home made incubator- qwuestions about temp and turning eggs

[sueandthe6]

A large Styrofoam cooler came in to work and well- a few dollars later I have a home made incubator. I got a 25 watt oven bulb and a temp/humidity thingy-hardware cloth to make the base for the eggs to sit on and will get some tubing and syringe to add water as I need to. I am running into a couple questions.. says to keep the eggs fat end up- but mine will be laying in their sides.. is this an issue? Then I will mark one side of each with ???pencil? and then roll them half way around every 8 hours? I work 10 or 12 hour days 4 days a week so will turning them before I leave and when I get home be enough? I plugged the thing in last night and with no water in it- the temp hit 117 and the humidity was I think 31. I read somewhere awhile back a guy had high temp issues so he cut some holes in the cooler. But then when I want to up my humidity won't that be harder if I have openings? Also was reading about washing eggs before putting them in. I think at this point- they aren't too bad- I am going to set them as is. Id like to get a hatch date on a sun but wanted to add water and see how what the temp and humidity do. I work overnight tonight so am not comfortable doing the trial run when I am not home. So Id get it going 5 am sun when I get home-and see how it goes. If I wait till next weekend to set them- is that too long? They are eggs from last week from a friend - she brought them to me today. I realize I might end up with nothing... but am hoping for at least a couple out of 16. will be checking at least 4 for fertility so setting Id guess 10 +/-. Here goes nothing....

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I hatch eggs two weeks old no problem. Store them fat end up in egg trays and use a book or something to prop up one end. Move book to other side to "turn" eggs a few times a day. You can have them in incubator in egg cartons too, use a mega lego mega block or something to tilt the carton.

Your going to have to figure out the temp long before setting. 117F is far too high (no fan, 101F measured at top of eggs). With 31 rH at 117 your home has high humidity, you may do well with dry incubation and add tumbler with water to cooler day 18.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Yes, you can incubate them on their side and yes you use a pencil. Most write an x on one side and an o on the other. You roll them to the opposite side and then back. It's best to turn your eggs at least 3x's a day-more is better, but they need to be turned an odd number a day before leaving them to rest at night so they are not spending the same night on the same side consecutively.
I agree if you are maintaining and can maintain 31% during incubation w/no water to go dry and just keep an eye on the air cell until day 18 then up it (I prefer 75%, but at least 65%). It's your temp that looks like it's going to be your problem. Maybe a lesser wattage bulb?
Good luck!

 

[sueandthe6]

so I ran the incubator again to test and this time the humidity wouldn't get above like 18 with my temp still at 117. So I do definitely need to figure out how to lower the temp. I am thinking I do need to go to a lower watt bulb rather than cutting out more of the cooler. I am still stuck on that making it hard to control humidity. ugggg

 

[JulesFlock]

I cut holes out bc I had read you need air flow until lockdown. I've seen people use corks to plug the holes.

Are you using a thermostat? That has helped my diy stay steady at 99/100.

What are you hatching? Good luck!!