Genesis Hovabator 1588

[VickieB57]

My sister bought a Genesis Hovabator. She is having problems with it keeping the humidity high enough. The problem didn't start until after her first batch, but since then she has noticed that the humidity drops quickly. She went to bed last night with it at 55% and woke up this morning to it being 25%. Does anyone know what she's doing wrong or what she can do to correct this?

Also, about once a week a bull snake gets into the cages with the quail and will kill a couple. If you live out in the country, how do you keep the snakes away?

 

[angiec]

I'm interested in hearing the responses to this. This is my first batch and I bought the Genesis also. I have to add water daily / twice a day to keep the humidity up. I'm not experienced enough to know if this is normal or not.

 

[ylly]

I have one new this year as well. I didn't seem to have that problem. Is the resivor where the putting the water empty or is the incubator not reading it properly?
I find the best thing to do is call gqf directly and they help out a great deal.

 

[GAQuail]

My first thought is the 1588 is out of water in the tray. If the incubator is in a room with low humidity she may have to add water daily. Second thought, do you know if the hygrometer is accurate. Is this the 1588 version with the digital display? If you are reading from the incubator digital display and it has water in the tray I would buy another hydrometer to check it.

 

[samsr]

My sister bought a Genesis Hovabator. She is having problems with it keeping the humidity high enough. The problem didn't start until after her first batch, but since then she has noticed that the humidity drops quickly. She went to bed last night with it at 55% and woke up this morning to it being 25%. Does anyone know what she's doing wrong or what she can do to correct this?

Also, about once a week a bull snake gets into the cages with the quail and will kill a couple. If you live out in the country, how do you keep the snakes away?

Make sure that all holes large enough for the snake to get in are blocked off. I am assuming your cage is on the ground? That snake will be back since it has a source of food that will not get away. You may try and elevate your cage. The last option i can think of would be to get a guinne hen or two. That would take care of that snake.

 

[VickieB57]

Actually, she has the cage suspended between two trees. The snake gets in, eats a bird, then can't get out, regurgitates the bird in order to escape. She finds the dead bird in the morning. This last time there was an extra dead bird that looked as though it died of a heart attack. I'll tell her about the guineas. She is new to this farming thing. Her husband's uncle has gotten too old to take care of his farm and they moved out to help them. They both are pretty new to farm life. It's sort of like Green Acres, but the husband is as clueless as the wife. (They are doing a great job learning though!)

 

[samsr]

Sounds like they should spend a little more time checking on them. They would probably catch that snake in the act. Then it would be easy to take care of.

 

[VickieB57]

She woke up to it yesterday morning. It had to have happened during the night or in the wee hours of the morning. She is actually able to check on her animals quite frequently, since she is able to work out of her home, but she can't move the office out into the farm yard, so trying to catch the snake is going to be a hit and miss thing. By the way, she has already killed three snakes in the pen, so it's not like there is only one snake in the area. I think the guinea suggestion is going to be her best bet.

 

[GrandmaBird]

for the humidity I would buy a different hydrometer and also try adding a few new sponges that are wet to the incubator. if you need to add water if you place them under the air vents you can use a baster, like used for turkey roasting, and add water without opening the top. just squirt it through the air vents. good luck. and I agree on the guinea for the snakes or super fine screening but you would have to completely cover the cage and that might not be feasible. snake has to eat but should go after the mice not the birds stupid snake...lol