First Post ... How it was for us

twigg

Cooped up
11 Years
Mar 2, 2008
1,389
17
171
Tulsa
We built an incubator, me having left my Octagon 20 in the UK when I moved here and not wanting to shell out $300 for a new one.

I can post pictures, etc, if anyone is interested. It has a max of 43 eggs, and auto-turns.

We bought 24 Buff Orpinton eggs from an Ebay trader. 6 were broken on arrival. The guy offered to replace them.

We set 18 eggs. At 7 days, 1 was clear and 2 had blood rings and were removed.

4 hours into day 21 the first one hatched. Over the next 15 hours, 8 more popped out. I helped only 1 which, despite the 75% humidity, had stuck to the shell trying to push out. The following morning the 10th hatched.

We opened the remaining eggs. We had 3 dead in shell, and 2 that had died some time prior to fully formed.

It seems that of the 18 we set, only 13 were ever going to hatch, and of those, 10 did.

Generally we were pleased, what with the incubator being a home design and build.

See Pics Here
 
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hello and welcome, i would like to see your incubator and egg turner , is it homemade also? i am trying to avoid getting one so i wont start hatching, but i will sooner or later.
 
We bought the turner from Attwoods, about $45.

I could have made one, but $45 wasn't bad for something that would have cost quite a bit in materials.

I already had an electronic temperature controller that I usually use to keep my beer-making fridge at the right temperature. These are expensive items that fortunately didn't need buying.

The box is 1/2 inch ply, 17" square and about 10" deep. The lid has a glass window and is hinged, the front also hinges down. I have a woodshop, so making the box was childs play.

The difficult bit was arranging the heat source (heating rope) and fan to produce even temps. It took a while.

I'll post pics.
 
Welcome to the forum!!!
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