6th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2015 Hatch-A-Long

[bamadude]

Grrrrr. I lost another egg this morning. A pretty olive one, and it had a live embryo the size of my thumb!! I have to do something about my turner. I put water bottles on there for thermal mass, but now they seem to be binding it when I try to turn and make it jolt. Thus, the broken egg. So I guess I have to remove them and figure some other way to put them in or just not have them. Hopefully I'll have the materials to build better turners soon. I just built these out of what I had available and I knew they might be problematic. I didn't think they would prove me right so very soon. Well, this is what the test hatch is for.

a nice trick on styrofoam incubators to help with temp spikes is....using freezer pops. There is a large size and a small size. I use a few of both until lockdown.

 

[bamadude]

4 more days! That's so long.... Lol...
I can wait, I can wait...
@bamadude how's your batch doing?

my temp seems to be staying steady. I will probably candle tomorrow.

 

[Aphrael]

a nice trick on styrofoam incubators to help with temp spikes is....using freezer pops. There is a large size and a small size. I use a few of both until lockdown.

Hmmm. That is an interesting idea. I don't have a styrofoam. I have a huge, homemade cabinet. But they could still work. Will have to look into it. Thanks!

 

[ronott1]

Hmmm. That is an interesting idea. I don't have a styrofoam. I have a huge, homemade cabinet. But they could still work. Will have to look into it. Thanks!

What you are doing is setting up a heat sink. It is important if the incubator is running with less eggs than optimal for the incubator.

It should not make that much of a difference in a wooden cabinet. Plastic like the Brinsea incubators are good at holding steady temps too.

 

[bamadude]

I have thought about filling up "adult protection thingys" with water to put in egg trays to help regulate temp. It may work.

 

[Aphrael]

What you are doing is setting up a heat sink. It is important if the incubator is running with less eggs than optimal for the incubator.

It should not make that much of a difference in a wooden cabinet. Plastic like the Brinsea incubators are good at holding steady temps too.

So the heat sinks aren't as necessary in a wood cabinet? Mine is built out of solid hardwood 2x6s for the main body and the false walls and the door out of 1x4s. I used these instead of plywood or something similar, because I was given 6 ginormous stacks of the lumber for free (each about 5' cubed of stacked lumber - HUGE score). I was worried that because of the larger air space I would have temp swings if I didn't have a lot of heat sinks. I do have less eggs in there than I built it to hold. I built for the (hopefully near) future.

 

[Aphrael]

I have thought about filling up "adult protection thingys" with water to put in egg trays to help regulate temp. It may work.

Love it! Although, water balloons might be less likely to pop. Hmmmm. I wonder if my local store carries water balloons...

 

[bamadude]

I tried water baloons and 2 busted after about 4 days in the incubator

 

[ronott1]

So the heat sinks aren't as necessary in a wood cabinet? Mine is built out of solid hardwood 2x6s for the main body and the false walls and the door out of 1x4s. I used these instead of plywood or something similar, because I was given 6 ginormous stacks of the lumber for free (each about 5' cubed of stacked lumber - HUGE score). I was worried that because of the larger air space I would have temp swings if I didn't have a lot of heat sinks. I do have less eggs in there than I built it to hold. I built for the (hopefully near) future.

It depends on the heat source too. Wood is better at holding temperatures in general but some heat systems are not as sensitive to outside temperature adjustment. If the temperature in the room with the incubator goes down or up too fast, the heater system cannot keep up. Incubators have to add heat slowly to keep from getting into the kill temp--over 103--

Rocks are good heat sinks too but they need to be clean to make sure bacteria does not get into the incubator.

 

[Aphrael]

It depends on the heat source too. Wood is better at holding temperatures in general but some heat systems are not as sensitive to outside temperature adjustment. If the temperature in the room with the incubator goes down or up too fast, the heater system cannot keep up. Incubators have to add heat slowly to keep from getting into the kill temp--over 103--

Rocks are good heat sinks too but they need to be clean to make sure bacteria does not get into the incubator.

I have two heat chambers, each with a high wattage bulb. The chambers are lined with foil and the bottoms under the bulbs are filled with about an inch of sterilized rocks. I also have the edges of the hatching drawers lined with sterilized bricks. I just thought I might need some thermal mass in the egg tray area, since I don't have it full of eggs this time around.

ETA: I haven't gotten pics yet because my mom had to go out of town and took my iphone because she doesn't have a cell, and my rechargeable batteries for my camera have died and I haven't replaced them yet.