incubation experiment 

I used to have a desk lamp that got very hot. I was going to toss it as a fire hazard but decided to run an experiment. It was a gooseneck lamp so I could put it at a distance that made the temp about 100 degrees. I put two eggs in a towel. I can't remember if I even turned those eggs, but 21 days later I had a chick. The other egg never developed, but that chick turned out to be a fine chicken. It just goes to show that we worry way too much about all this stuff. We're probably fussing our chicks to death.

I keep watching these videos that apparently no one had read the instructions. Please read the instructions that come with the incubators. There shouldn’t be an egg in the turner next to the motor. The pointy end needs to go towards the center in the NR360, the vent also needs to be opened. And, FYI, do not trust the thermometer/hygrometer on the incubators.

One reason why your hatch rate was so low is because your air flow dial was not open all the way during lockdown. They can die of too much CO2 if there’s not enough airflow.

Glad that I watched your video from beginning to end. I will do the "dry run" for the first 15 days with quail eggs and add water during the last 3 days.

Great video. I didn't mind the length of the video at all as you weren't just babbling on. Your info was concise. I'm doing my first dry/dry version right now and your results are encouraging!

It's hard work learning how to be a decent hen. Thanks for doing the comparative and good catch on the air vent Cosette. I'm on day one of my next batch in my home made incubator without any fancy features. I'll be going the driest ever. I keep getting fully developed chicks who just don't hatch (big eggs from a big hen who is a poor layer) and it's heart breaking.

Wow!!! Thank you for such an informative video! It would be great to do another experiment with the same type of incubator and have them all run at the same time.

Great Video! I am on my second year of hatching. I did a dry/wet run last year with a 50% hatch rate. I will do a full dry run this year. Thank you for showing opening the eggs at the end. I haven't seen that done before.

I'm going into this for the first time with an 18 egg run and from the three videos I've seen I had already planned on doing a dry run and wondered why water was being added at the end. Something told me to keep on researching and 3 videos in and I find yours. Full dry run it is. Thanks!

With the nurture right 360. It may say the temp is 99.5 but unless you have a temp/hydrometer inside . It maybe off like mine is. And we know temp is crucial

Great video,just wish I watched one day sooner, I had just started a batch of eggs the day before,with water,After seeing the video I decided to let it dry out and see what happens in the past I have struggled to get even close To 50% hatch and that with almost as many died in the shell as made it out with minimal success trying to help the ones that couldn’t make it out

I'm so glad I found this video! I've been doing the standard 57% humidity for 2 years. Every hatch has been disappointing. I'm going to try the dry hatch next spring and see how it does. I've been so OCD about the humidity. Maybe I just need to basically let nature do it's thing. Thank you for a very informative video 💚

I so excited as I started my dry incubation yesterday and I found this video today !! I’m really so thrilled with your dry hatch rate and the dry 17 and on lockdown added the water! So impressive! No more water ones! Your the second person vouching for this! Now I’m all set! I can sleep at night!!! 😂

Very interesting experiment, and very helpful for me who just starting this hatching event. Thanks for the effort to go through this.

Loved watching this! I just realized today, to reset this incubator press the power and minus button and hold it for a few seconds

I look at it like what does nature do? Does mother hen regulate the humidity? I think not. Does mother chicken buy specialized chick feed for her chicks? I think not.

There was a study done about incubators. You need to have a separate thermometer to ensure that it's putting out the right. Temperature. Many of them were really 2° below 98°.

I just started a experiment for dry hatching quail eggs. I'm actually trying to hatch freshly gathered eggs as well as a couple that were in actually in my refrigerator all using the dry hatch method. Excited to see how the eggs do over the next few weeks. Thanks for the video!

Thank u sir for doing this comparison.. I salute you for your effort and time... Keep safe. God bless...

BADASS VIDEO! Never understood why the norm says 50 to 70% humidity. That does not happen in nature, and broody chickens still have chicks in dry climate......If anything the humidity creates unwanted bacteria.

I have found that with the standard hatching we find chicks drowned! Not shrink wrapped. We did have 1 shrink wrapped chick on our very first hatch and saved it. But our other hatches we found zero shrink wrapped and several drowned from the humidity. I am currently doing a dry hatch test run myself. Thank you so much for this video! We absolutely love hatching chicks and our hatch rates are typically 80%+ but I aiming for at least 95%+ from all viable eggs that go into lockdown.

A thought came and I'm not an expert, but we had 10 eggs, 1 viable chick. filled it right up for lock down, anyway. 2% between dry and hybrid is close to equal, so the water at the end in lock down didn't matter, in addition the lid isn't being opened, for those 3 days. I feel that during the 18 days, you get fluxations in temperature and humidity with the lid being opened to candle or take out the turner. Less of a concern when the same thing was done in the dry run, so the humidity and temperature drop combined is the culprit. Because people candle.

Sir,Thank you soo much gor this Informative experimantal Idea.I will try this dry one too.Lets hope for the best.Thank you sooo much sir.Withing for new video soon.

Dry incubation with never adding water is very hard to find information on & or videos done on it. I appreciate your video! I am running an experiment with dry incubation through day 21 using a brooder heat plate in a tote. I am rotating by hand but only put 10 in, so it's not too bad(like 40+ lol). This is my 1st time ever incubating as well. I am currently on day 4 as of this post & so far 8/10 show signs of life already(veining).

I just loaded my incubator, it’s monsoon season here so the ambient humidity in my house is 40% + and the room it’s in is warm. Fingers crossed on my first dry run.

You should've candled the eggs on day 10 and day 18 to see if they're fertile

We just finished our first batch of chicks, and did a fully dry hatch. We experienced a little hatching difficulty, probably due to low humidity. I believe next time we will try the hybrid method

Very interesting! I'm reaserching before my first try at incubating. So far I'm also in favor of a dry run. But I was wondering, has anybody actually stuck a recording hygrometer under a brooding chicken?

During lockdown leave the chicks in there and DONT open it until day 3 after the first chick hatches. Then quickly remove chicks. By checking the other eggs for pipping and helping chicks your risking shrink wrapping the rest. Which is probably what happened invthe nurture right 360. Humidity dropped from inqubator being open to long.

Thx for the all the work for this video. I have a Nurture Right and I measured the amt of water the first time I added water by watching the chambers fill as I added a cup. The "A" holds about 1/2 cup and the "B" holds about a cup. Not that this necessarily helps when I add water. I feel like having a level surface would disperse the water evenly.

Great video. Thanks gonna do this myself

Great experiment! My thought is that the shrink wrapped chick with the hole in it gave off just the right amount of humidity for the next in line to hatch and survive. It then tells the rest it's time to hatch then the humidity increases from all the wet chicks. I love it! Thanks for doing this!!!!!!! 🤙

First off if you use cheese cloth in the incubator’s it makes it Easer to clean and helps the eggs turning and prevents spradle legs! Biggest thing is to not open that lid until the hatch is over! Open to save one chick it shrink wraps the rest! Some of my best hatch’s were when I went to the movies! Also that many dead in shell un hatched chicks usually means to high humidity and they drown in shell! Also vent should be open all the way at hatch!

Put the bigger eggs in the “pro” with the smaller end toward the center. Just a observation. 🤷‍♀️🐣 Thank you for taking the time to video this it is worth a watch! I am on a maiden hatch now. Hopping for chicks too. But not going to be whipped if I don’t get any chicks..

Thank you Mr science man!! Lol. No seriously. I love a good experiment. I am a secret scientist myself. 😊

the last time I incubated eggs I had the humidity high all the way through I didn't get as many as I would have hoped after a lot of research apparently it is better to do a dry run right up to day 18 and then add water so I am trying this now and I will see how things go apparently on day 18 you do not add a lot of water you only need like half a cup this is my second attempt at Plymouth Rock black copper Moran Rhode Island Red add buff Orpington from what I have read basically what happens if you do a dry run it gives the chick the opportunity to grow inside the egg when you use water from day 1 it is absorbed through the egg It basically drowns the chick so from what they were saying on day 18 you add water to lift humidity to soften the Shell but no water can get in there because the chick has taken up all the room except for the air sack so adding water at day 18 will basically lift the humidity anywhere from 70 to 75% which will ensure that the sack is moist and the eggshell become softer so the chick can hatch according to what they were saying you do not open the incubator at all for 2 days you do not remove any chicks because they said as soon as you open the lid you automatically shrinkwrap the chicks that are still in the eggs

I'm doing my first dry run right now. Can't wait.

Thanks, this really helped me, great job! 🎉❤😊

Thankyou, I am so glad I watched this video! I am doing my first dry run , my last couple of incubations didn't go very well and I'm trying to hatch Seramas , they are a little tricky to hatch❤

We just finished incubating 22 eggs, on a [normal] method. Out of 22, 3 eggs were no go. 19 chicks are now in my living room as I'm typing this. My maran eggs were darker than yours so I did the same: let them be and crossed our fingers they wouldn't rot in the incubator. They all hatched. The other eggs were from Ameraucanas (blue) and Wyandottes (tan). All Ameraucanas except 1 hatched. We didn't put too many wyandotte eggs in incubator since we have too many already (and I don't like their personality). 2 of the wyandotte eggs failed. In Oct I incubated 1 wyandotte egg that was abandoned by a fake-broody hen (she went on/off broody). I used only 40w bulb in a dish washing plastic tub, lined with a towel, in my office - so I can turn the 3-4x every day. It hatched! But it's a boy and he didn't have siblings or any other chick the same size so after a few weeks in socializing cage, we gave him away with someone who bought 2 roosters from us.

Thank you very much for sharing this!

I want to continue raising my Barred Rocks and black copper maran mix and I’m in Ocoee Florida

It seems to me that when the eggs are under their mama, she is not adjusting the humidity. Where did all these procedures come from?

My 360 says you have to reset after each batch factory reset

I feel like this would be more accurate if all trial runs were using the same incubator, turner,,, I am trying a dry run now on my nurture right with my bantams before I receive my shipped hatching maran eggs. I've heard they do better with dry hatch and I've never heard of this til now so I'm scrambling to do my research!

50:08 Damn straight. I it was a humidity issue that all should be dead. I have seen a lot of folks doing the dry hatch with the same results... better than the wet hatch... so it should be tested hatch after hatch. Mine were doing the same thing.. I had to help out half at times.... right up to the pp and just can't function getting out. I will be doing this test from her on out.

Do you know what the humidity was in the incubator during the dry run? I imagine it will be different depending on where you live and the time of year. It would have been good to have a hygrometer in the dry incubator to see where the humidity stood throughout. I'm going to try it based on your results but will not let it go below about 30% for the first 18 and see what happens. Thanks for the great experiment!

FyI the dark eggs may not do well if incubated at 50% humidity. Marans need to evaporate and their shells are so thick that they need the dry hatch. A dry hatch usually means keeping it 25-30% humidity.

Rooster needed to get busy.. that was weird that the standard had so many nothing.

Ok so I know you weren't doing a full on scientific experiment but it would not be too hard to modify it to remove the other variables. 1. use the same type of incubator for all three runs. Ideally all starting at a the same time but if not then just don't use a different style of incubator and run the experiment in series. 2. Make sure you have the same style of egg turner for all three runs. That is a huge variable that you introduced. 3. Try to have roughly the same sample size for each run. Having only 7 viable eggs in your traditional run breaks the statistics completely.

I'm curious if those larger eggs were able to be turned properly by the turner.

Very interesting!

It’s possible that the egg turner was the factor. You used the one egg turner in the beginning of the dry run and you didn’t like the Turner in the wet one. The hybrid got the dry’s turner later in the process. I’m guessing that the dry egg turner does a good job and that it’s most important for the first several days. I’ve never hatched chicks so this is just a big guess.

Thnx so much bro I'm learning as m a new to incubation

Why don't you put a very small piece of dry ice so you can? See the water. Level.

You cant candle eggs with the lights on you cant see inside the eggs

Very interesting what was the hatch ratio on dates on eggs, from fresh lay to older ones please

I have not seen some ad water that late before. But i have seen some remove the water by day 18

Mind if I ask? Why did you have to remove the egg turner from the first white square box to the 2nd white square box? Why didn’t each one come with its own egg turner? This was so very interesting. Great job!

There's a lady that says that she runs the driy at a 103. She's been doing it for 4 years. I've had good results

Oh lord thought you lived in Ozark achers in Arkansas

First you may be into something but your experiment did have several flaws. Biggest is you can’t commit percentages with different sample numbers. Example if I only had 1 viable egg and it hatched, I couldn’t claim 100% hatch rate. If you want true comparisons sample size should be the same and preferably 30 and repeatable for good statistics. However you did prove a very interesting point, is humility really as important as they say. Other recommendations on a true experiment would be using the same style incubator.

I'm happy with my 50 to 75% hatch rate......

I have done the same thing you have and ninety-nine per-cent of its incubators pull the trigger get a Sportsman 1502 I get 100% hatch rate the last two times and out of 35 eggs I only had one that didn't hatch I've had the Sportsman 1502 for about 2 years and I never shut it off you want good hatch rates buy a good incubator

Your supposed to raise the humidity at day 18 in your dry hatch run.

I have been hatching eggs for years . I never heard of the double stack method . some girl did it on RU-vid but it was the dry method and didn't turn her eggs it went bad . but could you do it the normal way and hand turn . this is a real test . I think it would work if people did it with water and turn them every day . or is it to close to the heater ???????

I would say there was something wrong with your 360 because all your eggs came from the same hens and roosters

Great experiment. I have 60 eggs and trying the dry run. I have a question, what's your advise on still air or fan?

Travis I hear you I accept, you talking over me, I accept this frequency I accept and acknowledged our Lord, Jesus our Christ, I love you brother Travis.

Is the first incubator a forced air or still air incubator ?

The 360 several eggs didn't turn correctly because the eggs were too big

it might be because those incubators seem a lot like souped up food dehydrators lmfao.

Her in my living room 50 to 60 % is normal

All I ever do is dry hatch

My 360 I had 61% plus one died during pipping. One underdeveloped and the rest unfertile.

:)

You need a different rooster

Got to be a record everything not to do in one video

why are you doing this from the floor ?