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

[talkinboutchickens]

Does the greenhouse stay around the same temperature and humidity all the time? You do not want big fluctuations during development.
The place I live is pretty dry so I was surprised for it to get up to 25-30%.

Where I live it's warm during the day (during Summer) and cool at night, so yes, the greenhouse tends to get cooler during the night, but maybe I can fix that by increasing the temp at night????

The place I live is pretty dry so I was surprised for it to get up to 25-30%.

Oh phew that gives me more hope. Oh wait.....Hold on....... I looked up my state's humidity levels and Google says that my state is "humid continental" with humidity levels of 32.38%. I thought it was dry here, but I guess I was wrong! I thought it was dry here due to my dry hands in the Winter.

 

[GlicksChicks]

Where I live it's warm during the day (during Summer) and cool at night, so yes, the greenhouse tends to get cooler during the night, but maybe I can fix that by increasing the temp at night????

Oh phew that gives me more hope. Oh wait.....Hold on....... I looked up my state's humidity levels and Google says that my state is "humid continental" with humidity levels of 32.38%. I thought it was dry here, but I guess I was wrong! I thought it was dry here due to my dry hands in the Winter.

I thought it was more dry here than it turned out as well but my incubator proved me wrong.

The way to help fight fluctuating temperatures is to wrap a towel around your incubator, but be sure not to cover up ventilation holes. This should insulate your incubator better.

What kind of incubator are you going to use?

 

[Moon Daizy]

Sorry to jump in, but hopefully this might help someone else, too

My incubator arrived this morning, so after washing / disinfecting and then drying it, I set it up with two shop-bought-eating eggs (to test the turn table). First of all, I did it 'dry' and let it be for an hour or so. It is a cold, damp and rainy day today, so I was expecting the humidity to be fairly high. But it wasn't! It was 23%....! (I have a second thermometer and hygrometer arriving in the post tomorrow, which I will calibrate with salt and pop in as a second reading).

So I have set it up with a water dripper, which is filled with distilled water - and have let it sit for an hour. The humidity has gone up to 40%. The instructions on the incubator say to use one water bottle for the first 18 days of incubation. The incubator comes with a second water bottle and a fine misting spray bottle (warm water!) to increase the humidity for the lockdown phase.

My question is - what would you think is better humidity for the start - 23% or 40%? And if 23%, do you gradually increase the humidity up to 70/80% or just go for it??


I was thinking of doing the dry method, but now I'm thinking I'll go with the water bottle (& try to trust the instructions!) if it keeps it around 40%. I guess my main concern is bacteria..... warm and wet seems really unnatural, and not at all like the dry, soft feathery brood patch I imagine under a mother hen....

 

[Ridgerunner]

My question is - what would you think is better humidity for the start - 23% or 40%? And if 23%, do you gradually increase the humidity up to 70/80% or just go for it??

For many different reasons different humidities work best for different people. Some people do well at lower humidities, others do better at relatively high humidities.

What matters is how much total moisture is lost during the incubation. If too much is lost or not enough then you are not likely to have a good hatch. Mother Nature was good to us in that she made a fairly wide range of humidities work, but there are limits.

The situation changes when you go into lockdown. The problem there is not how much total moisture you lose through the porous shell. The main problem is that if the humidity is too low when the chick external pips it can become shrink wrapped. The membrane around it dries out and shrinks to where the chick cannot move to hatch. Not every chick will become shrink wrapped if the humidity is low, again Mother Nature was pretty kind to us and gave a range, but the risk is high enough that the manufacturers warn us to raise humidity during lockdown.

Not all eggs hatch on exactly 21 days. Often they can hatch a full day or even two days early or late and do fine. That's why lockdown starts after 18 days of incubation, to be ready for the early hatchers. Again, there can be many different reasons for this. Mother Nature has helped us out here too. For example, before they hatch a healthy chick absorbs the yolk. It can live off of the nutrition and moisture in that yolk for over 72 hours in case it needs to wait on a late chick to hatch.

My suggestion is to determine a humidity and be as consistent as you can in maintaining that humidity. The manufacturers recommendations might be a good place to start. Keep records. It's average humidity that counts, not an instantaneous humidity. If your water reservoir runs dry the humidity can drop. As long as that is for a short time, no big deal. Sometimes the humidity may go up, either because you spilled water when filling your reservoir or maybe the background conditions changed. If something like that happens I may run it with low humidity to get to an average.

Evaluate your hatch. See how many hatch. Open unhatched eggs to see if you can determine why it did not hatch. If necessary tweak your humidity for the next hatch. This is what the professions that may hatch 1,000,000 chicks each week do when they get a new incubator or even move one to a new location in the same incubation room.

I'll link a couple of charts that may help you on your assessment.


Trouble Shooting Failures with Egg Incubation | Mississippi State University Extension Service (msstate.edu)

Common Incubation Problems: Causes and Remedies (ucanr.edu)

I guess my main concern is bacteria..... warm and wet seems really unnatural, and not at all like the dry, soft feathery brood patch I imagine under a mother hen....

Bacteria is a concern. If bacteria gets inside the egg incubation temperature is the perfect temperature for bacteria to grow. Scientists use raw egg as a great food to culture bactea. Before I start incubating I sterilize the incubator with a weak bleach solution. After incubation I clear it well to get rid of residue.

Only set clean eggs. I don't worry of it has a light dusting on it but do not set eggs that have clumps of dried poop or mud. Do not wash your eggs before incubation. One of the last things a hen does when she lays an egg is to put a wet coating of what we call bloom on it. That's why a just laid egg may look wet. The bloom quickly dries and is a great barrier to keep bacteria out while letting that porous shell breathe in fresh air for the developing chick. So don't wash the eggs or use sandpaper to remove clumps. Just don't set dirty eggs to start with.

A chicken can lay eggs in a hidden nest for two weeks and then hatch them without bacteria getting inside. Some poultry like geese, ducks, or turkeys can incubate for four or five weeks after laying a brood without bacteria getting inside, the bloom is that good.

For what it is worth, studies have shown that a broody hen can control the humidity under her.

 

[talkinboutchickens]

But common sense would tell me the greenhouse might be a bit risky, as the temperature might fluctuate too much. Does it get really hot in there?

Yes, it does.... It can get really hot, but only like in the Spring and especially the Summer, so yes, it is probably not a good idea.....

I would aim for humidity of a minimum of 30%, and start misting the eggs / increasing the humidity from day 18 onwards to help them break out of their shells.

Oh, so I can probably get a spray bottle from Dollar Tree. So basically misting the eggs on lockdown kinda substitutes the moisture that they would get from wet hatching, is that correct???

My incubator will arrive today and my eggs will arrive next week !!!

Ooh yay I'm so excited for you!!!!!!! What breed(s) are you getting and where from?????

 

[talkinboutchickens]

I thought it was more dry here than it turned out as well but my incubator proved me wrong.

The way to help fight fluctuating temperatures is to wrap a towel around your incubator, but be sure not to cover up ventilation holes. This should insulate your incubator better.

What kind of incubator are you going to use?

That towel trick sounds cool, I'll keep it in mind.

I am going to be using a MeeF incubator. I hope that the motor doesn't quit on me in the middle of hatching because I guess this incubator is notorious for that, according to the Amazon reviews.

 

[talkinboutchickens]

Keep us posted with how you get on!

Yes I totally will, I will have a hatch-along as well if you'd like to join! I'm going to be doing it in about 2-4 weeks from now. The theme is sweets. It can be any dessert or candy name that you can think of! This hatch-along is going to be a mixed-breed edition. The last time I hatched, the chicks were mostly different shades of gray with white spots, but I did also get 2 brahma mixes which were adorable.

 

[GlicksChicks]

That towel trick sounds cool, I'll keep it in mind.

I am going to be using a MeeF incubator. I hope that the motor doesn't quit on me in the middle of hatching because I guess this incubator is notorious for that, according to the Amazon reviews.

I really hope that does not happen, that would be horrible!

 

[talkinboutchickens]

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.

Do you know why a black sexlink is black when it's parents are a barred rock and a Rhode island red???

 

[Ridgerunner]

Off the top of my head I can't remember which of the three potential "red" genes for baseline body color is used for Rhode Island Reds. It doesn't matter. The Barred Rock is baseline Extended Black which is dominant against any of the three baseline reds. Black is dominant so what you see if Black. It is very possible you will see some red leakage which means you might see a few red feathers but both boys and girls should basically be solid black.