Home made cabinet incubator

[WalnutHill]

I like to share the fun!

 

[WalnutHill]

Yesterday's (day 20) gang on the march to the brooder.

Today's hatch started out with the offspring of two RSL x one of my roos. I haven't bothered them yet as they are still damp.

 

[WalnutHill]

Four more out today so far, but one casualty. One chick was in a shell with no distinct "big end". While it had managed to pip externally, it was so large in the shell that it did not have room to zip and was found dead this morning. There is also a chick that hadn't retracted all the yolk at hatch when I came down this morning, it had the "umbilical" material wrapped around its leg and it was pulling against the yolk. So I set it in a small plastic bowl in a damp paper towel to wait it out.

Lesson learned: when I put the eggs in lockdown, I used a disposable aluminum lasagna pan for the water tray. Galvanic action between the pan and the foil facing on the insulation panels caused a multitude of pinholes to develop in the lasagna pan (which explains my unexplained water leak). So plastic water pans are not only a safer choice, but easier to clean in the dishwasher.

As I don't have a suitable plastic pan that I can steal from the kitchen, I am using an old solid aluminum pan...with a piece of rubber drawer liner between the pan and the bottom of the incubator.

My incubator was smelling like a nasty swamp, like the foam incubators did after a hatch. I pulled the water pan out and the odor went away. For good measure, I wiped the bottom of the cabinet with a rag sprayed with Lysol spray (sprayed outside the cabinet) and set the UV air purifier inside for a good air scrub.

 

[WalnutHill]

13 chicks popped like popcorn, easy as could be, in 12 hours from pip or less.
5 had pipped but couldn't get out of the shell. One of those died in the shell with tissue around its face, four more are in ICU.
Three were really large, and two of those were malpositioned. They all died in the shell, two without absorbing all of the yolk and none had absorbed all the albumen. The shells on these eggs were abnormally large (jumbo) and the chicks were bloated and air cell development was behind.
Two are still in eggs set later than the rest. But the incubator has been open more than closed and I consider them to be at risk.

While I don't claim to have "the answer" to successful hatches, for my new incubator these will be my baseline operating rules:

Set all eggs on the same date, at the same temperature.
Do not set excessively large or excessively small eggs for the breed.
Maintain incubation temperature with a "dummy egg" internal temp of 100F.
Maintain incubation humidity at approximately 38%.
Lockdown at the end of the 17th day or one day earlier for very large eggs.
Increase humidty to 45% on the 19th day.
Expect half of the hatch on the 20th day. Lower temperature 1F if dry chicks are panting.
Expect the remainder to hatch on the 21st day.
If at all possible, do not open the incubator while eggs are pipped.
When there are no more active pips, clear the chicks to the brooder and instruct on food and water.
Check the remaining eggs (I just held them to my ear). If no sounds, tap and listen. If still no sounds, eggtopsy or deliver.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

13 chicks popped like popcorn, easy as could be, in 12 hours from pip or less.
5 had pipped but couldn't get out of the shell. One of those died in the shell with tissue around its face, four more are in ICU.
Three were really large, and two of those were malpositioned. They all died in the shell, two without absorbing all of the yolk and none had absorbed all the albumen. The shells on these eggs were abnormally large (jumbo) and the chicks were bloated and air cell development was behind.
Two are still in eggs set later than the rest. But the incubator has been open more than closed and I consider them to be at risk.

While I don't claim to have "the answer" to successful hatches, for my new incubator these will be my baseline operating rules:

Set all eggs on the same date, at the same temperature.
Do not set excessively large or excessively small eggs for the breed.
Maintain incubation temperature with a "dummy egg" internal temp of 100F.
Maintain incubation humidity at approximately 38%.
Lockdown at the end of the 17th day or one day earlier for very large eggs.
Increase humidty to 45% on the 19th day.
Expect half of the hatch on the 20th day. Lower temperature 1F if dry chicks are panting.
Expect the remainder to hatch on the 21st day.
If at all possible, do not open the incubator while eggs are pipped.
When there are no more active pips, clear the chicks to the brooder and instruct on food and water.
Check the remaining eggs (I just held them to my ear). If no sounds, tap and listen. If still no sounds, eggtopsy or deliver.

Congrats on the the hatchers!!! I have a couple I consider large that I am worried about. Even though the egg is loosing the moisture and air cell is growing accordingly, I don't think the chicks are going to grow big enough and there is still going to be extra fluid due to the size of the egg. We will see. lockdown tomorrow evening.

 

[WalnutHill]

One of the chicks in CICU has a "bloated" head and neck. As it had a lot of albumen left in the shell, I believe it would have drowned as it could not absorb the liquid and the internal pip releases it into the air cell. Its neck has very little flexibility and its head is disproportionate with swelling. It's moving around, though, so I'll give it time.

Another of the no-pips was in gorilla snot and backwards. That leaves two eggs to go and 5 peepers in the hatcher.

78% hatchability of day 10 developing eggs is not bad for a first hatch but this incubator is capable of better if I fill it with better eggs.

 

[WalnutHill]

I made a tweak to the design after the first hatch.

I had 2F temperature variation between the fifth tray and the first tray. My goal is to have equal temps throughout, no hotspot at the duct outlet, no cool spot at the duct inlet.

When first built, I secured the heat sensor for the STC1000 in the middle of the back of the cabinet. That worked really well to keep the middle tray exactly where I wanted it, but the bottom tray was 1F warmer and the upper tray was 1F cooler.

During lockdown, I had issues with the hatcher tray being too warm, and reducing heat cooled the incubation trays too much. So I moved the sensor to the bottom tray, and that pretty much solved the issue with the heat, but the top tray got 2F too cool.

Today I moved the temp sensor inside the duct itself, which is the column of air in which the heating element is positioned. By moving the sensor here, the ceramic heating element is short-cycling, switching on and off with good regularity. This way, the column of air maintains a steady temperature, which is the desired incubation temperature. Over time, the entire incubator, 16 cubic feet, reaches the same temperature and maintains that temperature.

This design is counter to my previous attempts to design to regain temperature as rapidly as possible after opening the incubator. This is a steady heat source that should never provide air above the desired incubation temperature. As such, the incubator will take longer to warm up, but I am not sure that is a problem.

I've completed first candling on my next batch of chicken eggs at 11 days in and have 17 developing (well, at least 15...candling dark eggs during the day isn't always accurate). Since early development hasn't been an issue, I will be able to determine how the air cell growth and chick development proceed through the second half of incubation.

I've been running this configuration for about four hours and it is so far exactly where I want it to be on every shelf. There is still a 0.5F warmer variation on the top shelf, but I can live with that.

Forget it. Back to the previous placement.

 

[stryker]

I just read your entire post. I just loved how detailed you have been. I am now going to get started on making one.

 

[SimplyLogan]

Well, ok then. Just think of the fun and commotion you could stir up on BYC by posting questions and info, then answering and argueing with yourself! No end to the entertainment there!!!

Well I was just directed to this thread when I mentioned saving for a cabnet bator, and as I was reading through this.... I got to this post and almost spit my coffee on my computer screen.. Thanks I needed that, was about to fall asleep at work lol .....

 

[mswendeu]

Well I was just directed to this thread when I mentioned saving for a cabnet bator, and as I was reading through this.... I got to this post and almost spit my coffee on my computer screen.. Thanks I needed that, was about to fall asleep at work lol .....

Lol me too