We have a new brinsea oct 20 with auto turn. We have never used an incubator before. The eggs from our buff orpingtons have been running about 90% (positively) fertile, we eat them almost every day and inspect each one for fertility. We loaded 24 eggs into the incubator 8 days ago, none older than 3 days which had been stored at about 55-60 degrees. During the 1st couple of days the temp in the bator fluctuated between 99 and 101 for short periods of time. I was able to get it adjusted pretty quick and it has maintained 99.5 since.
We don't have an hygrometer inside the bator but have added water several times. Once it was completely dry but couldn't have been for long. The bator is in a spare upstairs bathroom. We have a wood burning stove for heat. We have been adding humidity into the room by sitting cookie sheets filled with water on the counters. Also hanging a large damp towel across the top of the shower. We have a thermometer/hygrometer sitting on the counter about 2 feet from the bator. It holds the min.max reading from the last 36 hours and the room temp has ranged between 63/73, humidity 28/51. We know the temp is correct because we have 2 more thermometers alongside.The bator temp has maintained 99.5 at all times since day 1/2.
We just candeled the eggs at the end of day 8 with a strong light (long type police LED flashlight) and have 2 eggs that look like the pics of an 8 day egg and 2 that have little floating dots about 1/8 inch that float freely...the other 20 show nothing.
Based on my rather long/boring account, can anybody see anything we could have done differently...do you see any major problems? We left the eggs in the bator and will look again in 4-5 days and then discard all but the 2 that look viable. Hoping to not make the same mistake again (what ever it was). The other 20 eggs show absolutely nothing and we are CERTAIN some of them are fertile. Any advice would be appreciated.
We don't have an hygrometer inside the bator but have added water several times. Once it was completely dry but couldn't have been for long. The bator is in a spare upstairs bathroom. We have a wood burning stove for heat. We have been adding humidity into the room by sitting cookie sheets filled with water on the counters. Also hanging a large damp towel across the top of the shower. We have a thermometer/hygrometer sitting on the counter about 2 feet from the bator. It holds the min.max reading from the last 36 hours and the room temp has ranged between 63/73, humidity 28/51. We know the temp is correct because we have 2 more thermometers alongside.The bator temp has maintained 99.5 at all times since day 1/2.
We just candeled the eggs at the end of day 8 with a strong light (long type police LED flashlight) and have 2 eggs that look like the pics of an 8 day egg and 2 that have little floating dots about 1/8 inch that float freely...the other 20 show nothing.
Based on my rather long/boring account, can anybody see anything we could have done differently...do you see any major problems? We left the eggs in the bator and will look again in 4-5 days and then discard all but the 2 that look viable. Hoping to not make the same mistake again (what ever it was). The other 20 eggs show absolutely nothing and we are CERTAIN some of them are fertile. Any advice would be appreciated.
