Adventure into building an incubator and hatching!

[Kyochan]

Thanks! I'm not to keen on incubating and hatching however this site is a drug! I found this site, literally, just trying to find out the breed of one of our hens, and Wam! Bam! Thank You, BYC! I'm building coops, getting new breeds, and when I saw people talking about homemade incubators I was like O.O ....... I have to try that! A few weeks later I have one rigged up in my room! lol

 

[gimmie birdies]

I have set up my bators to where they mostly hold the heat I want. It used to drop a bit in the evening, seems like I have adjusted for that. mine used to drop evenings too, but I was still getting good hatches. so don't worry too much!

 

[Kyochan]

Ill try not to! Lol but its so hard.maybe for those experimenting as well or thinking about it I will post all my records I've been taking.

I lost the temptation to candle them just now. I've been so worried about them not being fertile or growing so I caved. Need a better flashlight but I was able to see obvious shadows in 4 of the 5 dark shelled eggs but not bright enough to look for 'spider veins' one of the 5 brown's looks clear but leaving it in just incase and the 1 white egg had a very defined shadow with veins!

 

[gimmie birdies]

by days 5-7 you will truely see something. I try not to mess with eggs in early stages.

 

[Kyochan]

I read a lot that said its best to leave them alone until day 7 but have the willpower of a toad on drugs but we are now sticking to a strict Day 7-Day 14-Day 17 candle days and only then.

 

[gimmie birdies]

It is funny the very first hatch I had, I had one white egg, the rest were brown and hard to see in side. that hatch, I followed the panic of "you gotta have tons of water, don't open the bator too much, AHHH!" and the only chick to make that hatch was the one I peeked at too much the white one. ie i exposed it to air. dried it up. I have dry hatched ever since and had more success. especially with the homemade bator still air hand turned eggs blah blah blah.

 

[Kyochan]

How did you manage to get your humidity up without water? I've just found a good solid way to keep it up. a small silver tray with water, an old cat food tin with water, and a panty liner tacked to the side with water in it! lol. It looks funny and the family gives me strange looks but it works! And mine is still air as well. I've had people trying to convince me to put in a pc fan but I've seen so many people hatch without it I don't feel its worth the money to get one (as I don't have an spares laying around)

 

[gimmie birdies]

my box is small, so it hold moisture, there is moisture in the eggs, if you ever opened a box with eggs the box will already be moist, mostly I don't add any water, my chicks hatch with the dampness from in the egg. I do have them in a laundry room currently, with a moisture leaking dryer hose. to hatch they have to dry up some of the moisture in their egg, that is why you will see if you candle on day 18 the egg is shrunk down. but that is a good thing. I don't lockdown my eggs if the air cell is too small.

 

[yuaan]

Please keep us posted on your experiment . It look great

 

[Kyochan]

Well, here are the stat track notes I've been taking if anyone is interested. I'm slightly freaked out over the 109 spike last night but what can you do?

Eggs Set on Saturday 9/7/2013 at 8:55pm

9/8/2013 - Day One

Time Temp Humidity Notes
2:20 pm 100 39% Lost notebook with earlier notes >.<
2:40 pm 104 41%
3:12 pm 102 40%
3:20 pm 102 41%
4:05 pm 102 41%
4:21 pm 102 40%
5:02 pm 102 40%
5:42 pm 104 40%
6:00 pm 102 39%
7:00 pm 104 38%
7:21 pm 102 38%
8:10 pm 106 36%
8:40 pm 102 37%
10:14 pm 102 39%




9/9/2013 - Day Two

Time Temp Humidity Notes
3:23 am 99 42%
3:57 am 99 43%
10:04 am 99 42%
10:34 am 99 43%
11:42 am 98 42%
12:07 am 99 42%
2:04 pm 100 40%
2:35 pm 100 41%
2:49 pm 102 41%
3:20 pm 102 41%
4:09 pm 104 40%
4:51 pm 104 40%
6:45 pm 104 39%
7:52 pm 102 37%
9:23 pm 102 35% *freak out over humidity drop. Add wet panty liners to 'bator.





9/10/2013 - Day Three

Time Temp Humidity Notes
3:34 am 95 60% *cut panty liner in half to drop humidty back down a bit
3:48 am 97 45%
12:50 pm 97 56%
1:09 pm 100 45%
1:23 pm 102 43%
1:58 pm 102 41%
3:06 pm 104 43%
4:34 pm 104 40%
5:33 pm 102 43%
6:17 pm 102 43%
8:31 pm 102 43%
9:19 pm 100 39% *Hum. dropped from candling eggs





9/11/2013 - Day Four

Time Temp Humidity Notes
3:38 am 109 37% *no idea what caused the temp spike. >.<
11:15 am 99 45%
12:10 pm 99 45%
1:20 pm 100 43%
1:49 pm 100 43%
2:32 pm 102 42%