Designed and Built Incubator - Have to start somewhere!

[coleco]

Another egg has a pip since this morning but is resting.

 

[coleco]

25 hours later and an hour and a half into hatch day #22 hatched successfully.
I have another pip, other eggs are very slightly wiggling. Humidity was hard to keep at 60%. I got some new glass storage containers out of it tho. I had to put rectangular glass dishes with sponges in them. I have grown to distrust the little humidifiers they have started getting finicky(i will take one apart to see if i can determine what causes it before next hatch).

 

[melamb13]

That's disappointing about the little humidifiers, they looked promising. Sounds like your brooder will be full soon.

 

[coleco]

Those little things may work better if i wasn't running them so hard trying to maintain humidity the whole time. In a mini-fridge i bet it would only click on rarely because it keeps the moisture so much better lol. I am in a race to beat winter at this point I hope to get in one more hatch. I'm hoping for the brooder to be at least cozy with chicks

 

[coleco]

The learning curve on a first hatch is rough. I have a chick who hatched and was fine but ended up with splayed legs so i band-aided and hope she can recover. Four other chicks hatched and dried all 5 in the mini brooder now. We are in day 22 and theres still eggs to hatch. So my shot at an optimal hatch within 18 hours is out the window. I can see now that this is going to take some practice and mother nature has a great slider.

 

[gpop1]

The learning curve on a first hatch is rough. I have a chick who hatched and was fine but ended up with splayed legs so i band-aided and hope she can recover. Four other chicks hatched and dried all 5 in the mini brooder now. We are in day 22 and theres still eggs to hatch. So my shot at an optimal hatch within 18 hours is out the window. I can see now that this is going to take some practice and mother nature has a great slider.

if you don't have anything on the floor or you put something that the chicks can not get a grip on they will spray leg. The best stuff I have found is cheap shelf liner its like a very fine plastic mesh that's washable.

If you have a small shot glass that's also a good way to help fix a splay leg. About 1hr in the shot glass (repeat a few times) will keep the leg under the chick until it strengthens.

for a untested incubator your results are not to bad. I think you probably have hot spots which you can correct with a deflector and/or a slow rpm fan. My first attempt ended with a small redesign as I didn't realize how the eggs would affect the air flow. Once sealed your humidity will become more controllable. I use a fan blowing over water to auto control mine and it works really well. (still like the usb type you used just need to see if they can be made more reliable).

 

[WalnutHill]

if you don't have anything on the floor or you put something that the chicks can not get a grip on they will spray leg. The best stuff I have found is cheap shelf liner its like a very fine plastic mesh that's washable.

If you have a small shot glass that's also a good way to help fix a splay leg. About 1hr in the shot glass (repeat a few times) will keep the leg under the chick until it strengthens.

for a untested incubator your results are not to bad. I think you probably have hot spots which you can correct with a deflector and/or a slow rpm fan. My first attempt ended with a small redesign as I didn't realize how the eggs would affect the air flow. Once sealed your humidity will become more controllable. I use a fan blowing over water to auto control mine and it works really well. (still like the usb type you used just need to see if they can be made more reliable).

An air stone on a very small aquarium pump in a wide mouth jar is very effective as well.

 

[coleco]

Good input! Thanks I quickly realized that I purchased the wrong drawer liner. I bought the stippled one not the mesh-like one. lesson learned.

Im going to modify a larger humidifier to use next time. I got the humidity working for now stabalized at 62%. I have a line on some more eggs. I will perhaps set again next week. But for now more eggs are hatching so i will keep melanging my way to better incubation skills.

 

[WalnutHill]

I use the sponge rubber perforated drawer liner used for toolboxes. It's washable and very grippy.

 

[coleco]

Thats the one i should've used. It's putting carpet in the kitchen; doesn't work lol.