Doing it wrong (so you don't have to)

To those new to incubating. Don't do as I do. Please read Hatching 101. The information there is eggselent. I am making mistakes intentionally!

I've been very quiet on here lately, but decided to do a fun hatch.  I'm going to make mistakes, not do things by the book and generally mess up. All for science.

the incubator: a Janoel24 I got off ebay cheap last year.  Probably a copy, I don't know. it reads in C. I did modify it by taping a Chinese food lid with slits cut in it over the fan to disperse the airflow.  Last year i loaned this to someone and it's been sitting in my barn for months.  I shook the dirt out of it, no cleaning. Its sitting next to my easy chair on a table next to a window (curtains closed), above a heater in a room with a woodstove.  Temperature in this room fluctuates from 55-75 on a regular basis.

The thermometer: a $10 accurite from a big box store that kinda works, but some of the digits don't totally display.Not calibrated. It says accurite, doesn't it? 

The Hydrometer: What's that?  ok, there is one in the thermometer, but most of the digits don't display.not calibrated anyway.

The eggs:  From my albino project.  Never checked for fertility or hatched from this group before. I rooster, six hens.  I gather the eggs once a day and some of them are cold.  I let them lay on a pile of clothes on my dryer. i flip them around if I think about it. Today is Wednesday. I have three days worth of eggs (8)  I'll probably set the eggs Friday.

Let's see if I can get anything to hatch!


My apologies to everyone that knows the mistakes I'm making!

How many are you planning on setting in total?

Whatever I gather by Friday at whatever time I decide to set. Probably be around a dozen.

I have incubated before, quite a bit actually, chickens, quail and Turkey. I just thought it would be fun to document if any hatch with improper treatment.

Wow... That will be interesting. Can't wait to follow and see how you do. Make sure and post photos. I'm at the "end" of day 21 for 7 eggs I have in a Brinsea Mini Advance. They are eggs my friend bought from ebay. Not well packaged and most were broken. The ones that were not broken had egg gunk all over them. We wiped them down and decided to see what would happen. She also brought over a few of her own eggs to fill up the Brinsea. I found a pip this morning but nothing is happening since. Just a tiny crack on one egg. The others are doing nothing. My dad use to incubate in a LG and had pretty good results. This is the first group I have done and I find myself worried that more haven't piped and the one has stopped. Biting nails today..

Don't give up! They don't always take 21 days, various factors can affect it. Make sure you have plenty of humidity and wait. They frequently rest after a pip. Getting out of an egg is hard work.

Good luck on your hatch. The accurite thermometers I got from a big box store stopped working on lockdown. (It started working again once it came out of the bator.) It really didn't like the added humidity. Also both of mine read about 10% low on humidity.

Plugged in the incubator yesterday to get it stable. Temp on my thermometer read 95 last 8 hours later. I decided to remove my baffle and give the fan full airflow. Still at 95 this morning.

I raised the set point on degree C.

If you've never seen one of these incubators, they are plastic, no insulation. They turn the eggs by rolling them in a horizontal position.



The only ventilation is a small hole on to that can be opened or closed. Some for size reference.


Water is added through two holes in the bottom into molded in channels.


Settings consist of a temperature control pad. The fan runs continuously, even during lockdown.

I did remember to turn my eggs that are sitting on the dryer last night.

Hopefully I'll be able to get the temperature high enough. The built in thermostat is way off.

Eggs collected to date haphazardly stored on a pile of clothes.


Pointy end? What pointy end?

Lesson #1

Don't trust the built in thermometer/thermostat. I raised the set point to 38.5°C and the thermometer ( two actually) are reading around 99°F sitting on the bottom. Since this is forced air, I'll go with that.

This explains why someone who borrowed this unit last year got 2/20 hatch rate.

Okay... I'm excited to say that last night between 10 pm and 2:00 am two of the chicks hatched. I haven't been able to get them out ot the Brinsea yet because 3 more piped and now I'm waiting on them. Ugg... why couldn't they all have a synchronized hatch?