About to have a go....

[edster951]

Well some of you might remember my homemade incubator..

(The thermostat is different now.)

Well now 10 speed is doing his job, and I have seen evidence of fertile eggs in my omelettes, I've decided to give incubating a go.

I have saved 8 eggs and have them in a carton on the kitchen bence, and when I go past I tilt the carton from side to side 45deg. All eggs are large end up.

Now when they are in the incubator, will the continuation of this rocking suffice.

Cheers
Eddie

 

[speckledhen]

Congrats, Eddie! Yes, you can do the tilt the same way. I dont remember where or what your heat source is, but when you tilt toward a lightbulb, those eggs closest will be a higher temp. Just be prepared for that. Good luck!

 

[edster951]

Crickey, did give me enough time to edit my post.....

Good point, thanks....

 

[SterlingAcres]

Good luck Eddie! The tilting should work fine

 

[edster951]

Set the eggs tonight.

8 Medium sized white eggs, I think are mainly Orpingtons, and two orpington/shaver x

The incubator is sitting bang on 99.

Deciding if it's best to do dry incubation or add a little water??

Comments please.

 

[BirdBoy88]

Good Luck with ytour incubation.. you will have little babies sooner than you think

 

[edster951]

Almost a week has passed. I have added, after day 2 a tub with water to it as the humidity wasn't registering on the hydrometer.

I'm not too concerned at this point as I had a read of the dry incubation technique, and with the tub of water I'm have a gut feeling it's sitting in the 25%. I think the hydrometer reads at around 30%.

I've been tilting the eggs evrytime I go past the garage, at least 3-4 times a day. I've also been turning the carton so eggs each get a turn at being close to the bulb, taking into consideration what speckled hen said earlier.

I'll be candling tomorrow (day 7)

 

[Heather J]

I'd say whether you need to add water or not depends on your relative humidity there. In my area, if I add no water, the humidity is around 10-15%, so I always put a bit in the bator. I just bought a new thermometer/hygrometer for the eggs I'm putting in today (yeah!) On the other hand, if you candle, and the air sacks are progressing properly, relative humidity may not matter so much. having it a touch high some days and a bit low other days will even out in the first couple of weeks. I wouldn't worry too much unless your air sacks are the wrong size before day 18 when you're suppose to cranks up the humidity.

 

[klf73]

If you have a probe type thermometer it won't register humidty, only room humidity. You would have to put the whole unit in the bator for it to work, of course it only matters if you have that type

Krista
edted to say I dry incubate, only add water if humidity goes below 25%

 

[edster951]

We have had a week of rain, coinciding with the start of incubation so one would assume the air humidity is high.

I open the incubator to turn the eggs, so it gets a good does of fresh air in it. The tub of water needs topping up every 2 days, so I use warm water from the kettle. It's still a little steamy too, so this helps with the humidity for a while.