Recent content by Kermit's shadow

I am with another here - a lot are interesting, none are a patch on the "real" thing. It has also been mentioned that at some stage mutations may outnumber normals, and the ones that look like nature intended might get lost. Well, that has already happened in birds that have long been coverted...

The turner motor really needs to be outside the machine. The moisture loss from eggs is tiny - around 15% of their weight over the whole incubation period - unless the incubator is stuffed full of eggs, that makes no difference. If an incubator drops in temperature after adding eggs, I would...

Alexander - what turkeys? Commercial birds need AI to get reasonable fertility and some old breeds are better with AI. Basically all commercial birds are AI'd - all 100 zillion each year.

Except for wet-bulbs, RH is what all humidity meters/hygrometers will read. (Wet-bulbs just give a temperature reading). RH is relative humidity. Relative to what? It is a comparison of the water content of air relative to the water content of the same air at the same temperature when it can...

All of this applies to machines to a few thousand egg capacity. Machines much bigger than this - ones used by the poultry industry to produce many thousands of chicks a week, or even per day - can be very different. They are just well insulated rooms with very precise air conditioning - some...

Not the ones that I am familiar with - for them my figures are correct. For instance Marsh turn-x and the Brinsea models. You have to be VERY careful about numbers quoted by the manufacturers - they usually quote the actual running power - NOT the element power. For instance, if the machine has...

All modern factory-made incubators use a simple heating wire/element in some form of coil/spring. Normally the wire would be nichrome resistance wire. Small table-top machines would use an element of around 200-300W. Large cabinet machines would use something like 500-1000W elements. The...

If you are really squeamish, try putting it in a paper bag and throwing it VERY hard at a wall. You don't have to open the bag to check the result but will be able to tell that the deed is done (or not). The worst bit of livestock keeping.....

Sounds like temperature quite a bit too low.

It will vary enormously, affected by age of the birds, their diet and how inbred they are - mutts will almost always produce far more viable eggs due to hybrid vigor. With some ultra-rare breeds/colours it is an event to get a viable egg at all because of inbreeding depression. Hatch rate from...

They only do that with really expensive and rare chicks or eggs - you know - the irreplaceable ones

I have always put hatching eggs in the salad drawer - and that is now many 1000's over the years. How long eggs will stay viable depends on the precise temperature as much as anything but when I was setting lots of eggs, I usually set them in 10's from each hen and normally got 90% or 100%...

A 10 inch length of 6 inch diameter plastic drain. A plywood bottom with a light fitting attached and a 100W halogen bulb. A top of ply with a 2 inch hole in the centre with a thick piece of rubber over the hole, with a 1 inch hole in the rubber. Connect to the supply via a non-latching push to...

You have to measure (reasonably accurately), and control the RH - target 45-50%.

1000 broiler eggs require a maximum (at hatch) of 120 cubic feet of fresh air every hour - calculate what you need from that. Measurement through a single vent isn't too difficult using a very thin gauge plastic bag, screwed-up tight to begin with - there is often enough pressure to inflate it...