HELP

[Frenchkissed]

In a couple days I will be doing my First ever egg hatching. I have everything setup temp at 100.5 humidity around 55% But I’m using an automatic egg turner and incubator has a fan for circulation. It’s a still air brand. My question is. Where is the best location to put my 7 eggs at on the turner for best heat for hatching?

Thanks

 

[Huntmaster]

In a couple days I will be doing my First ever egg hatching. I have everything setup temp at 100.5 humidity around 55% But I’m using an automatic egg turner and incubator has a fan for circulation. It’s a still air brand. My question is. Where is the best location to put my 7 eggs at on the turner for best heat for hatching?

Thanks

All incubators are different so the only way you can find your hot or cold spots in incubator is with other separate thermometers checking yours. Its a good idea to use separate thermometers anyhow as a lot of them built into incubators are not always accurate. And also if your incubator has a fan built in it is not a still air incubator or is that the brand name?

 

[topochico225]

In a couple days I will be doing my First ever egg hatching. I have everything setup temp at 100.5 humidity around 55% But I’m using an automatic egg turner and incubator has a fan for circulation. It’s a still air brand. My question is. Where is the best location to put my 7 eggs at on the turner for best heat for hatching?

Thanks

Turn off the turner for lockdown, so turn it off at day 18. Can you post a pic of your incubator?

 

[Huntmaster]

Not sure what you are going to incubate but when I incubate most eggs I try to hold100 degrees and humidity around 45%. But everyone has to do what works for them that's what seems to work best for me. I mostly hatch turkey eggs. And I take my temps from top of eggs. At lockdown I lower temp 1 to 1.5 degrees depending on incubating temp and raise humidity to 75% to 80% and take out or turn off auto turner depending on what kind you have.

 

[Frenchkissed]

All incubators are different so the only way you can find your hot or cold spots in incubator is with other separate thermometers checking yours. Its a good idea to use separate thermometers anyhow as a lot of them built into incubators are not always accurate. And also if your incubator has a fan built in it is not a still air incubator or is that the brand name?

Thanks. Still Air is the brand name I guess. The person I bought it from added the fan kit to it. I do have another thermometer with humidity readings on it inside. Was just wondering if on an auto turner if there is a warmer area if only using a few eggs

 

[Frenchkissed]

Turn off the turner for lockdown, so turn it off at day 18. Can you post a pic of your incubator?

 

[Huntmaster]

Thanks. Still Air is the brand name I guess. The person I bought it from added the fan kit to it. I do have another thermometer with humidity readings on it inside. Was just wondering if on an auto turner if there is a warmer area if only using a few eggs

Only way to know that is to check temps in yours in different areas of incubator all incubators even of same kind and brand differ. Also I should have said that temps I use are for circulating air incubators or ones with fans.

 

[Yardmom]

I have an incubator that was still air and I added a fan to it. It is a Little Giant Brand . I believe the turner you have should be removed at lock down. I would suggest putting your eggs near the center but not directly under the heater. Your temp and humidity are slightly higher than what I use, but it should be fine. Maybe turn it down a degree for lockdown. Lockdown is the time to raise humidity. I find 60 to 65 works for me at lock down but dry run before lock down since our relative humidity is high . Some like to go higher, but it is possible to go to high.

 

[Lizzy733]

Supposedly, putting the eggs in the centre is best for temp as if your incubator does have cold spots, they tend to be on the outer edges, and changing up the order from time to time when you're getting them out for weigh-ins, candles etc...

I haven't done any incubator hatching just yet, but have been doing a bit of a deep dive lately as I want my first machine hatch to go smoothly. (Hopefully getting everything up and running next week!) We've hatched with our broody a few times, so pretty familiar with the natural process, at least.

I decided to calibrate one of my spare probe temp/humidity sensors from my reptile setup so I can be sure the readings are 99.9% accurate.
I plan on putting 3 additional sensors in there and getting a good feel of the whole setup.

To calibrate temp, fill a glass with ice and let it melt half down before inserting the probe. It 'should' read 0c or 32f. I found my old probe was only .8c high, so have made a mental note and can now verify all the others against this one.

For humidity, take a soda bottle cap and fill it with salt. Dampen the salt so it's just wet, then put it and the sensor in a sealed ziplock bag and wait 6 hours. Humidity should then read 75% because science! I'll be setting this up later today to check for accuracy for my own.

One of my sensors is a 'smart' sensor. Xiaomi makes a pretty cheap one that will graph temp and humidity changes throughout the day. I already use one in my reptile Viv to monitor for long-term trends, so if anything has been off I'll know when and for how long.

Supposedly, reptile and aquarium thermometers tend to be the most accurate out if the box. My thermostat probe for my beardie's basking lamp reads .6 degrees high, so that's pretty close. My old cheap thermostat that I use for the bug farm was reading 5 degrees high, so they can really be way off.

If you have a tested probe, you can move it around the brooder to get a good idea of hot and cold spots.

Also, a zip-lock bag of water folded over one of the probes is supposed to give you a pretty good estimate of the the inside temp of an egg.

I did not buy a fancy incubator, so I'm taking all the extra precautions to ensure it doesn't cook my babies any more than I want it to.

Another lifehack I've heard is to keep the foam packaging in case your incubator just can't get up to temp as makeshift insulation.

Good luck! If this is your first time hatching and rearing, it's a really fun experience. Make sure you're candling every 4 days or so. It's so interesting to see those little embryos moving around and chicks are such a handful, but in a good way.

 

[Ryguy3684]

When you get to lockdown, and remove the egg turner, I like to put a piece of "anti-skid rug pad" on the floor under the eggs. It helps keep the eggs still, gives a little grip for the chicks to learn to walk on, and has little holes to allow heat to transfer. Are you planning on candling? If so, I like to mark the air sac with a pencil to make sure it's growing correctly. Good luck and keep posting pics when the hatching begins.