DIY CABINET COOLER INCUBATOR How we did it and TEST RUN Ready Set GO!

[Sally Sunshine]

I dont know if I posted on this thread but a month ago my dogs Killed my RIR!

And now I can say that the eggs I HRIR eggs I bought and had shipped are ALL PIPPED!! all 11 viable day 20 is today!
Initially 2 I had to chuck as they were cracked bottoms and rollers, and one I think was infertile or had internal damage from shipping, it too had a big moving air cell and never did anything so I cant call infertile because I didnt breakout to analyse.

I will have HRIR chicks tomorrow and maybe some late tonight if I am lucky!! YAY go chickies!!

Oh I pray I get all 11 and no issues!! If it pips its got great chance!

I am so thrilled to have peeked and seen every egg EVERY EGG and three of my own CCL in lockdown have pippers!!
First time that I peered in a bator and seen that every single egg had a pip! first time EVER! sweetness.... now watch none will hatch

 

[8isenuff]

I dont know if I posted on this thread but a month ago my dogs Killed my RIR!

And now I can say that the eggs I HRIR eggs I bought and had shipped are ALL PIPPED!! all 11 viable day 20 is today!
Initially 2 I had to chuck as they were cracked bottoms and rollers, and one I think was infertile or had internal damage from shipping, it too had a big moving air cell and never did anything so I cant call infertile because I didnt breakout to analyse.

I will have HRIR chicks tomorrow and maybe some late tonight if I am lucky!! YAY go chickies!!

Oh I pray I get all 11 and no issues!! If it pips its got great chance!

I am so thrilled to have peeked and seen every egg EVERY EGG and three of my own CCL in lockdown have pippers!!
First time that I peered in a bator and seen that every single egg had a pip! first time EVER! sweetness.... now watch none will hatch

Congrats! Fingers crossed for a great hatch!

 

[chicken pickin]

please feed back, make sure your getting spot checks all over the interior areas! back to front up to down

I just looked at my cooler lockdown eggs, I see pippers!! awesomeness!! pray I dont have two straglers again because last time the two were wet big chicks, so I know that I have a colder spot but even the brinsea spot check cant find it... My hubs thinks its a certain hens eggs, they are bigger than others so who knows!

So here is what I did so far. Instead of removing the lower shelf completely, I decided to start with just the seal around the lower shelf so I removed all the silver metal tape that was sealing the edges of the lower shelf. I had the thermometer on the top level and the incubator is now reading at 100 degrees at the upper level where as last night it was reading at 104. I just now moved the thermometer to the lowest level to see what it reads and then I will check the middle level. My new Brinsea spot check should be arriving today also, very excited! I hope it works well

Ive been hearing a few not good reviews on the spot check recently

.

Ill post back later with more temp readings.

 

[dheltzel]

So here is what I did so far. Instead of removing the lower shelf completely, I decided to start with just the seal around the lower shelf so I removed all the silver metal tape that was sealing the edges of the lower shelf. I had the thermometer on the top level and the incubator is now reading at 100 degrees at the upper level where as last night it was reading at 104. I just now moved the thermometer to the lowest level to see what it reads and then I will check the middle level. My new Brinsea spot check should be arriving today also, very excited! I hope it works well

Ive been hearing a few not good reviews on the spot check recently

.

Ill post back later with more temp readings.

I like my Spot check, I trust it more than the other thermometers. I use it mostly to calibrate the Acurites from Walmart (which have proven accurate for temps, but off by 7 or 8 % on RH. I only turn it on occasionally to get an accurate reading when I want to know, then turn it off to conserve the battery. Short battery life and fluctuating reading when the battery is weak are the main complaints I've heard.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote:

 

[chicken pickin]

I like my Spot check, I trust it more than the other thermometers. I use it mostly to calibrate the Acurites from Walmart (which have proven accurate for temps, but off by 7 or 8 % on RH. I only turn it on occasionally to get an accurate reading when I want to know, then turn it off to conserve the battery. Short battery life and fluctuating reading when the battery is weak are the main complaints I've heard.

So far I find my acurite to be accurate and reliable also temp not humidity. We will see though when I compare it to the spot check.

Thanks for the positive review on the spot check.

 

[chicken pickin]

So I made no further adjustments to the cooler bator after removing the metal tape from the lower shelf in the cooler and my temps seem stable and even. I moved my thermometer around the entire inside of the cooler to get reading and it is reading 100 degrees everywhere, except the lower shelf meaning sitting directly on the lower shelf.

I made a few metal rack type shelves and put hardware cloth over them. I am going to put in an assortment of mixed breed eggs today just to do my test run. So my test run will start today YAY! I will be using light brown eggs so I will be able to see veining sooner. I will candle in about 4days. I am going to be hand turning since I opted not to make the semi auto turner.



Wish me luck.



I don't like my shelves so I only left the one in and I plan to make new ones with a wooden frame so they are better supported and can slide in and out more easily.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

ugggghh if I had gotten up earlier I may have saved this HRIR so mad!

external pip, totally absorbed but the little guy must have had his head on the wrong side of his wing and couldn't zip out, he was rolled all over in the egg.
Definitely was traveling in that egg, just couldn't get to peck shell. poor mite. So I have 10 HRIR hatched instead of the 11 that went into lockdown, I shouldnt complain I just hate seeing this type of breakout.
sucks everyone else was hatched and if I would have had my nose on the bator last night I would have seen they all hatched but one and could have stepped in to see what was up.
So with experience comes ignorance too. But it happened, I would bet money the momma hen would have pecked this one out, no doubt about it. What a great timed hatch, overnight and complete!






Can I mention again I love my new Cabinet CoolerBator and my Coolerbators? well I do!



NOTES and Summary of this batch of shipped eggs @ozexpat
Shipped from KY 3/31 and Arrived in PA 4/2
14 HRIR arrived in a shoe box, bubble wrapped and in peanuts, box marked this side up to be horizontal, eggs in this position air cell up.
2 of the oldest eggs marked 3/24 had rolling air cells, another 3/24 was very loose and had no growth, I didnt breakout this one to check fertility but my best guess is that it had internal damage from shipping, AGE of eggs definitely played a huge huge roll (no pun intended) in viability of this batch I can prove this over and over how that air cell size is important, eggs must be only 4 days old MAX when put into a box, 1-3 is always best. Also, my local mail carrier delivered the usps shoe box to my door in hands vertical, my guess is with shoe boxes they don't lay them flat or carry them horizontal despite what is written on the box, again 12x12x8.5 USPS box with an inner box could have very well prevented this along with 2-3 day old only eggs even though most were in this time frame it had severely effected the older eggs.

I set all 14 eggs after the 12-16 hours to settle to room temp and put them in the cabinet bator, ALL NORMAL eggs were turned from the start, the two rollers were not turned when set, no growth in them at day 2 and by day five were tossed because of seepage and cracks as seen above.


USPS STATS:

March 31, 2014 , 3:06 pm Acceptance LIBERTY, KY 42539
April 2, 2014 , 11:13 am

Delivered to PA​

Moved to brooder in between typing this LOL
photo shoot, buggers are little boogers and wouldnt stay still!




I had my three CCL eggs hatch too, excuse them in the puddle of redness LOL

 

[chicken pickin]

Im gonna go ahead and correct myself from when I said that the walmart acurite thermometer is accurate, well because ITS NOT.

I just got my new Brinsea Spot check. I put the probe in through the side vent hole and the cooler was reading 104

Acutrite thermometer was reading 100.

I also made sure to check the spot check in my other running hova bators, one was SPOT ON to the point. My other one I use as a hatcher seems has been running 2 degrees too low.

Im hoping this SPOT CHECK really is SPOT ON if so Im gonna be in love lol.

Hey Sally what do I want my Spot Check reading in the cabinet cooler bator? Right now it is reading 99.6

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Im gonna go ahead and correct myself from when I said that the walmart acurite thermometer is accurate, well because ITS NOT.

I just got my new Brinsea Spot check. I put the prob in throught the side vent hole and the cooler was reading 104

Acutrite thermometer was reading 100.

I also made sure to check the spot check in my other running hova bators, one was SPOT ON to the point. My other one I use as a hatcher seems has been running 2 degrees too low.

Im hoping this SPOT CHECK really is SPOT ON if so Im gonna be in love lol.

Hey Sally what do I want my Spot Check reading in the cabinet cooler bator? Right now it is reading 99.6

Take your temp with spot check under your tongue and see what it says to calibrate it, just dont have a fever LOL