My intro to incubating - first build and first time incubating

[kallnojoy]

Nothing fancy or groundbreaking here, but wanted to share.

Gleaned most of the ideas from the various builds and threads here, so thanks all!

I do plan on building a larger/nicer cabinet style version later, but this should be fine in the interim - plus it was quick and cheap!

Did I mention it was cheap... and quick!?









Materials, mostly scavenged from around the house:

Cooler body:
- 15-ish gallon cooler (holds ~ 18 eggs as configured)
- 2 x scrap piece of plexi glass for window
- 1/8" h/w cloth as chick shield
- a few 1/4" holes on each short end, 2 x 3/4" holes on one long side

Egg shelf:
- framed with cedar 1x scraps
- 1/8" hardware cloth stapled on one side
- rubber drawer liner on opposite side
- rests on 2 disposable aluminum bread pans (4"x8")

Heating:
- 2 light sockets from old lamps, 2x60 watt bulbs
- 12 volt fan (PC case fan)
- 12 volt transformer (from old cell phone charger)
- Electric Temperature Controller ($19)
( I did calibrate the controller - it was reading low ~ 1.5c)

Humidity:
- hygrometer
- airline tubing running to one of the bread pans
- syringe body to push/pull water from bread pan as needed

The bread pans sit on the floor of the cooler, one is filled with aquarium gravel to act as a heat sink, the other has the airline tubing running to it and can have water added/removed to adjust humidity.

The egg shelf is a simple wood frame (about 8x12) with h/w cloth tacked flush on one side - and rubber drawer liner on the opposite. It rests on top of the bread pans. For days 1-18, the eggs will rest pointy end down on the drawer liner side. This keeps them from moving much when the cooler is tilted a couple of times a day ( I'll put a book under opposite ends 3-4 times a day). On 18 day through hatch, I'll flip the shelf over to the flat side, giving the eggs and the soon to be hatchlings a level floor.

The two lamps are mounted in front of the fan. The fan runs continuously, but the lamps are triggered by the temperature controller. The controller is set with a .3 degree tolerance and maintains a steady 99-100 level. I used two bulbs because the frequent cycling often will result in blown bulb, "one is none"...

Many budget designs opt for using a water heater's lower temp controller ($8-12), and I had bought one to use as well... but they are finicky, take a while to dial-in and are prone to wider temp ranges. The extra $10 bucks for the electric controller was well spent. The model I bought also has 2 relays, one trips on either end of the target temp range - handy if you need to cool as well as heat. Some plans also call for a separate relay to be used in conjunction with the controller, but the controller itself is rated to 10 amps, which is more than enough for the load here.

Set 18 BCM eggs from my girls... can't wait!

Feed back welcomed!

 

[kallnojoy]

Candled a few of the lighter eggs today and each showed a good air pocket and a surprisingly active chick-to-be!

Pretty neat!

On the darker eggs it was a challenge to even make out the air pocket.

For dark eggs like these do folks just go by smell when determining if they should be culled?

 

[kallnojoy]

New chicken tractor for the hatch (knock on wood) is almost done...

 

[5 Acre Rooster]

Nice job. Your bator looks ALOT better than the 1 I finished other day and decided throw eggs in. But whats importnt to me is temp/humidity which is 99.9% dead on for mine. I have parts for another and thinking cabinet also. The 1 I finished already I am thinking adding stackable trays to so I can double or triple my capacity since its like 18 in deep and with circulation temps and humidity are same throughout the whole bator.

 

[kallnojoy]

Lockdown!

 

[mstricer]

Good Job love it I hope you have a great hatch.

Michele

 

[kallnojoy]

Thanks!

First one just pipped an hour ago - a day early!

 

[5 Acre Rooster]

Thanks!

First one just pipped an hour ago - a day early!

What was the end totals for your hatch? Or is it still going? Sorry haven't been Jonny-on the spot. Alot of thread and alot of eggs/chicks keeping me busy.

 

[kallnojoy]

Sorry for the late update... sometimes bad news does travel slow.

I ended up with two pipped and both are happy healthy chicks.

Short version: 14 of the remaining 16 eggs had full term chicks (judging by yolk) that never pipped.

Long winded version:

The first to pip barely made any progress after 24 hours.

In that time, a second one pipped and hatched without trouble.

The first pip managed to open a hole enough to see his head, and the free chick helped to open it further - both by pecking at the shell as well as cracking it open zip-like as he stomped around the incubator (he/she is now named 'Zilla).

With the top of the shell now practically off, pip one tried to kick its way out for several hours unsuccessfully. It became clear that he was glued to the inner membrane over much of his body, the one leg kicking being the exception. Given that we were at a day and half of him trying and now stuck and flagging, I decided to intervene and removed him from his shell. The yolk was fully absorbed/retracted and there was no bleeding. A warm bath and gentle prodding with Q-tips removed the membrane and both he and Zilla were transferred to the brooder.

The incubator was at 70% humidity at lockdown and of course spiked some at the hatching (80s). It was only opened briefly to extract the stuck chick, and the humidity never went below 60% and quickly recovered into the 70s. I kept to the mid 30s days 1 through 18. I have a hi/low temp and humidity monitor in, so I'm pretty confident in the #s.

Given that all the above started on day 20, and ended on the 21st, I assumed these two were just early arrivers and awaited the rest to start pipping, but they never did.

On day 23 I float tested the remaining 16 and none passed.

I opened each, and in 14 of the 16 were full term chicks. Heart breaking.

I don't know what happened.

I can't believe the brief drop of humidity to 60% would wipe out 14 full term chicks.

Zilla did roll them about pretty well while he was in there and I was worried that he might have rolled them to bad pip positions, but even at that I would have thought some would have pipped, even if upside down.

Their inner membranes looked damp when I opened them, so I don't think they were shrink wrapped - but I'm not positive given how pip 1 was glued to it's membrane. Not sure if that was the problem or the result of being in an opened egg for 30+ hours.

So, I've set another 9 yesterday and am studying everything I can find to figure out what went wrong and hopefully improve on this hatch.

 

[5 Acre Rooster]

Sounds rough. Sadly alot of people are having full term death issues this year. Even semi professional breeders. I am still working with LG still airs for hatchers. My big bator is full for the incubation periods. 1st test run still going since my 1st setting ever for it is in lock down now for Fri hatch. These are my own eggs, On mothers day I got a 57% hatch with 1 of the LG's and had bad power outage 1/2 way thru. Was just a fertility test went right and stuck.
All my eggs seem to develope fine in my homemade bator. Chicken and guineas so far. Just got fertile (Hopefull) duck eggs in Sat. Some infertiles pulled but I'd say 90% fertility is my average for chickens. Guinea eggs had some rough times but I can see decent developement in alot (50 set from 1st nest). Not candleing them hard cuz the shell color/thickness and I KNOW I'd throw good eggs.
As it sits now mine has 140 eggs combined. Not counting the 2 1/2 dz in hatchers. And saving 2 1/2 dz guinea and 1/2 dz rouen duck eggs a week. Along with a few oddball BYM test I am doing. Working on a cabnet style but might be a wide table top style. Its gonna be 2x4 ft and 2 ft deep. But have to wait until I have my 1 LG free so I can steal the wafer thermostat I put in for a heat control. Wish I had another pigtail style but I don't and they cost WAY to much to order 1. Everything else I have and can grab in 5 minutes.