Octagon 20-Water Spill-Humidity-What'd I Do??

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jmc

jmc

Crowing
12 Years
Jul 22, 2008
1,588
11
254
South Central MA
Added 1/4 sheet paper towel to the front trough of each bator this am.

bator then in 'backward position' till i came to turn to 'forward position'.

after turning, came back and found water leaking profusely out of both bators.

The paper towels were wicking the water in that forward position and it was coming out of the bators.

The water troughs into which the towels were placed were basically at MAXIMUM capacity when i put the towels in.

Is that why they overflowed ?

So what do you do, and what did i do wrong?

Other people use paper towel, i thought............
 
Quote:
I lay a full sheet all the way across the bottom of the incubator and it wicks the water up. I have never had it run out when rotating unless I had overfilled it. The papertowel always seems to hold it in. I also take the cheap sponges and cut them to fit down into the troughs, this helps to hold more water. I only add the sponges at lockdown.
 
I got your message! Lol

I only add the paper towels or sponges at lockdown.. and at lockdown the bator isn't rotating any.. so no spills

Are you trying to raise the humidity up before lockdown?.. if so I would lower the water in the channels a bit then put the edge of a paper towel down in the channel with the rest laying up on top kind of like a wick in a kerosene lamp or oil lamp (doing that in one or both channels).. i have never tried doing it that way with the turner on.. but it SHOULD raise the humidity without spilling out any water when it rotates
if it works as I think it should you will have to refill the channels more often



(I haven't been AWOL.. just been in other parts of the forum and not so much in the hatching one as of late)
 
thank you both.

the eggs seem to be losing too much weight percentage wise even with both troughs filled, so i thought i would try to raise it a bit.................

biker.........i am surprised that you never have had leakage with the paper towel all on the bottom.

it is as though the paper towels i added to the front troughs sort of 'channeled' the water from them into a leak situation out of the overflow holes in each bator.

i will have to try it--at some point--with less water in the troughs. but i don't see that making a difference.............

anyway, thanks for looking.

btw. i also plan on linking this thread to the main octo. eco 20 thread..........fwiw
 
if the eggs are losing too much moisture try using a sponge instead of a paper towel.. if the tray isn't full of eggs you can add a sponge to the tray with the eggs.. and may be able to use a syringe or airline tubing to add water to the sponge itself to keep from opening the bator
 
thanks.

i am just gonna let it go and see what all happens...........

i know why i got the spill and it has to do with NOT having an auto turner:

With an auto turner, the unit is in full 'tip' either forward or backward for only a certain amount of time before it begins its journey back in the other direction.

Whereas when I turn by hand 3x per day, the unit is for MANY HOURS tipped either back or forward. Therefore water wicking into the paper towel naturally keeps flowing down into that 'valley' created by the tilt of the bator.

Follow?

And it just keeps on wicking and wicking..........down...........down until it just flows out the overflow/air holes in the corners.

I think this is the main reason, if not the only reason, why this happened.

But as you almost indicated, dear Yinepu, 'is there any real need to raise the RH so much before lockdown? (when the bator isn't turning and you won't have that problem anyway...........)'

My avg. egg weights do seem to be a bit low, but i am just gonna let it be and see what happens.................lockdown starts this Friday.........
 

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