hatching in octo 20 eco

[mandymoo]

hi, i'm about to set my first lot of eggs in my octagon 20 eco. i'll be putting 12 in for my first go at this

i've read as much info as i can, but it's not clear about the metal egg dividers.....do i leave these in the incubator the whole time, or should i take them out when it's about day 17 or 18?

i am assuming i should remove them, but then i wasn't sure if the eggs would roll about?

 

[Chicken-Farmer]

When you stop turning on day 18 remove the dividers. Spread the eggs out. You are able to incubate 24 chicken eggs at one time. You should have plenty of room for the chicks to hatch and dry off. Just fight the temptation to remove the chicks from the incubator until you are sure all the eggs have hatched. I have the older version of the Octogon 20 with plastic deviders. I mostly hatch quail eggs and the capacity is 60. Things get a bit crowded during hatching time, but they manage.
A hint to up your humidity during hatches is to take half of a cotton sock and put a portion into the water resovoir. Cotton naturally wicks up the water and will increase your surface area increasing humidity.

Chicken-Farmer

 

[mandymoo]

thanks chicken farmer....do you mean cut a cotton sock in half, and put half of it in one of the water reservoirs, leaving the other half on the base of the incubator, so that it soaks up the water? do i still make sure the reservoirs are full, even when the sock has soaked a load of water up and can't soak up anymore?

 

[Chicken-Farmer]

Split the sock in half and lay half the sock in the resovoir and the other half hanging out on the base of the incubator(yellow part). Still keep both resovoirs full of water during hatching, but only one resovoir full during incubation. I purchased the wet-bulb thermometer from Brinsea and it provides me with a rock steady humidity reading as well as temperature.
I try not to close the vents during hatching. I want the max amount of oxygen available to the chicks, so i control my humidity with the "sock". The more surface area the more humidity. The less surface area the less humidity.

Chicken-Farmer

 

[mandymoo]

thanks for that...i'm so excited to get started but i want to make sure i know as much as possible before i do!