My son (with help) built a homemade incubator for his 5th grade science fair project...
The materials assembled...
Outside of incubator...
Hose for adding water without having to open incubator...
Inside of incubator...
View from above...
Chicks numbered and marked and ready to go in. There are 3 RIR and 9 Dominique...
All settled in...
The elusive "water wiggler" toy (finding this might have been the hardest part of this project)...
Day 14, we had two that didn't develop... one had a bloodring...
On Day 19, little chick #9 started to pip...
Eight hours later, it finally popped out of the top...
Checking out the new, bigger digs...
There is a video of the chick coming out of the shell here...
We turned the eggs three times a day. Our temp dropped as low as 98.2 and went as high as 105 for a brief time. Average temp was in the 99-100 range. Humidity stayed in the high 30's during the entire time. The highest we were able to get it was 41%, even in these last days of hatching.
Thus far (we're on Day 20), out of 12 eggs, two did not make it and were removed at Day 14, the one little chick hatched and the second has unzipped and is trying to get out. A 3rd chick has poked a little hole out of the side.
We candled on days 1, 8, 14 and 18. Eggs ranged in weight on day one from 1.9 ounces to 2.3 ounces. Only one egg had lost weight by day 8. Day 14 had seen lots of changes. The 2.3 ounce egg weighed 2.1 ounces. Most eggs had lost 2/10's of an ounce.
The materials assembled...
Outside of incubator...
Hose for adding water without having to open incubator...
Inside of incubator...
View from above...
Chicks numbered and marked and ready to go in. There are 3 RIR and 9 Dominique...
All settled in...
The elusive "water wiggler" toy (finding this might have been the hardest part of this project)...
Day 14, we had two that didn't develop... one had a bloodring...
On Day 19, little chick #9 started to pip...
Eight hours later, it finally popped out of the top...
Checking out the new, bigger digs...
There is a video of the chick coming out of the shell here...
We turned the eggs three times a day. Our temp dropped as low as 98.2 and went as high as 105 for a brief time. Average temp was in the 99-100 range. Humidity stayed in the high 30's during the entire time. The highest we were able to get it was 41%, even in these last days of hatching.
Thus far (we're on Day 20), out of 12 eggs, two did not make it and were removed at Day 14, the one little chick hatched and the second has unzipped and is trying to get out. A 3rd chick has poked a little hole out of the side.
We candled on days 1, 8, 14 and 18. Eggs ranged in weight on day one from 1.9 ounces to 2.3 ounces. Only one egg had lost weight by day 8. Day 14 had seen lots of changes. The 2.3 ounce egg weighed 2.1 ounces. Most eggs had lost 2/10's of an ounce.
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