Dry incubation: Raise your hatch rate by not adding water

Since it's chick hatching season I thought I'd talk about an incubation method that I've used for several years. It's called dry incubation and is pretty much exactly what it sounds like...incubating eggs without adding water to the water wells of the incubator.

Dry incubation method for chicken eggs

I know this is completely against all the incubation instructions you've read up until now, but many people who had low hatch rates switched to this method and swear their hatch rate skyrocketed. 

That is exactly why I first tried this incubation method years ago and I still use it all the time, although I do sometimes hatch chicks the regular way as a comparison.

The traditional incubation method calls for the humidity inside the incubator to be 40-50% during the first 18 days. With dry incubation you're going to allow the humidity level to get as low as 15% before you add any water. With both methods you're going to raise the humidity to around 60-65% during the lockdown period.

Related reading: Which incubator should you use?

Chick hatching, dry incubation

Room humidity and incubation


When incubating eggs, it's important to note that the incubator is affected by the humidity level of the room it's in. If you live in a very humid climate or your incubator is in a room with higher humidity like a bathroom or kitchen, it affects the humidity level inside the incubator also. 

A good hygrometer is essential to knowing exactly what the humidity inside your incubator is. 

To get a little more technical: during the first 18 days of incubation an egg should lose around 13% of its weight. (no matter which incubation method you use) That is all moisture loss. 

If an egg does not lose enough moisture during incubation, when the chick pips internally the excess moisture causes them to drown. 

If you have a lot of eggs that develop all the way up to day 18, but don't hatch this could be your problem. 

Poultry Keeper: The most common reason for hatch failure is caused by too much humidity.

If you're experiencing low hatch rates, but the chicks are fully developed, the dry incubation method allows the egg to lose more moisture from inside the shell which prevents the chicks from drowning before hatch. 

Though it is the most reliable way to track moisture loss, most people don't weigh their eggs before and during incubation. If you candle your eggs a few times during incubation (I usually do day 3, 10 and 18) you'll notice the air cell getting bigger which indicates moisture loss. 


Now here's the tricky part, you only want the eggs to lose 13% of their weight and no more. If the humidity in the incubator is too low and too much moisture is lost, the chick will be too small and weak to hatch. Obviously you don't want that to happen either.

Here's an image to show how an egg should look at day 18 with proper incubator humidity. Both the high humidity egg and low humidity egg would have difficulty hatching.

Incubation humidity effect on hatching eggs

Dry Incubation Method


I keep my incubator humidity around 15-30%. I add a little bit of water when it gets down to 15% and try to never let it get above 30% during the first 18 days of incubation and that works perfectly for me. Consult the hygrometer often!

On day 18 candle and replace viable eggs in incubator, then raise humidity to 60-65% for remainder of hatch period. Do not open incubator during hatch/lockdown for risk of chicks becoming shrink wrapped.  

If you live in a humid area, you may need to have a dehumidifier in the room the incubator is kept in. If you live in an arid area, you may have to add water to the incubator more often to keep the humidity in the right zone. 

That is applicable no matter what incubation method you use!

I have spoke to some people who have tried this method and it either didn't seem to work for them or made no difference in their hatch rate. Always use what works best for you, and if you're getting a good hatch rate with the traditional incubation method, then stick with that! 

If however, you are having hatching problems that could be attributed to humidity levels, then dry incubation may be the answer to those problems!

If you think you may have a hard time keeping track of egg turning, I created an incubation tracker and it's available on Etsy

~L

Here's a complete list of incubation and hatching terms and definitions in case I mentioned anything you're unfamiliar with.

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33 comments:

  1. Thanks for your help. I have lost a great deal of time and money trying to hatch rare breeds. I will try this and follow up with my results.

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    1. You're welcome! I hope it works out for you!

      Lisa

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  2. We have lost more than we have hatched and almost all seemed fine till around day 18. I am going to give this a try as no other tweaking or explanation has solved it for us. Thanks!

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  3. I raise chickens in the carrebean during the summer months when I go for vacation and the incubator humidity is always about 40% without any added water. I’m getting about 50-55% hatch rate. How can I lower the humidity?

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    1. You can run a dehumidifier in the room that the incubator is in. This will lower the humidity in the room and in the incubator. I do this sometimes in summer and it really works.

      Lisa

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  4. I have tried everything to get a better hatch rate 50% is the best I could get. I tried this way first try got 86% thanks you I am working on my 2nd hatch

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    1. That is awesome! I'm so glad to hear that your hatch rate improved!

      Lisa

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  5. I live in England and my little, 7 egg dome incubator is situated within a rabbit hutch within my kitchen (safety issues with my curious cats) what humidity do you recommend here?

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    1. It would be the same as it is here. You can allow the humidity to get as low as 15% during the first 18 days and raise the humidity to 60-65% for lockdown. The hutch is a great idea to keep the cats away.

      Lisa

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  6. Just ordered my little giant 11300 loaded and ready.
    I didnt add water my humidity is 40 percent I'm hoping for the best as this is my very 1st time hatching. Our 42 eggs include pure blk polish buff polish with Pirate our silver laced polish roo, red leghorns crossed with RIR, Ee cross red leghorn &
    Our partraige silkies and a couple frizzle eggs!
    🇨🇦🐞

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    Replies
    1. The first hatch is always so exciting! How did your hatch go?

      Lisa

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  7. Are there some chicken breeds that don’t do well with dry incubation?

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    1. Not that I have found. All breeds should be equal since they all have the same incubation and hatching rules.

      Lisa

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  8. Till day 18 my chicks are about 90 to 95% ok but at the end i get only 35 to 45% result. Most chicks unable to come out of sucks. Mostly die in eggs.

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    1. Are these your results with dry incubation? What are your humidity levels?

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  9. I got same problem going to try bator dry not time I'm having dead in shell

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    1. Try using this method for your next hatch and your hatch rate should increase.

      Lisa

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    2. I'm incubating in a 12600 mechine. The mechine has automatic water elements that adjust the humidity. Both my batches that i have hatched weren't a grate success. I have the same problem as the comments posted. During the incubating period is fine but during the lock down i get 25 to 30%.

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  10. How can you check the humidity inside the incubator? I got an incubator that only shows the temperature, the only way to check humidity is if the device is integrated to the system ( also no space to put one inside).
    Thank you,
    Glenda

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    1. Hi Glenda,
      You can buy a hygrometer at Walmart or Bed, Bath & Beyond. It will have a temperature and humidity setting. Just put that in your incubator and it will tell you what the humidity level is. Good luck with your hatch!

      Lisa

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  11. I haven't incubated for years but when I did it was in Western mass in late spring. I used a 24 egg styrofoam incubator with egg Turner and water reservoir. Never checked humidity just temp. Usually got 80% hatchbof healthy chicks EXCEPT when I tried Rumpless Auracaunas at least half of which died just before hatching - high mortality predicted in the variety.

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  12. How do I quickly get the humidity up on day 18? I made my own incubator in a styrofoam cooler. I have the temperature right and water bowls in there with the hygrometer and everything. Installing fan tomorrow. Eggs should arrive in the next couple days. The highest the humidity has gotten since I’ve had it running in the past
    24 hours is about 40% and that’s with a small bowl and a cup of water both in there. I’m concerned I won’t be able to get the humidity high enough during the lockdown.

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    1. You can add water to the water troughs of your incubator to increase humidity and if that isn't enough, add a wet sponge which usually helps! Be careful with water bowls as chicks are quite uncoordinated upon hatch and could stumble in and drown.

      Lisa

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  13. New to hatching, this is attempt #3, but

    Attempt#1 at dry hatch. I'm optimistic this will solve my problems.

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  14. hi im just wondering as im a new person to hatch eggs and would like to no if any 1 nos wen the airsac is at the pointy end or the flat end

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    1. Hi! The air sac is in the flatter end. The wide end. You want this end to point up because when the chick hatches they will pip into this part. If the egg is upside down when they do this, any moisture left in the egg will flow down (gravity) and could drown the chick.

      Lisa

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  15. my new incubators temp fluctuates between 37.4 /37.7 humidity holds well, will this fluctuation affect the hatch,time from 37.7 and back is about 7 mins.i have tried to reset but no different.tony.

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    1. Hi Tony,

      37.5 would be perfect. That being said, every incubator I've ever had experienced slight fluctuations as the heat turned on and off. These slight fluctuations can be tolerated by the developing eggs and shouldn't affect the development. However, I always recommend a test hatch with a new incubator using inexpensive eggs. Don't put expensive or rare eggs in until you're sure it's working right! Good luck!

      Lisa

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  16. Hello, I would like to thank you for this advice about dry hatching. I have just tried your method with 20 Araucana eggs. At day 18 I candled them and 3 had done nothing. All the rest looked good. At end of day 19 some were already pipping. By the end of day 21 I had 11 chicks. 6 eggs had chicks but they were dead in shell which often happens with the lethal gene. I am delighted and I want to ask if your advice applies to ducks? Thank you.

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    1. Yeay for 11 chicks!!!! I have lowered humidity during incubation slightly with ducks but not completely. Ducks do need a higher humidity thank chicks though so I'm not sure it would work the same. Let me know your results if you decide to try it.

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  17. Feeling fortunate to have stumbled upon this article where an incubation method requires humidity level between 15-30%.
    This is my sixth effort in trying to attain a good hatch rate. But the best hatch rate I could get was 22%. Some stats though: Male female ratio is 1:6. Have been using a 300 egg capacity incubator which has the chicken eggs laying on its side(not broad end up). Water pan is placed at the bottom of the incubator. Basically a setter and hatcher incubator type with three egg racks, each rack with a holding capacity of 100 eggs, each. There is no inbuilt hygrometer, but just a thermometer.
    So for comparison and knowledge of temperature and humidity I had placed an additional thermometer/hygrometer inside the incubator and test-run my incubator with the door opened, placed the additional thermometer/hygrometer, on the top egg rack, next to the temperature sensor and found that the temperature reading were alike. But when the door of the incubator was shut, everything constant, the temperature reading on the additional thermometer is less by 0.5°C.
    The second rack(middle rack) displays no difference while the third rack(bottom rack) is again less by 0.5°C. In all racks, humidity reads 30%
    This temperature difference is bewildering.
    Any suggestions please.

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