Cornflower
Chirping
May 18th, 2023 I plunked 15 eggs into a dehydrator to see if they'll hatch.
I had commented on another post about this and I don't want to put my updates there. But there
are updates to tell!
Today is day 8, as of midnight May 26. Early this morning I candled some of them and saw... Oh man! I saw something
moving around! Two round shadows dancing and veins. The heart?
They're brown eggs so only the lightest and thinnest, 3 of the eggs, was I able to see into. Some of
these eggs have really thick shells and I don't know if I'll ever be able to see into them. But it was
exciting!
I got a free spreadsheet from a website and have been using that to track the weight loss. They are
1.2% underweight so far. I had traded a smaller bowl of water in on day 2 thinking that it was too
much humidity to use my really big cake pan. But seeing the loss of an 'nth of a gram I put the cake
pan back in. And I bought a digital temperature/humidity device and can see that the humidity is
now 21%. Pretty low.
The dehydrator is keeping a steady 97 deg F. I'm building a hatchery out of a large Styrofoam
cooler because the humidity wanted for hatching day is going to be about 70%.
My idea for doing this is because my old 1980's Excalibur dehydrator could fit four dozen eggs
or more. My friend is planning on doing large hatches, probably for broilers. I thought I could have
the pleasure of taking a bunch of that work off his hands. I don't think the dehydrator is going to
give us the hatch rate we want and that's not preferable if the eggs are valuable.
But the thing is working so far! A food dehydrator might be possible as a temporary back up incubator.
It has no heat mass, and holds the temp steady once you get it set. I didn't need to run it for 24 hours
before adding eggs, because once you turn it on it's instantly at temp. So if I had an incubator breakdown
I wouldn't hesitate to put eggs in there while waiting for the replacement to arrive.
PROS:
-This was cheap. I already had this, and old dehydrators can probably be picked up at garage sales.
-There was nothing else I really needed but a thermometer to dial in the heat, and pan for water.
-Comes to temperature immediately. Aside from your time adjusting the temp, the inside gets to temp
and holds very fast. No waiting for warm up.
-Would work as a temporary back up as long as you can get them into something better before Lockdown.
CONS:
-I don't recommend using it after lockdown.
-My pan barely keeps all the water in it for 48 hours.
-There isn't a way to refill the pan without opening the unit up.
-Lockdown needs 70% humidity and that's not going to happen in a sustainable way.
-I can't see into it very well, the drawer design doesn't give me a top down view.
-It's loud. I haven't enjoyed having that fan run constantly the past 8 days. I'm sure the chicks would be born with
tinnitus or deaf.
-It's making it hot in the house.
-Not what you'd use if you want a high hatch rate.
-Eggs are losing weight a tad faster than schedule.
I had commented on another post about this and I don't want to put my updates there. But there
are updates to tell!
Today is day 8, as of midnight May 26. Early this morning I candled some of them and saw... Oh man! I saw something
moving around! Two round shadows dancing and veins. The heart?
They're brown eggs so only the lightest and thinnest, 3 of the eggs, was I able to see into. Some of
these eggs have really thick shells and I don't know if I'll ever be able to see into them. But it was
exciting!
I got a free spreadsheet from a website and have been using that to track the weight loss. They are
1.2% underweight so far. I had traded a smaller bowl of water in on day 2 thinking that it was too
much humidity to use my really big cake pan. But seeing the loss of an 'nth of a gram I put the cake
pan back in. And I bought a digital temperature/humidity device and can see that the humidity is
now 21%. Pretty low.
The dehydrator is keeping a steady 97 deg F. I'm building a hatchery out of a large Styrofoam
cooler because the humidity wanted for hatching day is going to be about 70%.
My idea for doing this is because my old 1980's Excalibur dehydrator could fit four dozen eggs
or more. My friend is planning on doing large hatches, probably for broilers. I thought I could have
the pleasure of taking a bunch of that work off his hands. I don't think the dehydrator is going to
give us the hatch rate we want and that's not preferable if the eggs are valuable.
But the thing is working so far! A food dehydrator might be possible as a temporary back up incubator.
It has no heat mass, and holds the temp steady once you get it set. I didn't need to run it for 24 hours
before adding eggs, because once you turn it on it's instantly at temp. So if I had an incubator breakdown
I wouldn't hesitate to put eggs in there while waiting for the replacement to arrive.
PROS:
-This was cheap. I already had this, and old dehydrators can probably be picked up at garage sales.
-There was nothing else I really needed but a thermometer to dial in the heat, and pan for water.
-Comes to temperature immediately. Aside from your time adjusting the temp, the inside gets to temp
and holds very fast. No waiting for warm up.
-Would work as a temporary back up as long as you can get them into something better before Lockdown.
CONS:
-I don't recommend using it after lockdown.
-My pan barely keeps all the water in it for 48 hours.
-There isn't a way to refill the pan without opening the unit up.
-Lockdown needs 70% humidity and that's not going to happen in a sustainable way.
-I can't see into it very well, the drawer design doesn't give me a top down view.
-It's loud. I haven't enjoyed having that fan run constantly the past 8 days. I'm sure the chicks would be born with
tinnitus or deaf.
-It's making it hot in the house.
-Not what you'd use if you want a high hatch rate.
-Eggs are losing weight a tad faster than schedule.