First Time Hatcher

[julie0477]

I bought one of those $12.95 dome incubators from McMurrays. I know I should have gotten a real incubator but its not in my budget right now and I so couldn't resist. I was placing an order for some supplies anyway. I put three eggs in 6 days ago. Two turned out to be duds but the third is showing veining and I can see the eye. I am so excited! I put a fresh egg in with it in hopes it will have a little brother or sister a few days after it hatches.

Anybody ever use one of those light bulb manual incubators? Did you have any luck with it?

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Its yellow? I have one and hatched out chickens in it but it dont seem to hold the heat in.

 

[julie0477]

Yes it's yellow. The temp does seem to fluctuate and that worried me.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Yes it's yellow. The temp does seem to fluctuate and that worried me.

I had to use two lil lightbulbs to keep it warm. Lol

 

[cookfamilyfarm]

Hi Julie, I have great memories of that incubator. Let me know how the hatch goes.

 

[julie0477]

My lil guy is on day 8 and looking good so far! Still not seeing anything in my new egg. I've been fortunate its been pretty warm lately so the temp is staying right around 99.

 

[julie0477]

I can no longer see much of anything in egg one. I see the air sac but the rest is dark. Of course i am just holding it up to a light bulb. It's day ten I guess it's still going ok? The new egg is definitely showing signs of development. Hurray!

 

[julie0477]

Everything still looks good! I'm 13 days in! Hatch date for first egg is next Friday. Its been hot out. My room with the incubator has been staying around 76 degrees which appears to be perfect for this little contraption. The internal temp has been steady at 100 even for awhile. It would be impossible to use thing thing early spring or winter. At least at my house.

 

[julie0477]

Ok I have to admit a couple of weeks ago my cat knocked over my incubator and I lost my eggs. They were coming along very well though which makes it all the more disappointing. My fault for not putting it in a safer place. I put off starting new ones because I knew we would be out of town a couple of days, but now we are back and new babies are brewing. I have two eggs just on day 3. Here's hoping for a safe delivery.

 

[julie0477]

Ok, well the moment of truth of truth is upon me. I've read a lot of bad things about this little incubator I bought, and then I also witnessed a couple of hatchings on youtube (literally only a couple). You get what you pay for -- I get that. This was really just an experiment. I didnt have the funds to get the bator I want (brinsea) and I have been dying to try to incubate one of the many fertilized eggs we get every day. Anyway, next spring I will have the brinsea, or I may just use one of my silkies I got this year , but for now I am on day 20 with the mini dome incubator. I candled last at day 17 and everything looked good on both of my eggs (best that I could tell). The temp stayed steady at 100 for at least the first week, but then I had trouble regulating. It fluctuated quite a bit. Went up to about 102 during the heat wave and last night it went down and hovered around 97-98. Today I put a toaster oven next to it and turned it on and actually got the temp back up to 100. I've turned the eggs every day three times a day up to day 18. I sanitized my hands before touching the eggs. I did let the water run dry once early on but that was for a short period of time. That hasn't happened since. I tried adding new eggs to the mix twice but both times decided to remove them -- I figured if hatch actually went well I'd want to clean it well before putting anything else in there so letting an egg set for a week after there has been a hatch probably not such a good idea. So will this $12 incubator work for somebody that has no experience hatching chicks but can follow some simple instructions on a pdf? I should know soon!