Anyone else want to stomp on their incubator?

[PurpleChicken]

Hopefully some of the more detail oriented folks will chime in
but I don't pay much attention to air cell size. If you only lost
one chick your last hatch then you are doing GREAT!!!

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Thanks, I was hoping it wasn't just dumb luck!

 

[77horses]

Our homemade styrofoam ice chest incubator is a real pain! It holds humidity perfectly at 35-45%, but temp. is another story.

It will go up to 103*F with the cover all the way on and 2 air holes shut(there are 4 air holes total), so I crack it open and leave all air holes open. It will then stay at 99.5-99.7*F for a while, but when I wake up in the morning, it will be 101*F. So I crack it open more, and it goes down to 99...than 98*F and so I close one air hole and it's back at 99.5-99.7*F. But it's like as soon as I leave it alone, it will either rise or go too low.

And while this is all happening, we have about 8 of our own eggs in there because it was acting fine when we let it get steadied for a few hours and let the eggs get to room temp.

I can't wait to start to build my new homemade incubator out of a heavy duty Igloo ice chest. I just found it before my soon-to-be-step-father threw it away.

Hopefully it works better!

 

[Katy]

Quote:
LOL Now tell the hubby to always listen to me!!

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
LOL Now tell the hubby to always listen to me!!

Yes Ma'am, I'll him Ma'am.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
LOL Now tell the hubby to always listen to me!!

Yes Ma'am, I'll him Ma'am.

Ahhhhh, if only it were that simple!!

 

[Oklahoma Lightning]

,,,,,I got some turkey eggs from OkCarla that did really well. They are out pecking about in the brooder now. I did have to help two of them out of the shell, and they NEVER would have made it on their own, they were just superglued in there.>>>>

Carla has the healthy poult I ever got. I have 80 poults of hers running around that are about four months old and I am getting 12 more about 7 weeks old.
I got 24 from another guy and lost most of then, 4 before we got home,8 within first two days and the rest (8) this week. Of Carla's I lost one. So tell me it not the poults. They were cared for in the same way. I will never buy from him again.
While I am there at Carla's, I will check on turkey eggs. She got the chickens that lay chocolate colored eggs too. I am going to get two dozen of them. Someone said it to hot and they won't hitch.

 

[walkswithdog]

Quote:
Oral and candy/milk and instant read thermometers are all CONTACT thermometers and are not accurate IN AIR. They need to be placed into a medium that has been at incubator temperature for SEVERAL hours.

Some people use playdough or sillyputty, or the flour dough made for children (wrapped so they do not dry) or a glass of water - and then insert the medical thermometer to check accuracy.

Using ANY contact thermometer in air is as inaccurate as some of those digitals and sometimes much worse.

Trusting the setting of something made in bulk in industrial china by people who make very little money was never my idea of safe so I was checking from the beginning.

I switched away from the small foams and went with homemade and larger and am happier.

Keep checking for accuracy - mark your digitals for the difference and plunge onward. It's all learning. Some learning just sucks.

Better luck with future hatches.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

I am glad you posted that! I did not know and was going off another post.

I have put a shot glass full of water in the incubator and will wait a few hours for it to heat up and then see what it reads.

That will work?

I wish I had a water wiggler, maybe walmart...it is that time of year

 

[walkswithdog]

Dollar store sometimes has water wigglers too...

A shot glass should work...