Setting 41 on 6-15, 7-8, 7-31, and 8-23 feel free to join in at any time

[bantam brood 17]

Well, good luck to everyone, that's quite a variety of birds being hatched here. I finally got my extra bator, its a Janoel8-48. Interesting thing about it is that it runs at a constant humidity between 55%-70% (not adjustable) and a constant temperature of 38C (100.4F) for the entire 21 days. The bator's owner recommended I just let it do its thing. Of course I will have to keep my eye on the water, but it has built-in alarms to remind me just in case.

My new bator is a Janoel 24 my darling daughters bought it for my birthday I just hope its a good one I have heard mixed comments on it

 

[NTBugtraq]

My new bator is a Janoel 24 my darling daughters bought it for my birthday I just hope its a good one I have heard mixed comments on it

My friend who hatches hundreds in her Brinsea OE10 swears by this 8-48. She recently hatched a queen bee, turkeys, and chicks in this one (not at the same time).

Oh, and btw, she hatches all of her eggs on their sides.

 

[bantam brood 17]

My friend who hatches hundreds in her Brinsea OE10 swears by this 8-48. She recently hatched a queen bee, turkeys, and chicks in this one (not at the same time).

Oh, and btw, she hatches all of her eggs on their sides.

I,ve layed my eggs down and I,m using the auto turner I did a candle earlier and I,m only sure about 3 of my 6 b/c they are blue eggs and its hard to candle

 

[WalnutHill]

During the off season I am going to make wire baskets for the GQF so that I can incubate my eggs horizontally. I don't like the trays much but if I am hatching on contract, I'll use them to optimize space.

 

[NTBugtraq]

During the off season I am going to make wire baskets for the GQF so that I can incubate my eggs horizontally. I don't like the trays much but if I am hatching on contract, I'll use them to optimize space.

Well, now I think I am going to run both bators with the eggs on their side. My last (and first) Brinsea setting led me to a couple of cracked eggs because of my inability to properly handle eggs standing up. I was going to figure out how many would fit lying down, and then stand that number up...so instead I'll just leave them lying down. One thought though, I think this means I have to use rails or the eggs might crack banging into each other...

 

[NTBugtraq]

Setting 80 project eggs today.

Both bators were sterilized with Virkon for 24 hours, then rinsed well. Filled them both to get the humidity as high as possible. I have been loading eggs all day and will be until 8:00pm tonight...using the 30 minutes between hatch days idea. My oldest eggs are 21 days so its taking 10.5 hours to get them all in. Running these hatches @ 36.9C/98.5F and 60%RH through to Day 18. The temperature is calculated for my area (elevation). The 60%RH comes from the Janoel's settings, and reaffirmed by my friend who incubates tons. All eggs are being laid on their side, which means the Brinsea can only hold 40 chicken eggs.

The only thing that will change on Day 19 for the Janoel is the humidity, I will try to keep it above 65%.

On Day 19 I will drop the Brinsea temperature by 0.5F, day 20 I will drop by another 11F, and Day 21 I will raise it 1F. I will keep the humidity there > 65% also.

 

[scflock]

I ran the entire hatch at 100.5F, which is what I thought was the ideal temperature. I did not use my spot check thermo on it to figure out what the temp was at the egg...with the brinsea there's no way to get a probe in there without leaving the lid loose. But that does make me want to go now to it and put the entire spot check in there to see what it says.

I just finished reading a paper from Oxford on egg turning, in it they ran their incubator at 99.5F through Day 18, then Day 19 @ 99F, Day 20 @ 88F, and Day 21 @ 90F. They don't discuss these temperatures in the paper as its not about temperature, but egg turning. I do think its interesting they'd vary so much during the final days.

Ok, NT sent me the link for this, and I'm just getting around to reading it, so I'm just going to start quoting here. This may be covered later in the thread, but why did you not double check with the Spot Check? I had the opposite problem with my first two hatches, they were delayed, so I ordered the Spot Check. The wire lead is malleable, so you can stick the probe through the air vent, then "drive" it all over the bator. I took an average of all temps, was half a degree low, raised my temp to 100.0 on the display, and everything has been like clockwork on day 21 since.
I have read about lowering temps after lockdown, but I run a 99.5 average straight through with a 90% hatch rate.
I also read about feeding them scratch, and totally agree with Walnut. I'll get caught up soon.
Thanks for sending me the link

 

[FridayYet]

What temps are you running in the incubators day 1-18? I'm assuming you have your eggs date marked - it will be fun to see if any of the 21 day old eggs hatch.

 

[scflock]

I assume its in the top as there are no wires going elsewhere.


Actually, I just discovered the calibration menu in the brinsea, so I can make a change myself and re-check it. I have no eggs in that bator now.

Ok, sorry for the huge multi quote, but I'm late to the party. The heater is the red wires wrapped under the fan

I called Brinsea about the fact the "factory calibrated" temperature sensor was off by nearly 2F, and they told me if it came in contact with magnets during shipping that could throw it off. Sounds a bit lame to me, but the stupider thing is what I did...

I bought the Brinsea spot checker at the same time as the bator...but I bought it to check the Styrofoam bator and completely did not even think to check the Brinsea bator. So clearly running an entire hatch at 2F higher temp than I thought I was could clearly cause the poor results.

You have to double check any incubator. I didn't do that at first, either. Factory calibrated still includes human error. Once you get it right, it is rock solid

At my last check, the spot check at egg level was 2F lower than the readout. There was water in most of the wells at that point, and the manual says to do calibration with no water in the wells. So I have been waiting for the cleaned bator to dry out, I should be able to take a more accurate measurement tomorrow.

I recommend leaving the Spot Check outside of the bator and checking as many different spots as you can through the vent. I measure temps from 98.9-100.5, but my average is 99.5, and this works. Rotate your egg trays every 4 or 5 days and that will help offset hot and cold spots

Yes and no. Its not instant, but it is faster than some others I have seen. I wish it had some sort of holder for the probe so I could place it in different places in the bator. We're supposed to take the temperature at the top of egg...I put it on a box and hope it doesn't move when I replace the lid as there's no really good way to move it around a bator through the lid...that makes every measure take at least an hour.

Not just temps, but relative humidity also.

I agree. It should measure humidity for that price

Setting 80 project eggs today.

Both bators were sterilized with Virkon for 24 hours, then rinsed well. Filled them both to get the humidity as high as possible. I have been loading eggs all day and will be until 8:00pm tonight...using the 30 minutes between hatch days idea. My oldest eggs are 21 days so its taking 10.5 hours to get them all in. Running these hatches @ 36.9C/98.5F and 60%RH through to Day 18. The temperature is calculated for my area (elevation). The 60%RH comes from the Janoel's settings, and reaffirmed by my friend who incubates tons. All eggs are being laid on their side, which means the Brinsea can only hold 40 chicken eggs.

The only thing that will change on Day 19 for the Janoel is the humidity, I will try to keep it above 65%.

On Day 19 I will drop the Brinsea temperature by 0.5F, day 20 I will drop by another 11F, and Day 21 I will raise it 1F. I will keep the humidity there > 65% also.

Those are some old eggs, so I would take them out of the hatch rate equasion. That's using eggs that are severely handicapped. I don't recommend laying them on their side. I have had two eggs slip under the rails and incubate on their sides, and neither developed. Could be coincidence. Just sayin...

My friend, listen to me. You have a phenomenal incubator, but it has to be tweaked. Get an average of as many temps as you can, and adjust your display to that. It makes a world of difference. Set your humidity for 42% the first 18 days. If you tell me again that you need a humidity alarm, I am going to

the crap out of you. It's a clear container! For Pete's sake, just fill it back up once a week. If you are going through that much water, are you running with the wells dry? If so, fill half of them and you won't work the pump so hard. If you set your disply for a 99.5 average, don't mess with the temps after lockdown, there's no need. Broodies don't drop their body temperature half a degree a day.
I really want to see you do well with this. You are a cranky old man, set in his ways, so of course I like you

 

[NTBugtraq]

This may be covered later in the thread, but why did you not double check with the Spot Check? I had the opposite problem with my first two hatches, they were delayed, so I ordered the Spot Check.

I think I covered that with an emoticon...;-]

Let's just say I was seeing the Brinsea as Sir Lancelot and only needed the spot check to look at Mordred, the Styro.

What temps are you running in the incubators day 1-18? I'm assuming you have your eggs date marked - it will be fun to see if any of the 21 day old eggs hatch.

I am running them both at 98.5F, which is a number intended to create a wet bulb temperature at my altitude. The set temperature coupled with my desired humidity (60%) should achieve a wet bulb temperature that is ideal. Its not as simple as saying this temp and humidity will recreate 99.5F in my area...but that's the idea.

Ok, sorry for the huge multi quote, but I'm late to the party. The heater is the red wires wrapped under the fan

Not a problem, I like multi-quotes, and thanks for popping in, anyone is welcome...

I recommend leaving the Spot Check outside of the bator and checking as many different spots as you can through the vent. I measure temps from 98.9-100.5, but my average is 99.5, and this works. Rotate your egg trays every 4 or 5 days and that will help offset hot and cold spots

Oooh, that's a good one, hadn't thought of rotating the egg trays. I had already decided I was going to open the Brinsea every day to top up the wells, so I think I will turn the trays every day also. Don't you think it would be a good feature for Brinsea to give you a button that leveled the bator on demand?

Those are some old eggs, so I would take them out of the hatch rate equasion. That's using eggs that are severely handicapped. I don't recommend laying them on their side. I have had two eggs slip under the rails and incubate on their sides, and neither developed. Could be coincidence. Just sayin...

I agree, they are older eggs. I have every egg labeled, dated, and weighed...and they have been put into the bator according to their age so the older eggs have gotten an extra 30 minutes for each day they are old. Its what I had to set, I could have simply sold them as food eggs, but hey, I have only ever tried 10 day old eggs so I thought what the heck. 51 of the 80 eggs are 10 days old or less, so they don't represent the majority.

As for laying on their side, I had 44 in my Brinsea at lockdown during my last hatch, and, well, you just can't lay 44 eggs on their side in that bator. Besides, there is no way a broody hen keeps eggs on any end, let alone fat side up, so that just isn't coming close to what nature does. Maybe there's a better hatch rate when you improve on nature, but most bird eggs have been this shape longer than practically any other life on the planet...;-]

My friend, listen to me. You have a phenomenal incubator, but it has to be tweaked. Get an average of as many temps as you can, and adjust your display to that. It makes a world of difference. Set your humidity for 42% the first 18 days. If you tell me again that you need a humidity alarm, I am going to

the crap out of you. It's a clear container! For Pete's sake, just fill it back up once a week. If you are going through that much water, are you running with the wells dry? If so, fill half of them and you won't work the pump so hard. If you set your disply for a 99.5 average, don't mess with the temps after lockdown, there's no need. Broodies don't drop their body temperature half a degree a day.
I really want to see you do well with this. You are a cranky old man, set in his ways, so of course I like you

Well, firstly, I think I only mentioned the humidity alarm once...

I did fill the wells at one point, only to find that I had put just a little too much in and next thing there was water all over the place. I'm not complaining, but they could put a line in there...;-]

The 99.5F temperature is a misnomer. As I mentioned about wet bulb, we are not setting a dry temperature. I even realized that the temperature settings in the University of California paper were set to their altitude, which could have been anything. They aren't guidelines IMO. What's your altitude @scflock ? I am working with a lower temperature and a higher humidity this time. At worst, my hatch will be delayed, but given all of my other hatches have been early, having the majority of hatches on Day 21 would be a good thing this time. I am still going to candle and weight on Day 7, Day 10, and Day 18. That will tell me whether I have severely retarded weight loss.

As far as dropping temperature after lockdown, as the chicks hatch they definitely give off heat of their own. You say the Brinsea can accommodate that other source of heat, ok, you are probably right. Since this time I will not be altering the temperatures in the Janoel but will be in the Brinsea, I may get to see the difference in results. I'm hoping that my temperature altering experiment in the Brinsea will make it have the better hatch rate.

I like you @scflock , you shoot from the hip. So many are so worried about being PC its nice to see others who are just happy being themselves.