Brinsea question

[mylittlezoo]

Today is day 20 on a hatch of 21 eggs in my Brinsea Oct. It's my first hatch with this new bator, and I have a few questions.

I couldn't seem to make the little wore dividers work when I set the eggs - this is a mix of banty and LF eggs, and unless there was a full row of eggs, they kept falling over. What was I doing wrong??

To cure this, and get the eggs in on time, I simply put two 12 egg cardboard egg cartons side by side in there - they fit perfectly. Put the eggs in - good to go. Or so I thought.

I'm having troubles keeping the humidity up - is this due to the egg cartons soaking up the water, or a lack of air circulation to the water channels, which are below the cartons?

Also - and most oddly - I am having a great hatch on the outside rows ONLY. Pips, chicks, fabulous. On the two inside rows of eggs - NOTHING.

I need to go in and get chicks out, as it is cramped in there. But I fear dropping the humidity further. Lesson learned - don't cram 21 eggs in to the Brinsea. It's not big enough. Should I, when I go in to get the chicks later, move the inside eggs to the outside rows?

HELP!!

 

[chicken stalker]

When I first started mine I used an egg carton with the bottom of the cups cut off so there was air flow. Eggs hatched fine. I now use a little wad of wax paper at the end of the row to help support the eggs in the little metal dividers. I cram as many eggs in as possible. Right now I have 29 eggs in, 24 in the rows and 5 laying on thier sides on top near the sides of the incubator. I put that many in just in case I have some duds. I just fill in the empty space if/when it becomes available.
Here my last incubation set up.
http://i470.photobucket.com/albums/rr70/chicken2008_photos/JanuaryHatch.jpg

 

[sben451]

Last spring, I hatched 24 LF eggs in my Eco 20. It does get a bit crowded when they start hatching. I took the first hatchers out when they were dried a bit--just work quickly and the temp. and humidity will come back up pretty fast. I can't answer your question about the egg carton, but I made some evaporation pads to get the humidity up before hatching time. Just fold several layers of paper towels to make the pad, and let one end of the pad be in the water tray. Let the rest of the pad lay across the bottom of the incubator. It gives a bigger area for the moisture to evaporate.
Good luck with the hatch.

 

[Joyryder]

I was trying to find out this answer in another post.

Chicken stalker, 2 more questions please

1. Do you remove the dividers for the lock down period.

2. How do you increase the humidity for lockdown, I used a sponge, but I had to wet it with warm water every day.

Thanks,
Joanne

 

[chicken stalker]

1. no I leave them up right.
2. I use a sponge and I try to position it below the air flow adjuster. Most of the time there is about a 1/4 gap between the last row of eggs and the side of the tray or if there are duds I arrange the eggs before lock down, so that there is a spot for a couple 2x2 sponges stacked on top of eachother (I did this last time, worked great). When the humidity drops I push a drinking straw through the vent hole down to the sponge and use an infant tylonal dropper to put water into the tube. Once the sponge is wet I remove the straw and readjust to vent to its original position.

 

[foxflower]

Chicken Stalker, thanks for post a pic. It was helpful as I wasn't sure how to arrange the eggs to get 24 in. I laid mine on their sides. I have the autoturner, so that seems to work to tip between points. When you set yours upright, do you leave them that way or turn them? I'm new to this obviously and thought they had to be turned end to end?

 

[flyweed]

I will be getting my Brinssea Octo 20 this coming monday and will be setting 30 Partridge (chukar) eggs...can anyone show me, of explain how to set the chukar eggs in the Octo 20????

Thanks
Dan