Homemade Incubator

[Chicka_deee]

Our neighbors have 2 ayam cemani roosters and one has decided to jump the fence often throughout the day and join my flock of hens. They don’t really notice him and because he is always over, I’ve necited I wanted to name him.
What are some good names?

This thread is an interesting one, I want to post and update on things like, I’ve made my own homemade incubator and am hatching the eggs of my chickens now that the rooster is somewhat a new member to my flock.
He doesn’t sleep in our chicken coop yet he hangs out with our girls. I think it’s adorable!

Anyway back to the incubator:
I will attach some photos of the setup.
What I am using is a heating pad and some rice. It is in a plastic tub that is small, I cut a hole in the side to get the heat pad’s wire through. I covered the tub with a blanket.
I also have a bowl of water for the humidity.
There are 6 eggs in there right now and as I candled them, I saw that only really 3 had lots of growth. I could see lots of vanes, especially in the oldest one that was laced on the 16th (4/16/19). The 4th one is really dark yet had something weird inside that I could hardly see.
The other 2... well, they are really dark from the start and I can’t see anything through the shell while candling, no yolk...they are about 3ish days old.

I will post on this thread updates about the incubation and the chicks, and when the rooster comes back over, I will try and get photos of him!



*pictures of the incubator setup*

 

[SueT]

I'd think you need a thermometer that accurately measures below 120º...are you just guesstimating temp? What about measuring humidity?

 

[Chicka_deee]

I'd think you need a thermometer that accurately measures below 120º...are you just guesstimating temp? What about measuring humidity?

On the thermometer it looks like to be 100 degrees. Now the eggs have lots of growth in them and I am just guesstimating on the humidity.

 

[Fishkeeper]

You really shouldn't be guesstimating humidity, that's a good way for chicks to die in the shell. And you REALLY need an accurate thermometer. Temp has to be basically perfect or you'll wind up with a lot of birth defects.

An egg that's just starting incubation isn't going to be completely dark unless something is wrong with it.

 

[Chicka_deee]

I edited this photo, but with the estimating on its looks it’s 100 degrees

 

[Chicka_deee]

You really shouldn't be guesstimating humidity, that's a good way for chicks to die in the shell. And you REALLY need an accurate thermometer. Temp has to be basically perfect or you'll wind up with a lot of birth defects.

An egg that's just starting incubation isn't going to be completely dark unless something is wrong with it.

It might not work, I’m also not planning on keeping these chicks maybe giving them to. A friend because we have chicks this year already, so if they don’t hatch, I wasn’t looking forward to it...

I mean, I did find this on YouTube and it worked for them but I might not work for me, they look like they are developing nicely

 

[Chicka_deee]

I’m just trying an experiment

 

[Fishkeeper]

Those thermometers really aren't accurate enough. They're only to within a few degrees, not guaranteed perfect. And you don't have any guarantee that the one thermometer you have isn't off.

I'm mostly worried you're going to end up with chicks that develop most of the way, try to hatch, and die, or ones that hatch with birth defects from the wrong temperature and die. It'd be a shame for them to suffer from something that could be prevented by just getting a better thermometer and an actual method of measuring humidity, ya know?

It's not a very good experiment if you don't have enough equipment to know, if and when when it goes wrong, why that happened. Temperature? Humidity? Both? Neither?

 

[BYCforlife]

It looks to me like it's around 96 degrees, and since that thermometer is not meant for low temps it might be incorrect. I would go to any store and even buy one of those thermometers you put outside a window to tell temps.

 

[BYCforlife]

Eggs can be a tiny bit off the recommended temperature, (99.5) but even one degree to low is pushing it.