Having trouble regulating temperature and humidity in incubator

[PD-Riverman]

No I haven't just been taking them and putting them in incubator as they laid them. My duck hen had been laying them all over the place but not nesting so I 'was' putting them under my hen (had two hens but lost one to a preditor) who has been nesting on her own eggs. But there got to be way too many for her to handle, plus she most her own hatch and left the nest. So we made an incubator to try and save them. We didn't realize how many different stages they were all at until we candled them when placing in incubator.

Give it some time------see what happens. I wish you the best!!

 

[NewChicKMom2014]

I am actually considering going buy an incubator for the ones closest to hatching to insure proper lock down etc....This was just a quick solution to help from loosing all the babies.

 

[NewChicKMom2014]

Today I noticed a couple the due now wiggling. When I have to rotate the others I do it as fast as can.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Today I noticed a couple the due now wiggling. When I have to rotate the others I do it as fast as can.

Just some future info to try to help---if a hen is setting and you put a extra egg or two under her every day or so---you are creating a nightmare as you see now. There is going to be Soooooo many different hatch dates---the hen will not stay on the nest till all of them hatch as I am sure you know this now. If you are a very lucky person-----you will hatch some. The moisture Needs to be Lower for the first 18 days so the egg can loose some weight/make a air space for the chick. the last 3 days the moisture needs to be increased so the chick can hatch properly. There is NO way you can do this using one incubator with sooo many different hatch dates.

I quoted this statement to add----In Most Area's Opening the Incubator for a couple seconds Is 2 Seconds to long. Just opening and closing it right back can Affect your hatch. I am No Pro But I hatch Alot Of eggs----I threaten to Break a Arm if someone tries to open mine during lock down. Sure I know some people say they open them at will----In my area some years back I opened mine if I wanted but I have a bad/low hatch. Now I do not open during the Lock-down period and I have Great/high hatch rates. Wishing you the best in all your future hatches!!

 

[NewChicKMom2014]

I'm just going to go buy an incubator. Not my fault duck hen decided to lay and not nest. Not my fault I lost other hens to preditors. Not my fault the one hen I have left no longer nesting. Was just trying to save the eggs. I know there can be losses. We have lost some. Doing best I can considering the situation and it didn't help we had to act fact in the middle severe storms and dropping temperatures.

 

[PD-Riverman]

I'm just going to go buy an incubator. Not my fault duck hen decided to lay and not nest. Not my fault I lost other hens to preditors. Not my fault the one hen I have left no longer nesting. Was just trying to save the eggs. I know there can be losses. We have lost some. Doing best I can considering the situation and it didn't help we had to act fact in the middle severe storms and dropping temperatures.

I wish you were close, I got 8 styrofoam incubators I would Loan you. If you had at least 2 you could use one as a incubator and the other as a hatcher. Run a add on craigslist/FB in your area, you might find a couple cheap. I bought 2 like New with the turners a few days ago off craigslist he still had them in the original boxes for $75. Good Luck----Wishing you the best!

 

[NewChicKMom2014]

I wish you were close, I got 8 styrofoam incubators I would Loan you. If you had at least 2 you could use one as a incubator and the other as a hatcher. Run a add on craigslist/FB in your area, you might find a couple cheap. I bought 2 like New with the turners a few days ago off craigslist he still had them in the original boxes for $75. Good Luck----Wishing you the best!

Yeah that be great. But it bit of drive lol. I've put the word out and if don't find one I can borrow for now by tomorrow I will just go buy one. TSC has one called Little Giant for $44.99 only one in my area and that all they got in stock. It's a still air though. Either that just have to build another.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Yeah that be great. But it bit of drive lol. I've put the word out and if don't find one I can borrow for now by tomorrow I will just go buy one. TSC has one called Little Giant for $44.99 only one in my area and that all they got in stock. It's a still air though. Either that just have to build another.

I have hatched Many chicks in a Little Giant. They work good. When I added a Fan my hatch rate went up. I used a little power pack similiar to the part that plugs into the wall on a cell phone charger. I used a 3" 12 volt dc computer fan and a 9 volt power pack to lower the fan speed. If you got the fan guards on the fan you can just find a place to set it----secure it and plug it in. I mounted mine in the top about 1/2" down using spacers.

 

[NewChicKMom2014]

I have hatched Many chicks in a Little Giant. They work good. When I added a Fan my hatch rate went up. I used a little power pack similiar to the part that plugs into the wall on a cell phone charger. I used a 3" 12 volt dc computer fan and a 9 volt power pack to lower the fan speed.  If you got the fan guards on the fan you can just find a place to set it----secure it and plug it in. I mounted mine in the top about 1/2" down using spacers.

Cool. I will show my husband this. He good at stuff like that. A neighbor brought over a sit up they had using a fish tank and we got it set up and waiting for temp and humidity to get right. They said to put the ones that aren't due yet in it for now and leave the ones that need go into lock down in the one we made. So we going do that for now but still going to go buy us an incubator for when time for the rest go into lock down.

 

[NewChicKMom2014]

Okay got my ones that have sometime to go all warm tucked into bed in a different incubator.

Got my ones that are ready all tucked into lock down. Temp is reading about 99 and humidity been staying between 70-80, is this good? Hopefully will have some peeps in a few days.