When it comes to hatching eggs using an incubator you will often see recommendations for the needed humidity level for ensuring a successful hatch. Humidity is the concentration of moisture in the air. Humidity levels affect softness of the membrane that a chick needs to break through as part of the hatching process and also impacts the size of the air cell that a chick needs to breathe. For some, they like to use what is called the dry incubation method for incubating their hatching eggs.

Traditional Incubating and Hatching

First, to understand what the dry incubation method is, we should go over traditional hatching.

The traditional method states that the incubator humidity level should be 40-50% during the first 18 days of incubation for chicken eggs. The final 3 days, also known as lockdown, the humidity levels are raised to 60-65% until the hatch is complete. It is important to keep your incubator closed during lockdown. Each time you lift the lid, even for a few moments, you are causing a sudden exchange of humidity levels between your incubator and the ambient humidity level of the room.

Dry Incubation Method

The dry incubation method pretty much is what it sounds like it is. It is incubating without adding any extra water to the incubator for the duration of your hatch as long as the natural humidity stays at least 15%.

It is important to stay at least 15% for proper embryonic development. Too low of humidity can result in a chick that is undersized and/or being too weak to be able to peck out of the shell when it is time to hatch. That said, when it is time for hatching, it is important to still raise the humidity up to around 60%-65% during the lock down period just as it is with the traditional incubation method.

In my own experience, the dry incubation method increased my hatch rate from 60% up to averaging 85%. During a normal hatching process, an egg is going to lose about 13% of its weight. Part of this aids in the creation of some space for hatching to take place. Running high humidity will cause the egg to absorb additional moisture, which can result in the chick “drowning” instead of hatching. This is often the case when your egg does not hatch, but you pop it open and otherwise find that the chick was fully developed.

Are you struggling to understand what may have gone wrong with your hatch?  Check out our Help Desk articles Incubation Troubleshooting and Hatching Egg Issues: Possible Causes and Corrections.