It does sound like uneven heat, doesn't it. I think I need a better incubator. I'm not as handy as you are! My husband is really into his birds, so I bet he would be willing to tackle making one. LOL Thanks for all your time and info. I do appreciate your help! Have a good week!
You know... what just continues to amaze me, is watching the guineas get on and off their nests, go eat around the farm and come back to their nest and hatch 25 chicks! We saw them do this last year. I guess nothing is better that Mother Nature. Especially my Little Giant. haha
I put a digital therm. in there and tried to calibrate them that way before I even started. I guess that's not to know if it held its heat throughout the 28 days.... hmmm.
The little giants we have had always had a fan in them, but this last new one we bought has a suspended gauge that measures the heat and humidity. It hangs from the ceiling - doesn't touch the floor or the eggs. The old ones had that wire thing on the plastic square that rested on the eggs.
This last batch, we had to wait 9 days before we had enough. We put the eggs in the basement where it is cool, and went ahead and put them in the moving racks in the incubator without the heat until it was full.
I forgot to answer some of your other questions. I don't candle them until lockdown and then discard the eggs. I don't take out the hatched ones for about 2 or 3 days and am ready to put a little very hot water back in the incubator so no drying occurs. But no, I never flip the lid off and...
My incubator is a little giant. We have had 4 of them. I know they aren't the best, but I used them mostly in my classroom. The temp was 99.5 and I usually left the humidity alone (it was always about 49%) until lockdown and then added moisture on a sponge until it was about 70% . The ones that...
I had read an suggestion on this one time, that suggested dry hatching eggs - don't add any humidity. I'm afraid to try it, but I'm not having any luck this way so maybe I will, if I try this again! Thanks for your help!
It sounds like you have a lot of experience hatching guineas. I have tried and tried and tried again and just have the worst luck with them. Their shells are so hard compared to chicken eggs. Our last hatch was about 35 in the incubator and we only got 10 to hatch. Out of those 10,, there...
I am somewhat of a beginner as well, and someone recommended to me to put a little sponge in my incubator aligned with the vent hole. I put a funnel in the hole when I need to raise humidity and pour a little really warm, almost hot, water in it and it soaks up in the sponge. It works really...
My crazy computer!! It posted before I was ready! Today (8/8/17) is the hatch day and I had one hatch last night and 2 hatch today. This new one I have now doesn't have the temp gauge on the plastic square like the old ones. It came with a little round gauge that hangs from the top. It doesn't...