Brooder, homemade incubator, or neither?

[Lori J]

I have some eggs currently in the incubator on lockdown. I wanted to go ahead and start another batch. Never mind why LOL. My question is -

1. should I make a temporary homemade incubator out of a Styrofoam cooler?

2. Should I put either set of eggs under with my chick brooder at 100 degrees for a couple of days?

Of course when the first set hatches, I will put the second batch into the normal incubator. Since I dry hatch, I don’t think I can add both sets of the eggs together now during lockdown when there is water in there - because that would spoil the dry hatching of the 2nd set? I put a “?” Because I really am not sure.

For those of you who think that this is too complicated, just think of this is a puzzle to pass the time lol.

 

[Ruby Rogue]

It will be more difficult to maintain humidity in your homemade incubator, so I recommend hatching in your factory incubator. If you can get the temp right in your brooder, you can try. I've done it.

 

[Lori J]

It will be more difficult to maintain humidity in your homemade incubator, so I recommend hatching in your factory incubator. If you can get the temp right in your brooder, you can try. I've done it.

This is my brooder heat source. Of course the eggs would only be in there for a couple days. Do you recommend putting the current ones in? Or the batch that has not been incubated yet

 

[Ruby Rogue]

If it's only a couple of days, I'd just wait. If you can get the right temperature with your setup, you could try it.

Definitely don't experiment with eggs close to hatching.

 

[spartacus_63]

I'd wait. What could possibly be so urgent?

 

[Ruby Rogue]

How did it go?

 

[Lori J]

Even though three of the eggs were fully formed, they never hatched. I did wait a few days but finally put the other eggs in. Those have been in for about 12 days now. When I candled them, four of them looked good. The other 5 were questionable. If you had some development but not as much as the four eggs, and the others were nearly clear. I wonder if the lack of or slowed development in half the eggs could’ve been caused by my delays?

 

[Ruby Rogue]

Have you checked your incubator for hot and cold spots? There are many factors at play when you artificially incubate eggs. You haven't showed us pictures of your setup yet.
What model of incubator are you using? Is it still air or forced air? Have you checked your temperatures using multiple calibrated thermometers in different areas of the incubator? You say you are dry hatching, but do you have a monitor for humidity?

 

[Lori J]

Have you checked your incubator for hot and cold spots? There are many factors at play when you artificially incubate eggs. You haven't showed us pictures of your setup yet.
What model of incubator are you using? Is it still air or forced air? Have you checked your temperatures using multiple calibrated thermometers in different areas of the incubator? You say you are dry hatching, but do you have a monitor for humidity?

Janoel. Forced air. It’s a small incubator my neighbor gave me. I do have a monitor for humidity but I’ve been dry hatching for a year with nearly 100%. I sell the chicks. Live in Humid climate. It’s possible that it is now defective though. Maybe I should move the thermometer around the incubator to test. These things break, don’t last forever.

 

[Ruby Rogue]

Yes, move the thermometer around and see what it says. It doesn't hurt to rotate the egg positions as well. In my home made incubator I did this, I was already hand turning and I wasn't confident that there weren't hot and cold spots even if it was usually the same. I also had multiple thermometers that I watched, no thermostat to regulate temperature, and still good hatch rates.