Styrofoam Incubators Club

[beetandsteet]

7 chicks,1 pip now!

YAY! I just put 23 eggs into lockdown this afternoon. 1 already rocking (wooop!)

 

[Coreenelane]

Well I must have the temprature stabilized and humidity ok. This is day 14 and 10 out of 12 are deffinately progressing. I can see movement in over half and the rest are brown eggs and the inside is a dark , good size blob. I thought the temp. got way to hot and found out the digital thermometer was reading high than it really was, so I didn't cook the eggs . The air cells have gotton larger too! Now I'm happy! Incubator 2 that wasn't as warm as it needed to be also lookin good. Did add several more marked eggs (Sultun & Silki) so now I need to really pay attention to my notes. So the eggs in #2 bator may be later hatching so do I keep lock down still on day18? I will remove the younger eggs out before lock down and transfer them to bator #1.

 

[tabinal]

I have a Farm Innovator forced air and I'm on my 2nd hatch day 21 which was consistent at 99 till the night of 17... I had a spike of 104 not sure how long it was there but I still have hope. One helpful hint I read here and used on my first successful hatch is to use press-n-seal plastic wrap in place of a tray liner. I had a huge mess with my first hatch and it made cleanup so easy. Since I only paid $20 for this with the turner, I feel like I have already got my value out of it

 

[beetandsteet]

Well I must have the temprature stabilized and humidity ok. This is day 14 and 10 out of 12 are deffinately progressing. I can see movement in over half and the rest are brown eggs and the inside is a dark , good size blob. I thought the temp. got way to hot and found out the digital thermometer was reading high than it really was, so I didn't cook the eggs . The air cells have gotton larger too! Now I'm happy! Incubator 2 that wasn't as warm as it needed to be also lookin good. Did add several more marked eggs (Sultun & Silki) so now I need to really pay attention to my notes. So the eggs in #2 bator may be later hatching so do I keep lock down still on day18? I will remove the younger eggs out before lock down and transfer them to bator #1.

Awesome! I would say go ahead and put the eggs into lockdown late day 18, but don't increase the humidity above 55% until you hear chicks peeping or see an external pip. Also I'd be careful to watch your air cells.

 

[beetandsteet]

I have a Farm Innovator forced air and I'm on my 2nd hatch day 21 which was consistent at 99 till the night of 17... I had a spike of 104

not sure how long it was there but I still have hope. One helpful hint I read here and used on my first successful hatch is to use press-n-seal plastic wrap in place of a tray liner. I had a huge mess with my first hatch and it made cleanup so easy. Since I only paid $20 for this with the turner, I feel like I have already got my value out of it

That's a great idea! I will use that on my next hatch. The styrofoam is really hard to clean.
When the embryos are 17 days old, they're a lot tougher than when they were younger (that's why temperature spikes can cause a lot of early quitters). Let us know how your hatch went!

 

[tabinal]

That's a great idea! I will use that on my next hatch. The styrofoam is really hard to clean. 
When the embryos are 17 days old, they're a lot tougher than when they were younger (that's why temperature spikes can cause a lot of early quitters). Let us know how your hatch went! 

Today is 21. I think I have 10 out of 14 pippers so far, but no zippers yet. It is driving me crazy. I need to go get groceries but I can't stand to leave.

 

[beetandsteet]

Today is 21. I think I have 10 out of 14 pippers so far, but no zippers yet. It is driving me crazy. I need to go get groceries but I can't stand to leave.

I feel you! Around hatch time my face is glued to the incubator!

 

[throwntogether]

Just plugged in a Farm Innovations 4250, first time ever trying to hatch. Glad I got on here and read all the comments. Already have some good advice and I am just making sure everything is stable. Let's hope for some sort of success on my first attempt.

 

[tabinal]

Just plugged in a Farm Innovations 4250, first time ever trying to hatch.  Glad I got on here and read all the comments.  Already have some good advice and I am just making sure everything is stable.  Let's hope for some sort of success on my first attempt. 

Good luck to you! Other things I've done is mark my water wells with marker and once I got stable temps mark that spot. Best advice I got was to throw away the instruction book.

 

[MeepBeep]

Just plugged in a Farm Innovations 4250, first time ever trying to hatch.  Glad I got on here and read all the comments.  Already have some good advice and I am just making sure everything is stable.  Let's hope for some sort of success on my first attempt. 

I hope you have purchased multiple thermometers, nothing worse then newbies depending on the installed one that is utter junk...