First time hatcher, now in lockdown!

[dorawinifred]

Go ahead! Btw, I have pips today!

GAAAAH how exciting! Hopefully I'm right behind you!

 

[dorawinifred]

Day 18 is coming to a close and still nothing. I'm feeling kind of sad about it. I candled earlier just to see what was going on. Air cells look good but not drawn down, no internal pipping at all. The rest of the eggs look solid dark so it's impossible to see anything else (with my cell phone flashlight, at least). No movement in the eggs, inside or outside, since a couple days ago.

I'm going to keep them going until Day 21, but I'm starting to lose hope. I'm pretty sure I did everything "right." My incubator is just a simple styrofoam cooler with holes, duct tape, sponge, shelf liner, two water bottles for temp stability, and the Acurite thermometer/hydrometer from Wal-Mart. I'm also using a food thermometer (known to be very accurate) which consistently reads about two degrees less than the Acurite one. Since the difference was always two degrees, I attributed it to being in different spots in the incubator. Temperature was between 99-102 depending on the time of day, amount of water in the reservoir, phase of the moon, etc. Humidity was between 35-45% and about 55-65% at lockdown. The eggs definitely made it to lockdown, and they were even wobbling nonstop during the first couple lockdown days. I just think they weren't very healthy to begin with, being from the grocery store and all.

What do you guys think??

I'm already making plans to try again. I ordered some hatching eggs on ebay this time, just because looking at my empty brooder is depressing me! I will probably go with the same DIY incubator again since I have all the components for it. But maybe improve the design on the next one, like adding a fan and buying a different cooler in the next size up. If any experienced hatchers have any critiques on what I've done so far, I'd love to hear them!

 

[Nabiki]

Day 18 is coming to a close and still nothing. I'm feeling kind of sad about it. I candled earlier just to see what was going on. Air cells look good but not drawn down, no internal pipping at all. The rest of the eggs look solid dark so it's impossible to see anything else (with my cell phone flashlight, at least). No movement in the eggs, inside or outside, since a couple days ago.

I'm going to keep them going until Day 21, but I'm starting to lose hope. I'm pretty sure I did everything "right." My incubator is just a simple styrofoam cooler with holes, duct tape, sponge, shelf liner, two water bottles for temp stability, and the Acurite thermometer/hydrometer from Wal-Mart. I'm also using a food thermometer (known to be very accurate) which consistently reads about two degrees less than the Acurite one. Since the difference was always two degrees, I attributed it to being in different spots in the incubator. Temperature was between 99-102 depending on the time of day, amount of water in the reservoir, phase of the moon, etc. Humidity was between 35-45% and about 55-65% at lockdown. The eggs definitely made it to lockdown, and they were even wobbling nonstop during the first couple lockdown days. I just think they weren't very healthy to begin with, being from the grocery store and all.

What do you guys think??

I'm already making plans to try again. I ordered some hatching eggs on ebay this time, just because looking at my empty brooder is depressing me! I will probably go with the same DIY incubator again since I have all the components for it. But maybe improve the design on the next one, like adding a fan and buying a different cooler in the next size up. If any experienced hatchers have any critiques on what I've done so far, I'd love to hear them!

Don't give up yet. Keep us posted.

 

[Alwaysfowlplay]

Day 18 is coming to a close and still nothing. I'm feeling kind of sad about it. I candled earlier just to see what was going on. Air cells look good but not drawn down, no internal pipping at all. The rest of the eggs look solid dark so it's impossible to see anything else (with my cell phone flashlight, at least). No movement in the eggs, inside or outside, since a couple days ago.

I'm going to keep them going until Day 21, but I'm starting to lose hope. I'm pretty sure I did everything "right." My incubator is just a simple styrofoam cooler with holes, duct tape, sponge, shelf liner, two water bottles for temp stability, and the Acurite thermometer/hydrometer from Wal-Mart. I'm also using a food thermometer (known to be very accurate) which consistently reads about two degrees less than the Acurite one. Since the difference was always two degrees, I attributed it to being in different spots in the incubator. Temperature was between 99-102 depending on the time of day, amount of water in the reservoir, phase of the moon, etc. Humidity was between 35-45% and about 55-65% at lockdown. The eggs definitely made it to lockdown, and they were even wobbling nonstop during the first couple lockdown days. I just think they weren't very healthy to begin with, being from the grocery store and all.

What do you guys think??

I'm already making plans to try again. I ordered some hatching eggs on ebay this time, just because looking at my empty brooder is depressing me! I will probably go with the same DIY incubator again since I have all the components for it. But maybe improve the design on the next one, like adding a fan and buying a different cooler in the next size up. If any experienced hatchers have any critiques on what I've done so far, I'd love to hear them!

I had a few quail hatch on day 19, if you’re temp was low it’s very possible.

 

[TheSunflowerButterfly]

Day 18 is coming to a close and still nothing. I'm feeling kind of sad about it. I candled earlier just to see what was going on. Air cells look good but not drawn down, no internal pipping at all. The rest of the eggs look solid dark so it's impossible to see anything else (with my cell phone flashlight, at least). No movement in the eggs, inside or outside, since a couple days ago.

I'm going to keep them going until Day 21, but I'm starting to lose hope. I'm pretty sure I did everything "right." My incubator is just a simple styrofoam cooler with holes, duct tape, sponge, shelf liner, two water bottles for temp stability, and the Acurite thermometer/hydrometer from Wal-Mart. I'm also using a food thermometer (known to be very accurate) which consistently reads about two degrees less than the Acurite one. Since the difference was always two degrees, I attributed it to being in different spots in the incubator. Temperature was between 99-102 depending on the time of day, amount of water in the reservoir, phase of the moon, etc. Humidity was between 35-45% and about 55-65% at lockdown. The eggs definitely made it to lockdown, and they were even wobbling nonstop during the first couple lockdown days. I just think they weren't very healthy to begin with, being from the grocery store and all.

What do you guys think??

I'm already making plans to try again. I ordered some hatching eggs on ebay this time, just because looking at my empty brooder is depressing me! I will probably go with the same DIY incubator again since I have all the components for it. But maybe improve the design on the next one, like adding a fan and buying a different cooler in the next size up. If any experienced hatchers have any critiques on what I've done so far, I'd love to hear them!

Don’t give up hope! I’m almost at the end of day 19 and still have several slackers

It could be scooching into a better position. You never know. Keep us posted!

 

[Fenrisulfr]

Hum.... all you were describing sounded fine.
But one question, which marker did you use for the funny faces?

 

[Quailobsessed]

Don't give up yet. I had some hatch very late in the evening on day 19. I would wait a little longer than day 21 just in case too. I've heard of some hatching really late.

 

[mdees88]

If the temp is low they can hatch a couple days late, I wouldn't give up just yet.

I would definitely add a fan. Light bulb for heat source? What thermostat are you using?

 

[dorawinifred]

Thank you for the encouragement everyone! No changes to report yet...

If the temp is low they can hatch a couple days late, I wouldn't give up just yet.

I would definitely add a fan. Light bulb for heat source? What thermostat are you using?

My heat source is a wax warmer. It was the only bulb I could find that didn't overheat the small cooler, which is part of the reason why I want to go bigger. The other reason is because I could use the room to add the extra bits of hardware like a fan. No thermostat, either. I used the hole and tape method, but the temp stayed stable as long as I kept the humidity at the right level. Since im working from home right now, I've been around to monitor every 30 min or so.

Would you recommend a thermostat? I want to keep the design as simple as possible, but I also want to give the incubated eggs a chance. Also, would a USB desk fan be ok for this? Again, for simplicity's sake.

Thanks again, everyone!

 

[mdees88]

Would you recommend a thermostat? I want to keep the design as simple as possible, but I also want to give the incubated eggs a chance. Also, would a USB desk fan be ok for this? Again, for simplicity's sake.

Thanks again, everyone!

Yes. Get an STC-1000 thermostat, $15 on amazon, can be found for less. This is one of the most used diy incubator thermostats. Plenty of videos on YouTube showing how to set it up, it's not hard.

Pretty much any fan should work.