A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[duluthralphie]

Ralph,what will you be changing them out with?

I bought one of those cheap thermostats, 14 bucks I think, it works great. It has a 1 degree swing on it. It seems to work great.

I have it set at 99 degrees, the element starts heating at 98.9 and stops at 100. Which is perfect for me.

I have a spyder (spelling) R2elk recommended I have not used, I am thinking of putting it in one. I am also going to build brooders in my new hatchery and control them with the same cheap thermostats. I should just buy a gross of them. They are easy to change out after the first one. It took a little thinking to get it to work the first time. but replacement is just pull and plug a new one in.

 

[boucher814]

Does anyone k is any good websites to get turkeys from.

 

[R2elk]

I bought one of those cheap thermostats, 14 bucks I think, it works great. It has a 1 degree swing on it. It seems to work great.

I have it set at 99 degrees, the element starts heating at 98.9 and stops at 100. Which is perfect for me.

I have a spyder (spelling) R2elk recommended I have not used, I am thinking of putting it in one. I am also going to build brooders in my new hatchery and control them with the same cheap thermostats. I should just buy a gross of them. They are easy to change out after the first one. It took a little thinking to get it to work the first time. but replacement is just pull and plug a new one in.

The ones that will control to within +/- 0.1° are a little more expensive (around $24 and up) but they do eliminate the 1° - 2° temperature swing. They also typically come with their own thermometer.

 

[R2elk]

Does anyone k is any good websites to get turkeys from.

It depends on what variety of turkey you are looking for.

Google is your friend.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

I have a hovabator that has a wafer thermostat...not sure if that's what you're talking about...

Same thermostat, yes. The 1202 is just a GQF cabinet incubator.

If you use the wafers, you better have spares on hand because they will fail and they will fail at the most inconvenient times.

If you are using wafer thermostats in an area that is well controlled temperature wise, they can work very well.  If you have wide temperature swings where the incubator is located you will be constantly adjusting the thermostat.  In those cases, the proportional differential controllers work wonderfully.

I rarely have temperature swings at all (knock on wood) but last year, the front wafer switch did fail on me. It would lock on and my temps dropped. I've been running it on the backup wafer ever since which has been serving me well. I REALLY need to replace the front switch though...BAD

 

[rjohns39]

To me it is not their being used as food and having their lives ended for our needs. It is making a more healthy bird that "could" live longer and that can be self sustaining on the homestead. A chicken that gets to live like a chicken until it has that really bad day where it feeds me.


The other thing is the quality of the meat. I get better meat it has the texture of meat/chicken, not that mush you get in the store and they call meat. It is not cheaper at all for me to raise these. I can buy CX in Walmart cheaper than I can raise these.

But the Walmart chicken does not have a huge drumstick and the meat/taste is not the same. I am sure some will not even like it because they have become so accustomed to the mush we are given and told is food.

Also I like the idea of having a meat bird we can hatch from our own eggs and not have to buy from the hatcheries.

Ralphie, That's an awesome chicken. My family has become chicken snobs, we don't buy chicken out anymore (mushy and tasteless) now that we fill our freezers with those we grow. Even an 8 week old CX tastes way better and has better texture when its given fresh grass every day and its feed limited.

 

[duluthralphie]

Same thermostat, yes. The 1202 is just a GQF cabinet incubator.
I rarely have temperature swings at all (knock on wood) but last year, the front wafer switch did fail on me. It would lock on and my temps dropped. I've been running it on the backup wafer ever since which has been serving me well. I REALLY need to replace the front switch though...BAD

I would do like E2elk says and just spend 24 bucks (or even the $14 one) I am so happy with mine. The thermostat comes on often enough the actual temps of the eggs does not vary much, if any, for me. I love it.

 

[JRNash]

I keep it in the 60's year round at the living quarters of The Land of Nash. So I generally don't have temp swings. But am interested in anything that is Ralph endorsed R2elk could you post a link

 

[JRNash]

Have to admit I'm terrified of spiders though

 

[R2elk]

I would do like E2elk says and just spend 24 bucks (or even the $14 one) I am so happy with mine. The thermostat comes on often enough the actual temps of the eggs does not vary much, if any, for me. I love it.

Your controller must be operating in pulse mode which will cause the continuous on/off cycles. The Spyder that I am using is set to dimmer mode which varies the strength of the power feeding the heater. Mine is currently running at approximately 34% meaning that the power is being reduced from full power to approximately 1/3 power. There is no constant cycling on/off and the little red indicator light remains on constantly but not at full glow. Whenever things change (start up, opening the door, etc.) it goes through a learning phase as it narrows down the power range until it comes into control and then it remains rock steady until the next change.

@Auroradream26 you are playing a very dangerous game by not having spare wafers on hand. You have already had a wafer fail and have been lulled into a false sense of security with the back up wafer operating well. It will fail!! You will be very upset if you lose an incubator full of eggs because of not keeping a less than $10 item on hand as a safety measure.

http://www.gqfmfg.com/hova-bator-parts/3007-thermostat-wafer/