Ok, so I bought the only incubator in town, the still air LG. I put the 12 eggs in it on 8/23 even though I wrote 8/24 on the eggs. It was ready early. I have been maintaining temp at 99.5 to 100 pretty easily. I have candled several times, discarded one cracked egg with no signs of life. All 11 remaining are alive and kicking. They are black australrops.
I am counting tonight as lockdown. Here is my set up. I have a syringe and IV tubing going in for addition of water. I also have a magnifying glass to read the thermometer that came with the LG.
Today we wrapped the eggs carefully in towels while my husband quickly installed a computer fan as recommended by BYCers. He wired it, covered the fan with hardware cloth, elevated it off the styrofoam with wooden beads, and attached it with pipe cleaners.
I have all the water trays full and chunks of sponges in the trays. I have foam shelf liner on top of the wire and an extra sponge. The IV tubing goes into the largest water tray. I have my 11 eggs on their sides with space in between. I have a thermometer/hygrometer inside as well as the one that came with the incubator. Plus, I have a third remote thermometer on my desk with a probe inside. I am a nurse. I can't help it. If one is good, three are waaay better. That silver cylindrical thing with white cord is a video camera installed so our grandchildren can watch from home. If you have SKYPE, look me up, nursemary49, and ask to be my friend. Then you can watch my hatch too!
Ok, so here is my problem. Try as i might I cannot get the humidity above 50%. I bought a hygrometer yesterday at Walmart and tried to calibrate it last night. It only got up to 61% in 12 hours so I returned it for this one. I did not have time to calibrate it before lockdown. So what do I do? Leave as is and hope for the best? Should I put bowls of water in there with marbles in them?
All advice and criticism is welcomed. If you see something wrong TELL ME! I am a nervous wreck. Meanwhile, my broody BCM, Wilma, is sitting on the other 12 eggs out back and she is cool as a cucumber. She doesn't even have ONE thermometer!
Mary
I am counting tonight as lockdown. Here is my set up. I have a syringe and IV tubing going in for addition of water. I also have a magnifying glass to read the thermometer that came with the LG.
Today we wrapped the eggs carefully in towels while my husband quickly installed a computer fan as recommended by BYCers. He wired it, covered the fan with hardware cloth, elevated it off the styrofoam with wooden beads, and attached it with pipe cleaners.
I have all the water trays full and chunks of sponges in the trays. I have foam shelf liner on top of the wire and an extra sponge. The IV tubing goes into the largest water tray. I have my 11 eggs on their sides with space in between. I have a thermometer/hygrometer inside as well as the one that came with the incubator. Plus, I have a third remote thermometer on my desk with a probe inside. I am a nurse. I can't help it. If one is good, three are waaay better. That silver cylindrical thing with white cord is a video camera installed so our grandchildren can watch from home. If you have SKYPE, look me up, nursemary49, and ask to be my friend. Then you can watch my hatch too!
Ok, so here is my problem. Try as i might I cannot get the humidity above 50%. I bought a hygrometer yesterday at Walmart and tried to calibrate it last night. It only got up to 61% in 12 hours so I returned it for this one. I did not have time to calibrate it before lockdown. So what do I do? Leave as is and hope for the best? Should I put bowls of water in there with marbles in them?
All advice and criticism is welcomed. If you see something wrong TELL ME! I am a nervous wreck. Meanwhile, my broody BCM, Wilma, is sitting on the other 12 eggs out back and she is cool as a cucumber. She doesn't even have ONE thermometer!
Mary
