Can I use a Reptile Incubator for Chicken Eggs (Reptipro5000)

[bel]

broke down and ordered one from think geek (held off on getting a titanium spork for now) as a backup, but I wonder if this would be even better as a hatcher?

 

[brkuk]

How was the shipping? $$. Was it back ordered?

 

[bel]

It said "in stock", and to CA it was just under $25 for ground, or $35 for 3 day UPS. If you put on in a cart then go look at the cart there is a place to calculate shipping by zip.

 

[ChicknCharm]

Hey All! Well, I just placed about a half dozen Frizzle Cochin eggs in our reptipro-thinkgeek-chickipro bator.

Some notes: I have the temp on the digital display at 103 degrees. It seems the unit looses heat and then starts back up again to reheat to the set temp. The unit does not seem to fluctuate in degrees above what you set. I put our thermo-hydrometer in the unit so that it was right about 100. It stays consistent through the night on the inside thermometer when I set it a bit higher than 100 degrees, thus the 103 degrees. So, do test that with an internal thermometer. The nice thing is, you really don't worry about temperature after that.

I started out with a sandwich size tupperware full of water...that kept the humidity at about 75%, so remember that for days 18-21 and pipping.

To keep the humidity at about 50%, I use a condiment container that is a small rectangle, about 4 inches long and 2 across, it is about 3 inches deep (so it stays full for a long time).

I am considering drilling two holes in the front plastic door for air venitilation. I still have not figured out if this is necessary. We are opening our door every few hours to turn the eggs since there are only about 7 to turn. I think that should let in enough oxygen.

ON TURNING: The shelf is the perfect size gridwork to hold eggs. You can lay them on their sides in the squares with the big butts up (which I believe is correct form sans the turner). So, that is neat. I have my shelf up on the highest notches as the temperature is measured more at the top of the unit. Again, only a few eggs, so we put them up high. Do check temperate and humidity with an interior monitor.

AND...I used the shelf as a pattern to cut out a large flat cardboard egg carton. It worked out perfect, it cuts easily in the right shape and is just perfect on the shelf. So, if you have lots of eggs, do this twice. One for the bottom shelf (you will have to make a bottom shelf using the single unit shelf as a pattern, use a 1/4 inch material with holes for ventilation). Then you can put an empty paper towel spool in the center of your shelf. Place your cut egg carton on top of that. Then, you could tilt from side to side. You could also use two paper towel spools and insert the second to have the carton lay flat in between tilts. Does that make sense? I tried this too and it worked, but we did not need to do this with only a few eggs.

We will post how everyone hatches. I hope it works! I have never candled or anything...so I need to learn that to tell you accurately.

 

[bel]

Thanks for the updates. I hope it works out well.
With the sandwich tupperware it sounds like it could be a good hatcher.
Mine arrives 3/4, I was thinking of cutting down some plastic egg flats, and using them with a piece of PVC tube to move back and fourth to tilt (and hoping to later rig up a turner for it)

 

[ChicknCharm]

Hi All!
I have been hand turning our (about) 8 eggs. Tonight I tried to candle for the second time in my short career as a chicken ob-gyn. I see a definite brightness at the fat butt of the egg (air sack?), and then below some bright light, but also shadows and mass either along one side or in the middle (like a large horizontal shadow band). So, something has grown in them all. My special flashlight died, so I was using a papertowel roll with a cut out over a candle type bulb. Not great technology....but the entire egg did not light up like a magic orb (which is not good from what I read here). There are shadows for sure and an air sack at the top.

That is my update so far. Also, the machine runs quiet, is much easier to keep humidity and temp going than the LG we also have running. The door is kind of hard to latch when it closes and I worry about shaking the unit too much, making sure it is sealed well.

Anyone else have any news?

 

[bel]

Thanks for the update.
No news here yet. I still haven't tried the unit for eggs yet, need to get a good accurate hygrometer and thermometer first. Did plug it in and play with it a bit, the door latch is pretty annoying.
Interestingly it has a switch in back that switches the fan to run more quietly for at night, I wonder which setting would work best for eggs?

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

To speak to the question of "is there enough oxygen"...if there is a fan, it is probably taking in outside air and is probably plenty of ventilation.

Opening it to turn adds even more. I think you are probably good to go...

I'm subscribing to this thread, so please keep us posted!!

 

[whitewolfvt]

Got one of these babies last week. I applied the advice on here of setting it at 102-103 and that keeps the temperature (according to the thermometer) at 100.7 consistently. Humidity with a ceramic cup of water in the bottom has kept the humidity at 77%. The door is annoying, but I put my hand on the top and work the door latch so not to wiggle it too much. It says somewhere in the brochure that came with the unit that turning the fan to "mute" will make the unit run more quietly, but it does decrease the ventilation and air flow also. So, I opted to keep it on normal setting. My eggs have only been in there for a few days. I will be subscribing to this topic too, to hear about the final outcome!

Yvette

 

[bel]

Yvette, which type thermometer do you use? I need to find a better one.

Noticed one thing, I set it for mute and the fan seems to stay on a bit longer.