Bator problems this morning! Help! Please! Very urgent!!!

[TerriLaChicks]

I'd leave everything alone & see what happens, let it all stay like it is right now, esp if it's staying fairly stable at this point. And take notes--jot down everything, so you know what exactly is happening right now & can make adjustments next time.
Except that big egg-if it's weeping you'd better get it out of there before it blows or you will have a huge disaster.
Remember every time you open a styrofoam bator it takes a whoosh! of air & humidity out of it & it takes a lot longer to re-stabilize. There's so much porosity in the styrofoam & that's what causes the problem w/stability. The less you open it, the better.
I found I did better w/lower humidity, but my bators are circulating air & we have a lot of humidity here in La.
I found a pretty sizeable difference when we calibrated our hygrometer/thermometers (Walmart) and also putting a water weasel in the bator & a probe in that--that was 2 degrees difference right there. I went with the water weasel temps & it was right.
I sure will be crossing fingers you have a good hatch out of this in spite of the spikes!

 

[chicken_china_mom]

Quote:
Yeah, here in Indiana, humidity isn't as bad as it would be in LA I would assume. It's been ok all day with the temp and humidity in both bators, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. What exactly is a water weasel? I have the incubators on my dresser in my room because it's the warmest and most draft free room in the house and stays a pretty constant 73 degrees, and I try never to open the bators when either bedroom door is open because the rest of the first floor is very drafty. I'm going to move fast in about 5 minutes and add in the second egg turner to my older bator. I figure that if it's in there, then I won't have to really open the lid again til hatch day. I'm trying to do a staggered hatch, so this should be interesting! The new bator should hatch first, so my intention was to keep it empty but on, and when the eggs are ready to stop being turned in the older bator, I can just slip the eggs in there, up the humidity, and leave it til hatch day, and it won't affect the eggs that aren't set to hatch til the end of the month.

 

[TerriLaChicks]

Sounds like a good plan to me; wishing you all good hatching vibes! Stability is good!
A water weasel is a kids toy--do a search for it here & you'll find threads w/info about it-it's basically a plastic cylinder & if you put it in your 'bator & a thermometer/hygrometer probe in the middle of it, it simulates the inside of an egg. Appears to work quite well; took us forever to find one (we found ours on the party favors aisle in Walmart next to the card section) well worth the .99 cents.

 

[chicken_china_mom]

It's not that thing that has the water in it but slides around and wiggles? I used to buy them at Walgreens as a kid if they are the same thing I am thinking of. And then what, you put the thermostat on top of it? Mine is a little square box and you can't fit anything in the middle of it. About 4x4 inches, and about 2 inches thick. I'm going to look online for the water weasels tomorrow.

 

[TerriLaChicks]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=21668&p=2

there's pics of it on this thread. sounds like you are describing the same thing. You put the probe into the center of it.

You'll be fine. You're going to have a hatch. I always get nervous too! sending you positive hatching vibes!

 

[chicken_china_mom]

That was not easy. It was like a ballet. I had to candle and remove the undeveloped ones, and hurry up and get the turner in there. I removed about a dozen between the two bators that were completely dead, but I managed to make enough room for all my new EE eggs that I just received, AND I made room for a dozen of my own Bantam eggs. Yay! I really am praying hard that something hatches. It looks like most of my little Silkie eggs are developing, but it looks like none, or at the least, very few, of my Sebright eggs made it. Oh well. I'm looking forward to my Silkies and Bantam Cochins hatching. It turned out I had 3 weeping eggs, I tossed them all. I got that big one unstuck faster than I expected. I have an absolutely HUGE EE egg in there. I hope it hatches. It's like the Godzilla of all eggs! It's just HUGE! I also slipped in an egg from my Bantam BO, and the little standard girl I have in with my Banties. She's a Welsummer mixed with who knows what, but she was the first egg I successfully hatched, and now I feel like a grandma setting her eggs to hatch, lol. My kids were so excited when she laid an egg right in front of my younger daughter today. My daughter scooped the egg up and brought it straight in here to be incubated, lol. We can't wait to see what comes out!