Its working very well. The climb is pretty slow and my controller shuts off right away when it hits the desired %. Ive got the fogger at the bottom ad with all the air i have moving its staying really balanced and even. Thinking I may keep the fogger for the final design with some of my own tweaks. float fill valve and external reservoir for one.
If they drowned it sounds like humidity was too high maybe you can run it a little lower next time.Yesterday all of mine were supposed to have hatched or started pipping. When I arrived home from work I noticed another one out. Yay! Put it in the brooder with it's buddies. I became a little concerned when I didn't see any other pips or hear any cheeping....so I decided to snatch a few and candle them. Dead. ALL dead. Some pipped internally, others drown in liquids.
I HATE incubating. But cannot stop. It's like a crazy obsession. I did everything spot on this time around. I think the only problem is that I have a piece of junk incubator that cannot keep a temperature stable. It constantly fluctuated (95-99). EVEN with me adding things to better the sensitivity. Here's a hint. Don't by an LG incubator. They are crap. And if you do like one it is probably because you have spent enough modifying it to make it as good as the regular ones out there. My chick development was so spotty. Some were clearly not ready to try and hatch. Dead. Some pipped but then weakend and died. Most drown. ARGH#@!!!!
So now I have three chicks. Each worth $15 a piece at birth. This just downright sucks. I feel so bad for the chicks who struggled to survive but didn't. I wish I had known. I couldv'e done something then.
Here's a big thanks to LG though for telling me never to skip on quality. And to never again incubate unless they are under a broody. CHEERS. I'm pouring myself a glass of wine as I type.
Didyou say its a reptile fogger?
Gt a second gauge...they can be cheap.then if thye both read the same...notthat.My RH gauge is reading 75%, I think it may be that the gauge is bad but i will have to live with it for this hatch now. I already have
three hatchies so it doesn't seem to be having a bad effect.
I thought about it for a while and decided to apply some science to the issue.
Relative humidity is in fact the amount of water vapor in the air expressed as a percentage of it's capability to hold water vapour. The
capability of the air to hold water changes with temperature and the hotter the temperature the lower it's capability to hold water
vapor, so for example if you have a high temperature as in an incubator at 99.5, the capability is small so 75% RH may not represent
as much water as say 50%RH at 70 degrees (these are not exact numbers just examples for concept). There is a specific temperature
called Dewpoint which occurs when the air fills up to 100% for the temperature that it is at. If you dip slightly below that
temperature then water vapour will come out of the air usually in the form of condensation. So if the temperature of the inside surface of the window
is lower than the dewpoint temperature inside the incubator it will fog up the windows. So I guess I have to conclude that either my RH gauge is off or that it's normal for this to happen because 70-75 is quite a warm room temp.
the chart below helps to figure out the dewpoint and hence the RH inside the incubator at which the condensation begins.
so it seems as if the window surface must be at least 88 degrees in order to avoid condensation for 70% humidity. I think
I am going to put an insulator over the window (maybe a square of styrofoam) and see what happens.....
DO love this last pic...so tiny and all colors...awwwee!
Yesterdays babies
