long for them to move because I don’t want them out of the incubated for too long.

If you read this whole thing, thank you and please let me know what your method is and what your hatch rates are!

 

[MysteryChicken]

I do the normal Wet Bulb Incubation Method. Temperature at 99.5°F for 17 days, & 97.5°F - 98.5°F for lockdown.

Humidity for 17 days I keep between 35% - 45%. I'll go as high as 50% depending on the house humidity.

For Lockdown I increase the humidity to 55% - 65%, no higher.

My hatch rates have been excellent. I can't give a percentage, since it's not something I'm good at.


My set up.

Thermometer/Hygrometer on the left is the house conditions.

Thermometer/Hygrometer on the right is the incubator conditions.

The Egg O Meters on the bottom show the cooler areas in my incubator.

 

[Hatch in chicks]

[day 1-18] humidity at 40-60 [wet hatch method] and temperature at 38.8 Celsius [incubator temp display which is usually 0.5 degrees off. my hatch rate for the first time hatching: 90%. i'm using the Sailnovo 30 egg incubator off of Ebay. [day 18] temperature at 38.0 Celsius, and I don't have higher humidity yet. [day 19-21 hatching period] temperature at 37.8 Celsius, and humidity at 65-75%. I candle the eggs day 5-6 without removing infertile eggs, next i candle day 12, last candling [optional] day 16. on day 18 i take the turner out put the hatching gris in [non-slip surface] and i LEAVE LID CLOSED.

 

[AlleysChicks]

Dry incubation, normally dry hatch unless air cell size tells me otherwise at lockdown. 99.5F for chicks with a fan.

 

[Shadrach]

Hens! I don't have to worry about all the above. They sort all that out and the integration later.
I've never worried much about hatch rates. What they don't hatch then, they'll hatch another time.

 

[mcdze]

ive literally hatched them in a plastic tote with a light .. put wire in the bottom so a small box with dry grass in it and a thermometer could be place and water in the bottom .. adjusting the lid gap controlled temp .. humidity, who knows, not that important as long as its not parched dry 20-30%, way i see it .. hatch rate? 100% . all 13 hatched in that batch lol .. whats important is younger healthy birds to get eggs from, collect them and they should sit at cool temp for a few days, then start them and shoot for 99F .. if it fluctuates ok but keep 99-99.5 the middle .. again, with chickens anyway ive found humidity makes next to 0 difference in hatchrate, water needs to be present, add it WARM, and be sure to know its effect on the temp, the 'amount' of water added and its percent coverage of the bottom should be consistent every time .. a bator that dries out or gets flooded will generally go way out on temp ...