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I decided that for my firs time I would try the dry incubation method. Its hovering around 60% humidity here anyway. I whittled down the article on here so I could make it easy to follow. Here is what I am trying this first time
I went and bought a little giant still air bator today to use as a separate hatcher.
Dry Incubation
Used with permisson - By Bill Worrell (I cut and pasted as needed)
Day 0
Store eggs to be incubated in an environment that is around 40-50% humidity and also the temp is below 70 degrees.
Incubate in an area where the temp is stable within 10 degrees or so, and humidity between 50%-75% preferably 50%.
Now that you have your room set up, I would plug in the incubator and add no water. Allow the incubator to stabilize for a minimum of 48 hours to be sure it is at 99.5 for forced air (fan installed) or 101 for still air (no fan). While it is stabilizing, get a room hygrometer (instrument that measures humidity) and place it in the room. By controlling the room humidity, you can be more precise with your moisture in the incubator especially the foam incubator's. Since your incubator gets its air from the room, it will have some humidity. If the humidity in the room drops to 40% don't get concerned. The eggs themselves will supply some of the humidity needed inside the foam incubator's. Higher humidity is worse that lower humidity as higher humidity hinders evaporation.
Day 1
Make sure the red plugs are NOT in the vent holes.
After 48 hours of stable temps place your eggs in the turner with the big end up. Close the incubator and forget about it for 7 days.
Day 7
Open the incubator and candle your eggs with a good candler. Throw away all the clear eggs as they will soon rot and could explode inside the incubator causing loss of the healthy eggs. Be very gentle when handling these eggs, as the tiny embryos are very fragile at this stage in incubation. After the first candling, close the incubator and forget it for another 7 days. Also while you have the incubator opened, check the humidity inside the incubator. In foam incubators, add a teaspoon or two of water if the humidity is real low. Low being 25%.
Day 14
Open the incubator and candle the eggs again with your candler. Look for a real dark mass inside the egg and a small clear cell at the big end of the egg. This is the air cell. This is where the chick pokes through first to get its first breath of air. If you were using the conventional means of incubation and had the humidity too high for these 14 days, your chick might encounter a good amount of water here. This could and often does drown your new chick before it even has a chance to pip the shell. We recommend that you watch the air cells real close. If too large or growing to fast, you need just a little humidity. If they are no bigger than when you started, then you need to decrease the humidity. If you see any eggs with large amounts of clear spots in them, compare them to the others and if they are very different, discard the eggs that have big clear patches.
These embryos may have died for various reasons while developing. After you candle them, put the lid back on the incubator and forget about it until day 18.
Day 18
Open the incubator and add a very small amount of water to one of the water channels in the bottom of the incubator. If you notice the humidity in the incubator is above 65% add only a tablespoon of water or two. If your incubator humidity is below 65% add about ½ of the channel full of water. Remove the eggs from the turner and lay them flat on their sides. Try to allow a little room between them. Then close the incubator. Place one vent plug back into the bator. Now, follow the next direction very closely.
DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, OPEN THE INCUBATOR FOR 5 FULL DAYS.
Hate to shout at you but this last 5 days will make or break your hatch. I get a little aggravated when people will go through all the previous steps and then it gets down to the moment, and they can't resist opening the incubator. Every time you open the incubator, you release valuable moisture out of the incubator and allow dry air in. This is what causes chicks to stick to their shell membranes. All you will have to do is lose a few chicks to this and you will change your habits. This means don't open the incubator until day 23.
Day 20
Place the last vent plug back into the bator. This will allow the moisture to stay inside the bator for the last day and while the chicks are hatching. When the first chick hatches, you will notice that the windows in the foam incubators will form a lot of condensation of them. If this condensation is covering nearly the entire window, remove the vent plug that covers the hole with the metal in it and turn it upside down and place it directly over the hole you just took it out of. This will allow a little bit of moisture to escape. In an hour or so, you will be able to see inside the window again. If it doesn't dry the window a little, then slide it away from the hole just a tiny bit. Then check it again in about 1 hour.
Day 23
The chicks will be ready to take out of the incubator and placed in the brooder area. Make sure you have water ready and chick starter in low feeders ready for them in the brooder box. When you take a chick out of the incubator, dunk his beak in the water and make sure he gets a drink. Do this for all of them.
Make sure they have a source of warmth, (i.e. a heat lamp, light bulb, brooder, etc).
I recommend you have 2 incubators (one for an incubator and one for a hatcher). This will help if you have several different hatch dates in one incubator. On day 18 place the eggs over into the hatcher incubator. Then add water and you're good to go. We like to hatch at about 65-70%.
Dry Incubation
Used with permisson - By Bill Worrell (I cut and pasted as needed)
Day 0
Store eggs to be incubated in an environment that is around 40-50% humidity and also the temp is below 70 degrees.
Incubate in an area where the temp is stable within 10 degrees or so, and humidity between 50%-75% preferably 50%.
Now that you have your room set up, I would plug in the incubator and add no water. Allow the incubator to stabilize for a minimum of 48 hours to be sure it is at 99.5 for forced air (fan installed) or 101 for still air (no fan). While it is stabilizing, get a room hygrometer (instrument that measures humidity) and place it in the room. By controlling the room humidity, you can be more precise with your moisture in the incubator especially the foam incubator's. Since your incubator gets its air from the room, it will have some humidity. If the humidity in the room drops to 40% don't get concerned. The eggs themselves will supply some of the humidity needed inside the foam incubator's. Higher humidity is worse that lower humidity as higher humidity hinders evaporation.
Day 1
Make sure the red plugs are NOT in the vent holes.
After 48 hours of stable temps place your eggs in the turner with the big end up. Close the incubator and forget about it for 7 days.
Day 7
Open the incubator and candle your eggs with a good candler. Throw away all the clear eggs as they will soon rot and could explode inside the incubator causing loss of the healthy eggs. Be very gentle when handling these eggs, as the tiny embryos are very fragile at this stage in incubation. After the first candling, close the incubator and forget it for another 7 days. Also while you have the incubator opened, check the humidity inside the incubator. In foam incubators, add a teaspoon or two of water if the humidity is real low. Low being 25%.
Day 14
Open the incubator and candle the eggs again with your candler. Look for a real dark mass inside the egg and a small clear cell at the big end of the egg. This is the air cell. This is where the chick pokes through first to get its first breath of air. If you were using the conventional means of incubation and had the humidity too high for these 14 days, your chick might encounter a good amount of water here. This could and often does drown your new chick before it even has a chance to pip the shell. We recommend that you watch the air cells real close. If too large or growing to fast, you need just a little humidity. If they are no bigger than when you started, then you need to decrease the humidity. If you see any eggs with large amounts of clear spots in them, compare them to the others and if they are very different, discard the eggs that have big clear patches.
These embryos may have died for various reasons while developing. After you candle them, put the lid back on the incubator and forget about it until day 18.
Day 18
Open the incubator and add a very small amount of water to one of the water channels in the bottom of the incubator. If you notice the humidity in the incubator is above 65% add only a tablespoon of water or two. If your incubator humidity is below 65% add about ½ of the channel full of water. Remove the eggs from the turner and lay them flat on their sides. Try to allow a little room between them. Then close the incubator. Place one vent plug back into the bator. Now, follow the next direction very closely.
DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, OPEN THE INCUBATOR FOR 5 FULL DAYS.
Hate to shout at you but this last 5 days will make or break your hatch. I get a little aggravated when people will go through all the previous steps and then it gets down to the moment, and they can't resist opening the incubator. Every time you open the incubator, you release valuable moisture out of the incubator and allow dry air in. This is what causes chicks to stick to their shell membranes. All you will have to do is lose a few chicks to this and you will change your habits. This means don't open the incubator until day 23.
Day 20
Place the last vent plug back into the bator. This will allow the moisture to stay inside the bator for the last day and while the chicks are hatching. When the first chick hatches, you will notice that the windows in the foam incubators will form a lot of condensation of them. If this condensation is covering nearly the entire window, remove the vent plug that covers the hole with the metal in it and turn it upside down and place it directly over the hole you just took it out of. This will allow a little bit of moisture to escape. In an hour or so, you will be able to see inside the window again. If it doesn't dry the window a little, then slide it away from the hole just a tiny bit. Then check it again in about 1 hour.
Day 23
The chicks will be ready to take out of the incubator and placed in the brooder area. Make sure you have water ready and chick starter in low feeders ready for them in the brooder box. When you take a chick out of the incubator, dunk his beak in the water and make sure he gets a drink. Do this for all of them.
Make sure they have a source of warmth, (i.e. a heat lamp, light bulb, brooder, etc).
I recommend you have 2 incubators (one for an incubator and one for a hatcher). This will help if you have several different hatch dates in one incubator. On day 18 place the eggs over into the hatcher incubator. Then add water and you're good to go. We like to hatch at about 65-70%.
