How To Hatch Eggs and get a 90% Hatch Rate

[ronott1]

I only use air temp to get a rough idea, as soon as air temp is in and around 99.5° I dial in and monitor incubator temps with a 'fake egg' from that point on... Since I have been doing a lot of peafowl this year it's a 4oz baby bottle filled with water (a little larger but not too much bigger than a peafowl egg) the nipple is installed backwards and it's a newborn nipple so it has a single hole... I can either leave the thermometer in there or take it out, the nipple seals back up pretty well it doesn't really leak at all, this bottle stays in the incubator 24/7 and I use that to monitor the temps vs air as it more closely mimics the average internal egg temps...

That is a good idea!

I use a Brinsea spot check and a water weasel.



The water weasel probe is in the back.

 

[Wisher1000]

Quote:
I agree! Great idea! These are so much easier to get than the water weasels (water wigglers) and easier to get clean between hatches!

Besides, I don't think I would have to worry about the boys playing with this between hatches! I ordered my water weasel off the internet and whenever hatch season starts, I have to go find it. Usually, it is in one of their rooms. Yesterday, I found it in the bathtub.....

 

[LindaB220]

I only use air temp to get a rough idea, as soon as air temp is in and around 99.5° I dial in and monitor incubator temps with a 'fake egg' from that point on... Since I have been doing a lot of peafowl this year it's a 4oz baby bottle filled with water (a little larger but not too much bigger than a peafowl egg) the nipple is installed backwards and it's a newborn nipple so it has a single hole... I can either leave the thermometer in there or take it out, the nipple seals back up pretty well it doesn't really leak at all, this bottle stays in the incubator 24/7 and I use that to monitor the temps vs air as it more closely mimics the average internal egg temps...

What a nifty little idea. I'm going to try this. A water wiggler works also.

 

[crtyjlee]

Wow...very ingenious. .i will have to try this for the next hatch

 

[bamadude]

Where did tucker run off too?

 

[LindaB220]

What a nifty little idea. I'm going to try this. A water wiggler works also.

And I couldn't find a local one so I paid $5 for a water wiggler. I'll keep this in mind

 

[Sylviaanne]

I only use air temp to get a rough idea, as soon as air temp is in and around 99.5° I dial in and monitor incubator temps with a 'fake egg' from that point on... Since I have been doing a lot of peafowl this year it's a 4oz baby bottle filled with water (a little larger but not too much bigger than a peafowl egg) the nipple is installed backwards and it's a newborn nipple so it has a single hole... I can either leave the thermometer in there or take it out, the nipple seals back up pretty well it doesn't really leak at all, this bottle stays in the incubator 24/7 and I use that to monitor the temps vs air as it more closely mimics the average internal egg temps...

It looks like the temp reading is on the end of the probe, how do you check it without opening the incubator. Are you using a glass bottle or plastic? It looks glass. Very good idea, BTW

Even if the bottle is the size of a peafowl egg, wouldn't it register the same for a guinea or chicken egg? Or is the size a big difference?

Someone posted how to make a water wiggler using 2 ziplock bags, a couple of rubber bands and a probe from Walmart but I think it would be the same possible problem, the size of the eggs vs the baby bottle or ziplock bags.

 

[ronott1]

It looks like the temp reading is on the end of the probe, how do you check it without opening the incubator. Are you using a glass bottle or plastic? It looks glass. Very good idea, BTW

Even if the bottle is the size of a peafowl egg, wouldn't it register the same for a guinea or chicken egg? Or is the size a big difference?

Someone posted how to make a water wiggler using 2 ziplock bags, a couple of rubber bands and a probe from Walmart but I think it would be the same possible problem, the size of the eggs vs the baby bottle or ziplock bags.

I need to check if the Brinsea spot check probe can get wet. It goes outside with the probe inside the incubator.

 

[MeepBeep]

It looks like the temp reading is on the end of the probe, how do you check it without opening the incubator. Are you using a glass bottle or plastic? It looks glass. Very good idea, BTW

Yes, the temp reading location on most of these types of metal probe thermometers is on the end/tip... Now that I know the incubator is pretty much regulated I just watch air temp when I walk by and double check the temp on the fake every time I open the incubator to rotate the eggs... Initially when I was setting up the incubator I had a glass thermometer poked in the bottle that I could see through the window on the incubator without opening, and for a brief time I actually had that digital probe pictured poked through the foam side of the incubator and into the fake egg inside so I could take readings outside... Overall the incubator has been running 24/7 since May and I have only adjusted it once since initial setup, when it started to creep up about a degree, so more so it's a piece of mind at this point...

It's a plastic bottle, I actually have that 4oz one and a smaller 2oz one depending on what size eggs are in the incubator...

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I have some probes like that have a little bump along the rod that is the sensing location.