Crockpot (slow cooker) incubator - take 2

[ChickenCanoe]

The govee thermometer and inkbird thermostat read within 0.2C of each other. I can’t recommend these enough.

I also have those little black hygrometer/thermometers that I always see people use, but the temperature on those are hardly reliable. The govees are only around $10 each, you can use them for your homes after you are done with the incubation...it’s honestly a good deal!

...highly recommended!

I have 3 of the govee H5074 units. One for each incubator and one for the hatcher.
I absolutely love them. I'm not familiar with the inkbird.
Which do you prefer?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Thanks it died this morning before I could call the rehabber. I stayed up all night, and then when it died I kind of just slept on it.

I appreciate my cat being an excellent mouser, but I wish I could teach him to leave the birds and other critters alone.

That will never happen. They kill everything they can.

 

[yakitori]

I have 3 of the govee H5074 units. One for each incubator and one for the hatcher.
I absolutely love them. I'm not familiar with the inkbird.
Which do you prefer?

I like them both each serves a different function for me. The inkbird is a thermostat controller while the govee is a thermometer/hygrometer. I use the inkbird to control the temperature when brooding as well, so it plays a double function!

That will never happen. They kill everything they can.

I know right XD

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I like them both each serves a different function for me. The inkbird is a thermostat controller while the govee is a thermometer/hygrometer. I use the inkbird to control the temperature when brooding as well, so it plays a double function!

Hence the higher cost.
I guess that beats a STCC1000 temperature controller AND a thermometer.

 

[yakitori]

Hence the higher cost.
I guess that beats a STCC1000 temperature controller AND a thermometer.

The Stcc-1000 is cheaper! but it requires some wiring... and I have no idea how to do that with the crockpot, haha. The ITC-360T is plug and play, good for dummys like me

 

[yakitori]

The coop this morning...

 

[Tonyroo]

So are you going to keep using the crock pot method? It seems like a lot of adjusting to keep it balanced.

Are your chickens pets or livestock for eggs?

I'm curious to know.

 

[Little Baby Bean]

The coop this morning...

They are so cute!!

 

[yakitori]

So are you going to keep using the crock pot method? It seems like a lot of adjusting to keep it balanced.

Are your chickens pets or livestock for eggs?

I'm curious to know.

My chickens are pets and for eggs. I would never process one for meat though!

Honestly... I’ve never had any other incubator, so I don’t know how much adjusting is a lot...but I feel that’s it’s been pretty hands off once I figure out what settings I’m going for and how to get there? Which I think it’s normal when doing something for the first time. Incubators are convenient because someone already designed them to do a specific task, wrote down the instructions on how to do it etc... but a crock pot was never meant for incubation, so I had to figure things out myself.

I barely adjusted anything for my currently quail egg batch, having figured out most of my settings from this welsummer hatch. Welsummer hatched out on Friday, then I pretty much just changed out the water, got a new plastic bag and the pot was ready to go again. Quail eggs went in on Saturday. I didn’t need to worry about not cleaning the bator properly etc.

A lot of the adjustments I made were mainly due to my own curiosity. I’m a verrrrry curious person, I just *need* to know! ...experience it for myself to see how things work. In the end, any adjustments you see on here is just me being nosy and probably 80% uneccessary. I pretty mych figured out everything I need when I used the 2qt crock pot, but then I switched to a 7qt and had to figure out the new pot.

Temperature was straight forward, once heated, I didn’t have to worry about sudden spikes. Even if the power went out, 1.5 gallons of warm water would have held the temp for a good while. humidity was also pretty easy to adjust, heavy breathable insulating cover material to lower and a damp paper towel every 12 hours + lid over moisture absorbing insulating material to raise. Once I figured that out, humidity was a no brainer. The only unknown in the end is how incubation via contact temp works (vs air temp). I couldn’t find literature about this so I chose to go for the route of a lower temperature to account for higher end of the small temperature fluctuations during heating and cooling. But it would have likely been okay if temperatures were a bit higher. I have no way of measuring the center of the egg, so all this is was just trial and error... Fortunately unlike in an incubator, I can open the pot up for extended periods without being worried that the eggs will be adversely affected due to how well the water holds heat.

I don’t know whether than answered your question, but the tldr is, once I know how to work with waterbed incubation, no temp adjustment is needed. Humidity will be adjusted just like any other incubator (but add damp paper towel instead of water). Unfortunately the eggs will still need to be turned by hand. lol.

 

[Tonyroo]

My chickens are pets and for eggs. I would never process one for meat though!

Honestly... I’ve never had any other incubator, so I don’t know how much adjusting is a lot...but I feel that’s it’s been pretty hands off once I figure out what settings I’m going for and how to get there? Which I think it’s normal when doing something for the first time. Incubators are convenient because someone already designed them to do a specific task, wrote down the instructions on how to do it etc... but a crock pot was never meant for incubation, so I had to figure things out myself.

I barely adjusted anything for my currently quail egg batch, having figured out most of my settings from this welsummer hatch. Welsummer hatched out on Friday, then I pretty much just changed out the water, got a new plastic bag and the pot was ready to go again. Quail eggs went in on Saturday. I didn’t need to worry about not cleaning the bator properly etc.

A lot of the adjustments I made were mainly due to my own curiosity. I’m a verrrrry curious person, I just *need* to know! ...experience it for myself to see how things work. In the end, any adjustments you see on here is just me being nosy and probably 80% uneccessary. I pretty mych figured out everything I need when I used the 2qt crock pot, but then I switched to a 7qt and had to figure out the new pot.

Temperature was straight forward, once heated, I didn’t have to worry about sudden spikes. Even if the power went out, 1.5 gallons of warm water would have held the temp for a good while. humidity was also pretty easy to adjust, heavy breathable insulating cover material to lower and a damp paper towel every 12 hours + lid over moisture absorbing insulating material to raise. Once I figured that out, humidity was a no brainer. The only unknown in the end is how incubation via contact temp works (vs air temp). I couldn’t find literature about this so I chose to go for the route of a lower temperature to account for higher end of the small temperature fluctuations during heating and cooling. But it would have likely been okay if temperatures were a bit higher. I have no way of measuring the center of the egg, so all this is was just trial and error... Fortunately unlike in an incubator, I can open the pot up for extended periods without being worried that the eggs will be adversely affected due to how well the water holds heat.

I don’t know whether than answered your question, but the tldr is, once I know how to work with waterbed incubation, no temp adjustment is needed. Humidity will be adjusted just like any other incubator (but add damp paper towel instead of water). Unfortunately the eggs will still need to be turned by hand. lol.

Thanks for explaining your intentions on your chicken and experiment. I totally understand the hands on knowledge. I do the same too.