Has anyone tried dry incubation and does it work well? And a sexlink breeding question.

[talkinboutchickens]

Hey all.....
Well I'm about to start my hatching in a few weeks (~2-4 more weeks) but I'm kinda on the fence about what type of hatch I should do. I heard that with wet hatching (normal hatch method) the hatch rate is lower and more chicks get splayed legs, whereas if you do the dry hatch method, the hatch rate is way higher and very little to no chicks get splayed legs. Is this true and have any of you done a dry hatch before? I am also hoping that with dry hatching it's simpler, because I'm just a beginner at this. And what exactly is the ambient humidity? Is it just the natural humidity in the air?
This is the video that I'm going off of.

And a random question regarding sexlinked chickens, they say that you can breed a barred female with a non-barred male to make a sexlinked chicken, so can the non-barred male be any breed I want that's not barred? Anything? So for instance an olive egger rooster and barred rock hen's offspring will be sexlinked? Easy as that? And I'm assuming that the males of all combinations will have dots on their heads?

Thank you!!!!

 

[CloneFly]

Hey all.....
Well I'm about to start my hatching in a few weeks (~2-4 more weeks) but I'm kinda on the fence about what type of hatch I should do. I heard that with wet hatching (normal hatch method) the hatch rate is lower and more chicks get splayed legs, whereas if you do the dry hatch method, the hatch rate is way higher and very little to no chicks get splayed legs. Is this true and have any of you done a dry hatch before? I am also hoping that with dry hatching it's simpler, because I'm just a beginner at this. And what exactly is the ambient humidity? Is it just the natural humidity in the air?
This is the video that I'm going off of.

And a random question regarding sexlinked chickens, they say that you can breed a barred female with a non-barred male to make a sexlinked chicken, so can the non-barred male be any breed I want that's not barred? Anything? So for instance an olive egger rooster and barred rock hen's offspring will be sexlinked? Easy as that? And I'm assuming that the males of all combinations will have dots on their heads?

Thank you!!!!

Following

 

[killmak]

I do dry hatching but I use homemade incubators so it is hard to compare my hatch rates to people with proper incubators. I keep humidity at 15-25% until lockdown then raise it to 60-70%. I had some issues with my last hatch though as I couldn't get the humidity about 45-50% in my newest built incubator. I had a 70% hatch rate and usually have about 75-80% hatch rate with dry hatch. Out of about 80 chicks I have hatched this way I have only had 1 splayed leg and it was in a failure to thrive chick that had pasty butt as well.

 

[NatJ]

And what exactly is the ambient humidity? Is it just the natural humidity in the air?

Yes, ambient humidity is the natural humidity in the air, what you get when you have not done anything to change it.

And a random question regarding sexlinked chickens, they say that you can breed a barred female with a non-barred male to make a sexlinked chicken, so can the non-barred male be any breed I want that's not barred? Anything? So for instance an olive egger rooster and barred rock hen's offspring will be sexlinked? Easy as that?

Yes, it pretty much is as easy as that.

But you do need to be sure the male has no barring. I would not recommend using a white male, because white feathers can hide white barring. And a very pale-colored male (like Lavender or some Buffs) may also be hard to check.

And I'm assuming that the males of all combinations will have dots on their heads?

Um, usually but not always. It depends on the color of the chicks.

The light dot shows up clearly on the heads of black chicks. It is a little harder to see on blue chicks. You probably cannot see it on splash or white chicks, and I wouldn't make any bets about finding it on buff chicks either.

Chicks with chipmunk stripes do not seem to show the dot well at all (example: Cream Legbar and Bielefelder pullet chicks do have the barring gene, but no light dot on their head.)

There are other colors of chicks where I don't know if the dot will be visible or not.

But with a Barred Rock hen, you can use most colors of rooster and not have a problem. She will give the genes to make black chicks, plus barring for her sons. A white rooster will often cause the chicks to be white, but most other colors of rooster will leave the chicks black. (Buff, red, black & silver pattern, black & gold pattern: all of these rooster colors are fine. The blue gene, khaki/dun gene, or chocolate gene could change the black of the chicks to a lighter color, but I think with a Barred Rock mother all chicks should still be dark enough that you can see the dot on the male's head and the lack of dot on the females.)

 

[GlicksChicks]

I use a Nurture Right 360 Incubator. I tried a normal hatch and got 14/21 alive. I tried the dry hatch and got 18/22 alive so I would personally recommend dry hatching.

 

[talkinboutchickens]

I use a Nurture Right 360 Incubator. I tried a normal hatch and got 14/21 alive. I tried the dry hatch and got 18/22 alive so I would personally recommend dry hatching.

That's awesome, do you think it was more simple than the normal wet hatch?

 

[Ridgerunner]

they say that you can breed a barred female with a non-barred male to make a sexlinked chicken, so can the non-barred male be any breed I want that's not barred? Anything? So for instance an olive egger rooster and barred rock hen's offspring will be sexlinked? Easy as that? And I'm assuming that the males of all combinations will have dots on their heads?

Read the first post in this very long thread to get a good explanation of sex links.

Sex- linked Information | BackYard Chickens - Learn How to Raise Chickens

There are two requirements to making sex linked chicks identifiable at hatch. The results have to show up and you need to be able to see them. With any barred hen and non-barred the boys will have the barring gene and the girls will not. But with down color you can't always see the dot on the boys head. On a white chicken you will never see the barring. On many chickens you can see barring when they start to feather out even if you can't see the spot at hatch.

 

[Moon Daizy]

Hey all.....
Well I'm about to start my hatching in a few weeks (~2-4 more weeks) but I'm kinda on the fence about what type of hatch I should do. I heard that with wet hatching (normal hatch method) the hatch rate is lower and more chicks get splayed legs, whereas if you do the dry hatch method, the hatch rate is way higher and very little to no chicks get splayed legs. Is this true and have any of you done a dry hatch before? I am also hoping that with dry hatching it's simpler, because I'm just a beginner at this. And what exactly is the ambient humidity? Is it just the natural humidity in the air?
This is the video that I'm going off of.

And a random question regarding sexlinked chickens, they say that you can breed a barred female with a non-barred male to make a sexlinked chicken, so can the non-barred male be any breed I want that's not barred? Anything? So for instance an olive egger rooster and barred rock hen's offspring will be sexlinked? Easy as that? And I'm assuming that the males of all combinations will have dots on their heads?

Thank you!!!!

Thanks for this. I watched the video you shared, and then watched these, which I also found interesting.

She suggests using the dry method if you live in a humid place (like I do!), and the shoelace method if you live somewhere more dry.

Hope these help. I am also going to be incubating chicks for the first time soon! I wish you every success!

 

[GlicksChicks]

That's awesome, do you think it was more simple than the normal wet hatch?

I definitely think so. You don't have to monitor water at all untik the last 3 days. During lockdown is when you add water, and with my Nurture Right 360 I only had to add water to it on day 18 and didn't have to add water since.
It also seemed that the chicks developed faster and hatched easier. The dry hatch, I think, mimics the natural hatching more closely than wet hatching.

 

[Huntmaster]

That's awesome, do you think it was more simple than the normal wet hatch?

I would say that would have to do with the ambient temps you are incubating in. If very high ambient humidity your incubator may run at around 30% without adding water. If incubating in a very low ambient humidity % you will have to add water to get to 30%. Most folks that dry hatch is because they are in areas of very high ambient humidities, and their incubators humidity runs around that 30% without adding water or very little. Also, water surface area in incubator is what determines humidity % not the amount of water added.