First time hatcher, home made incubator, need LOTS of advice

[elloyd]

you will need a thermomitor the temp needs to be 99 to 102 and the humidity needs to be about 50 to 60 percent it looks like it will work you will have to try it aout with out eggs in it for at least 2 days so you can get the temp and humidity set right

 

[sloallie10]

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hey! I just noticed your in central coast. So am I! im in slo, where are you?

 

[Tanichca]

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Thats just fine! I also have another thread, chronicling my hatch, from the day i bought the eggs, until *hopefully* hatching time.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=5157387#p5157387

 

[Intheswamp]

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I see you already have hatching eggs ordered but you're asking these questions? I *really* suggest you use all of your free time reading and digging through this forum.

1, 2, 3 - You will need a thermometer, but also a hygrometer. Temperature...~101.0F. Humidity...depends on if you're going to "dry hatch" or "regular hatch". You can up the humidity by adding trays of water, wet rags, etc.,.

4 - If you want to, you could prop the eggs up in the bottom of an egg carton. Many folks lay them on their sides, though.

5 - Turn eggs 3+ times a day...always turn them an odd number of times each day.

6 - ???

Much better to run the incubator *several* days before starting to incubate. That looks like an older, commercially produced incubator to me so I would definitely want to run it a while before incubating, but being as your eggs will be getting older you need to start incubation pretty soon so no time for a long "test run".

Best wishes,
Ed

 

[DRAGGINZUZU]

If thats a home made bator?? Looks exactly like mine its a brower 845? Mine is 40+yrs old and I just had a failure with my quail eggs. Ive read there good though. And should modify it with a fan to try to keep the temps stable. Im a newbie too but noticed the temp in mine was different at 3 different places. Im going to modify mine and replace the wafer and try again. Also the humidity was hard to get up until I put a sponge in it then it jumped too high. I would suggest playing with it for a few days to get the hang of it. I used paper egg cartons with the bottom cut off each hole to hold my eggs. But like I said I had a complete failure. I blame it on my thermo/hygrometers . one would say98.5 and the other would shoot up to 108+ I guess I should have went with the bigger temp?

hope it helps and keep us posted Id like to see what happens with that bator.

 

[PunkinPeep]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=113681&p=1

The thread i linked to is very helpful.

I would strongly recommend calibrating your hygrometer before going too far.

Here's a link for that. http://exoticpets.about.com/od/herpresources/ss/hygrometer.htm

On question #6. Keep in mind that these chicks will eventually hatch, and they will need room outside of their eggs to exist while waiting for their cohorts to hatch. It's best to keep the incubator closed up until everyone is hatched so that you don't shrink wrap the ones who are mid-hatch.

 

[Tanichca]

I will be buying a hygrometer today. And i believe the incubator has a fan, and my BFF has used it in the past and says it works. If anything happens, i can give the eggs to my 4H leader, who owns a feed store and has bators running 24/7. Thanks SOOOOO much for the advice, everyone.