chickmomma03
Songster
I had a homemade incubator and everything was going fine (first incubation ever). I was using a plastic bin, and modified it for incubation. I think my humidity must have been too high because the outer membrane was thick (so thick you couldn't even see through it at all) and there was fluid in the egg (which didn't look mucky/murky or anything, no defects to chicken, yolk sac, etc). The poor duckie died never being able to pip through the membrane (wasn't shrink wrapped or anything either, nothing unusual during eggtopsy otherwise). Duckie was overdue for hatch, and I should have just broken the top membrane yesterday morning when I wanted to to create an air hole so duckie didn't drown, I'm kicking myself for it now.
I bought a styrofoam cooler today so I can make an incubator for next attempt. I have to make sure I have everything I need. I don't have hardware cloth so I was wondering if anything else is acceptable to use in place of it to keep duckling away from the light bulb, I have chicken wire, or can I put the bulb at the top rather than the side? I looked up some videos on youtube, but would prefer personal experience. I have a heat lamp that has a removable metal shield, I was trying to decide whether to keep it on or take it off.
If it would help for me to take some pictures of the items I have I can do that. I have heard about using a plastic cooler, but I don't have one that I can cut/drill through that would offer enough venting. I also need to know about vent holes. I was looking into the ones where you put the glass from a picture frame on the lid for your viewing window. I don't really have much money to buy other supplies. I have a digital thermometer with hygrometer, but I think the hygrometer was off. I don't know what a wet bulb is, someone told me I should buy one, but I can't find what it even is in order to see if I can buy or not. Any advice is appreciated.
I can't afford to invest in a decent incubator yet, and I want to make sure that I want to continue to incubate before fully investing.
Also, I live in North Carolina in a pretty warm/humid area. Are there months that you shouldn't incubate/hatch? Do ducks continue to lay all year? The ducks are my neighbor's but I have full permissions to check for eggs so my son and I can incubate again (we were doing it for a science project and she was going to take over care if I decided not to keep the duckling).
I'm not ready quite yet to try again because I'm still upset from the loss, but I'm going to try to be ready again really soon because my son really wanted to.
I bought a styrofoam cooler today so I can make an incubator for next attempt. I have to make sure I have everything I need. I don't have hardware cloth so I was wondering if anything else is acceptable to use in place of it to keep duckling away from the light bulb, I have chicken wire, or can I put the bulb at the top rather than the side? I looked up some videos on youtube, but would prefer personal experience. I have a heat lamp that has a removable metal shield, I was trying to decide whether to keep it on or take it off.
If it would help for me to take some pictures of the items I have I can do that. I have heard about using a plastic cooler, but I don't have one that I can cut/drill through that would offer enough venting. I also need to know about vent holes. I was looking into the ones where you put the glass from a picture frame on the lid for your viewing window. I don't really have much money to buy other supplies. I have a digital thermometer with hygrometer, but I think the hygrometer was off. I don't know what a wet bulb is, someone told me I should buy one, but I can't find what it even is in order to see if I can buy or not. Any advice is appreciated.
I can't afford to invest in a decent incubator yet, and I want to make sure that I want to continue to incubate before fully investing.
Also, I live in North Carolina in a pretty warm/humid area. Are there months that you shouldn't incubate/hatch? Do ducks continue to lay all year? The ducks are my neighbor's but I have full permissions to check for eggs so my son and I can incubate again (we were doing it for a science project and she was going to take over care if I decided not to keep the duckling).
I'm not ready quite yet to try again because I'm still upset from the loss, but I'm going to try to be ready again really soon because my son really wanted to.
