'Cooling Periods' during Incubation for better hatch rates!

[KrisLW]

Hi,

Has anyone got any experience of deliberately cooling their eggs every day during the incubation period?

Some of Brinsea's new 2012 incubators now include a cooling option where the user can set the incubator to turn off the heater for a defined period each day.

"Brinsea have now incorporated a cooling option in all their Advance models of egg incubators for 2012 for proven increases in hatch rates. This feature turns the incubator’s heater and low temperature alarm off for a selected period but keeps the fan running. After the cooling period is complete the incubator reverts to normal temperature and the alarm is automatically reset"

More info on benefits of cooling: http://www.brinsea.co.uk/cooling/

Anyone ever tried this?

Thanks

KrisLW

 

[jessica.anne]

I'm actually doing this with my current hatch. I am allowing a gradual cool down period of 60 minutes a day to 97 degrees. I go into lockdown tomorrow evening. All 9 eggs that I began with are alive and very active, although I can't see much now with it being day 17. I've read quite a bit about the advantages of cool down periods, the idea being that it makes for stronger chicks. I've actually done a lot of research for this hatch and have taken a bunch of notes on these eggs, and must say I'm very proud of these guys.

 

[jessica.anne]

If you think about it, mama hen does a cool period most every day when she gets off to poo and eat. but to just shut the heat off the 'bator for lets say 15 min every day is kinda silly. most 'bators take an hour or more to cool down to even 97 unless your insulation sucks or your vents are open all the way and its in a cool room. if your serious remove the cover for 15 every day that will be a true cool off.

Thank you for assuming not only that the way I hatch MY eggs is silly...but that my incubator sucks. The very same incubator that I've had quite a few successful hatches in, might I add. I'm familiar with my equipment and am able to munipulate it to doing what I want it to do. And I've hatched caged birds' eggs in at as well. So thank you for your opinion of what you assumed so much about.

 

[cajun backwoods]

i have an old cabinet with auto turners, it has 3 trays and each tray holds 96 eggs, i do a weekly roatation every week a tray comes out and goes in the hatcher and a new tray goes in, i do this for about 6 months our of the year and that adds up to alot of chicks hatching. i only open my bator about every 3 days to refill the water and i keep about a 95% hatch rate. but everyone you see has their own way of doing this and what i usually tell people is once you find a way that works for you and your comfortable with, stick with it. there are alot of different routines that people use and most work well, so what im really saying if you are keeping a good hatch rate dont change it, everytime ive tried changing the way i do it my hatch rate goes down so if it aint broke dont fix it, HAPPY HATCHING

 

[yo burrill]

Just a thought with this... after the first week or so eggs start to produce their own heat. It takes a while for the inside of the eggs to actually cool to any extent so cooling them for less than fifteen minutes probably isn't making a huge difference in the internal temp of the egg. My broody will get off the nest for close to an hour before she gets back on, but usually during the warmest part of the day. Would be interesting to put a wet bulb thermometer under a broody and track the temp as she gets on and off the nest to get a good idea of how the temp drops inside an egg during this process.

 

[linkindna]

I've never heard of this but I am intrigued at the concept. The hen will leave the eggs periodically to eat, drink and eliminate waste and this brief cooling isn't harmful to her clutch of eggs. Perhaps the Brinsea company has picked up on this. I wonder if it actually increases hatch rate?

Sounds like it's time for a side-by-side hatch-off!

 

[JulieNKC]

A lot of people say to take goose and duck eggs out to cool for 15 minutes each day, maybe it's for incubating waterfowl? Never heard of trying it for chickens though.

 

[silkymom1986]

I am interested to know if this works on chicken eggs too?!?!

 

[fishman65]

seems a little extreme to me...yea we have all suffered power outages and pulled plugs and had fine hatches BUT, to do it on purpose I don't think will have much effect on your hatch...most of the time when a hen gets off the nest to do her duties another hen jumps in it and lays an egg, or at least in my pen that's what happens. Dont see any real advantage to cooling an egg you have been keeping hot for the last 23 1/2 hours BUT, i am just a simple farm owner that hatches for fun and dinner. not an expert. And if i am cooling my eggs it right after i FRYED them for breakfast.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It makes perfect sense to me. I'm building a new cabinet incubator after many failures with a free used LG. I was going to figure out how to automatically do a cooling period but I think it would be too hard to stabilize when the temp comes back up so I'm going to try pulling eggs for a brief period leaving the incubator run.
My broodies get close to 100% success. They get off the nest for up to an hour a day.

The other thing is humidity. It can be up anywhere from 50-90% relative humidity here. The hen can't control that and she still hatches well.

I try to brood closer to the way a hen does. She stays on the nest a few days after the chicks hatch and then spends most of the day walking around with them. They go under her to warm up and then run around scratching in the cool.
I don't use a thermometer, I have two lamps for a hot spot at each end of a hover and lots of cool space so the chicks can find their comfort zone. I don't believe in keeping the entire brooder at 95/90/85/et. al. week after week.