Filling a Full Hova-Bator with Egg Turner

[rwcmick]

Well, I'm off to start a family...A chicken family that is and I have loaded up my Hova-Bator with 42 eggs.

My question for you is, how do you fill the channel once the eggs are placed in the egg turner?

I think that picking up the turner with all those eggs would end is disaster!

Any ideas? A baster filled with water perhaps?

 

[Anne]

I "inject" water into the rings with a turkey baster.

 

[silkiechicken]

I am having a hard time imagining what it is looking like at the moment, but one thing you could try is filling up a large cup with water, and using like fish tank tubing to create a suction, and then leading the tube into where you want to water to go. Raise the bucket and the water will flow in. Does this make sense?

 

[hinkjc]

On mine, there is enough of a gap on the lower right side, when you open it you can just pour water into the channel using a cup. It may slosh a little, but it dries up in a few minutes.

During hatch time, if I need to add water for some reason I use a funnel attached to a drinking cup tube (remember those big plastic drinking cups with those fat bumpy type straws). It works good to fill water thru the vent hole.

Jody

 

[rwcmick]

thanks for the ideas, between the funnel and the baster i should be able to get it. i just bought a hygrometer (from the reptilian section) at petco and it's telling me the current humidity is 70. i filled only the "c" channel as the guide said to. i'll wait it out a day or so and see where things settle. 70 for the 18 days is to high, isn't it?

here's the gauge i bought:

http://www.petco.com/product/9424/Kritterz-Reptile-Habitat-Humidity-Gauge.aspx

 

[Poison Ivy]

Those gauges are great I have that one too in my incubator. The humidity should be 50% for the first 18 days then raise it to 70% to finish out the hatch. Good luck

 

[rwcmick]

I checked in on the incubator today and it's still running 70-75% on the gauge I bought from Petco.

Should I trust that number? When I take the top off it does seem pretty balmy. About 1/2 a minute and the humidity is down to 55-60%.

Should I take all the eggs out and fiddle with the water tray since I'm only about a day into the process?

 

[jackiedon]

When mine went too high and couldn't get it down. I rolled up a paper towel stuck it through the little squares and absorbed some of the water out of the canel until I got my humidity where I needed it. It takes a while.

Good luck,

jackie

 

[silkiechicken]

My incubation humidity goes unchecked, but if I did monitor it and it was too high, I would just wait till it drys out and let it run dry for a while. The important part is to make sure enough water loss is occurring from the egg and you don't drown the chick the last 3 days.

 

[rwcmick]

so then it would be safe "let it ride" for now until the water runs out? or should i dive in and try to fix it? the owner's manual for my hovabator says that most poor hatches are due to too much humidity, that's what has me worried.