electric skillet as incubator- experiment- coturnix quail

[Quail Jailer]

OGG, it was me that mentioned the humidity indicator on your thermo, (i noticed you mentioned it in the video)

I have an incubator that was just disinfected and is running empty to make sure everything is dry.

While it was damp I put two digital hygrometers in, humidity went to 99.

then I checked the themo/hygro like yours and calibrated it against another known accurate hygrometer

RH was 76 (its georgia) and 99 in the bator, i put in the hygro like yours and ten minutes later RH still 99%

the hygro like yours said 58% it should have gone up but it went down.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Ya i will be getting a better therm/hygrom for my cooler bator. I believe its off alot. But even so i did get chicks.

I opened the three remaining. They were just like the two pipped dead ones. Which leads me to beleive the temp spike killed them. All seemed to be fully grown. So if not for the temo spike i might have had all eight viable chicks or at least hatch/try to hatch.

In any case i learned a ton from this. I am more confident that i can now invest money in the rest of the cooler bator parts and ordering eggs.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

EI was a bit worried about the third chicks foot as they seemed slow to spread and right themselves but they are fine now. And his right wing looked to be a nubby and not a full wing when he hatched but has since fluffed out and it seems to be a full wing maybe a bit smaller.

 

[missnu01]

I have 22 eggs that incubated in an older model food dehydrator. Set to go into lock down on the 22nd, and then 2 more eggs that will go into lock Down on the 25th. Seems to be working great. Holds a steady temp. Good humidity. Going to use my brinsea as a hatcher. I need to go ahead and start my next hatch, but I'm thinking I might quit for awhile and eat some eggs. Lol. Haven't eaten any in months. Been hatching them all. Hatched 13 then 17 probably going to hatch 20 something and that should be enough for awhile seeing as that I've only been able to sell 8 so far. Too many chicks. It's alright though we will keep the girls and eat the boys and then come cold weather I will have a chicken selling bonanza. People love to buy newly laying hens. So...The more I have the more I sell

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

The chicks are doing good. Guy didnt end up buyin em so i have em. They grow so fast! They are half feathered already!
Its plenty hot here (85+ day and 70-80 night) so they are out in a small hutch section. Doing good.

I do not suggest this method for incubating I: my electric bill is $50 higher than usual ): would rather have bought the parts for the cooler bator with that. Oh well too late now.

 

[Quail Jailer]

Ouch, didnt consider the power bill.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Hello again. Little review on my experiment.
Unfortunately i had to a sell off the quail and havent gotten back into it. Fortunately they went to a very excited family along with plenty of tools to help setup. Ie feeder waterer cage.

I will be moving soon and after i get settled i hope to buy a dozen or so eggs and start back up. Which will probably lead to more incubator experiments.
That led me to rethink this experiment.

1) you must never be gone more than a half hour from it. Seriously. Right now if you are reading this thinking to try it, if you cannot *absolutely* *swear* to this then just use a regular incubator.
I did absolutely everything by hand and was in absolute constant guard of it. The exception being during hatching when i was gone for just over and hour and came back to spiked temps 105+.. and my therm maxed at 105.. as previously stated in this thread the eggs remaining seemed to be fully formed and all but appeared to have died in the temp spike.

2) if you are crazy enough to also try this route of experiment i urge you to run alot more dry run test than i did

3) i would definitely suggest doing this at a time when you are already heating your house. Unlike when i did it and like a dummy realized i was running the skillet plus had to turn up the A/C a pinch and it almost never went off during the experiment. Since i needed the house temp even as possible to help keep the skillet temp even. Thus run up my electric bill.
In a setup like this with very little insulation any sort than the house temp really must me even!