- May 4, 2010
- 51
- 1
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Apparently my Gma purchased a still-air, 3 egg incubator from McMurray that just arrived in the mail this afternoon. Direct link to the 'bator.
I've only done a small amount of research on the subject of hatching and incubating, but after looking at the stickies I still have a few questions that I hope can be answered.
My first question being, first and foremost, if we have any eggs worth incubating. We possess some fertile chicken eggs, however their storage method wasn't exactly perfect. They were stored grocery-style with the air-sacs down in the fridge for 4 weeks in a Styrofoam carton. We tried floating them to see if they were any good and they all floated big-end (air-sac) up - have they dried out too much to be of use? We also found one guinea egg and it was stored in the same method for about 2 weeks - when it was floated it sunk, so we've decided to try and incubate that.
We also have some farm eggs from one of our acquaintances that are less then a week old, but we're unsure if a roo fertilized them. Which leads to my second question, how can I tell if an egg is fertile without doing an egg-section? Or if I have to dissect it, will it be too far gone to hatch? I've tried to candle all the eggs in question using an unshaded table lamp and a pitch-dark room and, with the exception of one or two questionable ones (one has some hair-line cracks, the other has a porous pointy end) they all seem to have good shell integrity and are clear that I was able to see.
My third question relates to managing the conditions for hatching with this particular model incubator. While the instructions are rough at best, I've been able to put it together and get the dry temp to about 102 F. The instructions merely say to fill one of the hollow legs with water for humidity, which can't store anymore then maybe two tablespoons of water over a 2" square surface - I must admit that I'm skeptical it can retain a 40-60% humidity, let alone an 80-82% come lockdown. Without a hygrometer handy I'm almost certain the eggs will dry out - is there any way to make a homemade hygrometer that will actually fit in this thing? Or am I just worried over nothing?
I've only done a small amount of research on the subject of hatching and incubating, but after looking at the stickies I still have a few questions that I hope can be answered.
My first question being, first and foremost, if we have any eggs worth incubating. We possess some fertile chicken eggs, however their storage method wasn't exactly perfect. They were stored grocery-style with the air-sacs down in the fridge for 4 weeks in a Styrofoam carton. We tried floating them to see if they were any good and they all floated big-end (air-sac) up - have they dried out too much to be of use? We also found one guinea egg and it was stored in the same method for about 2 weeks - when it was floated it sunk, so we've decided to try and incubate that.
We also have some farm eggs from one of our acquaintances that are less then a week old, but we're unsure if a roo fertilized them. Which leads to my second question, how can I tell if an egg is fertile without doing an egg-section? Or if I have to dissect it, will it be too far gone to hatch? I've tried to candle all the eggs in question using an unshaded table lamp and a pitch-dark room and, with the exception of one or two questionable ones (one has some hair-line cracks, the other has a porous pointy end) they all seem to have good shell integrity and are clear that I was able to see.
My third question relates to managing the conditions for hatching with this particular model incubator. While the instructions are rough at best, I've been able to put it together and get the dry temp to about 102 F. The instructions merely say to fill one of the hollow legs with water for humidity, which can't store anymore then maybe two tablespoons of water over a 2" square surface - I must admit that I'm skeptical it can retain a 40-60% humidity, let alone an 80-82% come lockdown. Without a hygrometer handy I'm almost certain the eggs will dry out - is there any way to make a homemade hygrometer that will actually fit in this thing? Or am I just worried over nothing?
