high humidity question and modifing egg holder

[opihiman911]

I was just given a a 1602N hovabator with an egg turner. I have had it on for several days and have been able to stabilize the temp. It is wintertime and rainy here so the humidity is constantly in the 70-85+ range. That is what my hydogonator has been reading inside the bator without any added water, 78-82%. Is this going to be a problem? I have just read the dry incubation article and was just wondering.

Also the egg holder he had is the small pheasant holders. Can I just cut the middle and one side post and make it work? I did a couple and put some large store egg on it, small side down, spaced every other space. So far it has made it through last night and not fallen off. Is this acceptable??

Is there a good place to get replacement holders and sanitary trays and other stuff for these hovabator? I would assume ebays?

I have a couple pictures that I tried to cut and paste in here but couldn't figure out how

Thank YOu,
Cory

 

[PatNY]

The hygrometer preferably should read between 40-50%
the first 18 days.

Then 60-70% the last 3 days.

78-82% might drown the chicks in the incubation
process.

Try not to add any water and open the vent plugs

If you have a Digital Thermometer/Hygrometer,
make sure you have fresh batteries. You might be
getting a false reading because of bad batteries.


You might want to look at this site, http://www.cutlersupply.com or
https://www.gqfmfg.com/store/front.asp to have an idea of what you
need and pricing.

 

[silkiechicken]

Yeah, I say check the hydrometer and open all the pugs. It rains here all the time so humidity is often 90+ and so I don't add water and humidity in the bators runs about 40 or so.

 

[seminolewind]

I wonder if a bowl of salt or maybe even DE would soak up the extra humidity. Karen

 

[opihiman911]

Okay, the two bigger holes on top were covered with tape. I'll uncover them. There are probally 8 smaller holes in the center that are uncovered, a couple other smaller one for the meters fit into. I don't see any other holes or vents on the side or bottom

I only have a dial thermometer and hydro with the wound coils, which I know can be inaccurate. I have a second digital thermometer that are reading the same temps, that is how I know I got temps pretty well stabilized.

One thing I was wondering is I have several small computer fans that I have wired to 120v, just plug in the wall. Would sitting that in the bottom help circulate air? Only problem I see is I don't have a way of regulating the fan speed, and comp. fans go pretty fast and push alot of air.

Cory

 

[rooster-red]

You can use a household lighting dimmer switch to control the fan speed.

 

[eggonomist]

I don't know anything about hatching chickens, but I do know computers and they are ALL 12v not 120v. You will not want to be plugging them into the mains, If you want to slow them down for cheap, buy a 1.99 cell phone mains charger and wire that the the fan. It will be a lower voltage and slow the fan down. In fact if you look around you will find a lot of things with a sub 12v transformer, cordless home phones, answermachines are 2 that come to mind straight away. I would find someone throwing away their old cell phone and steal the charger and see what that does. My personal opinion is the more air you move the more consistant the temp will be throught out the incubator, thats the plan I'm going with, but you can always slow the fan down with a simple resistor in line if you thing it's going to fast.

 

[perrym1962]

You can buy them at Radio Shack and other places that are 110vac. But you are right most are 12vdc.

 

[opihiman911]

yes, you are right about the comp. fans. I got a lot of special 110v "comp. fans", little 3x3 fans that look like they belong on a CPU. But don't worry, they are made for 110v, I bought them for another project.

I just pulled one of the fans and was wondering where would be the best place to put it? laying down blowing up? mounted on top and blowing down? standing on edge blowing one direction?

I just checked the bator and the temp has been holding at 100, but humidity is still at 70%. The holes have been uncovered for the last 4 hours, will check in the mrning and see.

Cory