Humidity in sportsman incubator.

[crazzzymike13]

How do I up the humidity on the bottom hatcher without it getting too high on the other shelves. That way I can continue incubating and not giving the other too much humidity when not needed.

 

[crazzzymike13]

Anyone?

 

[PetRock]

Anyone?

I'm interested in the answer to this question.

 

[crazzzymike13]

Bump.

 

[crazzzymike13]

I know there are many byc members with Sportsman incubators. Any advice on this incubator is very well appreciated.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

How do I up the humidity on the bottom hatcher without it getting too high on the other shelves. That way I can continue incubating and not giving the other too much humidity when not needed.

Aloha, newbie here also. I have asked this question and gotten three answers from experienced breeders with the GQF cabinet models.
1. It's best not to continuously hatch, but to set all at once.
2. Keep humidity at 50% in the machine all the time.
3. Raising the humidity for a couple of days when a batch is ready to hatch will not affect the "younger" incubating eggs all that much.

I wish I had a better answer, but I'll keep searching.

 

[Tumbleweed33]

I have a sportsman incubator as well and have been hatching for almost a year, fairly continuously. I have had a problem with shrink wrapping in my chicks that are trying to hatch......At this point what I've tried with varying success is to cut a small piece of a sterile sponge (like 1" x 1"), soak it in water and place it in the bottom shelf with eggs ready to hatch. The overall humidity will raise sightly but it hasn't had a real effect on my other eggs that are in other stages of incubation. The sportsman is a great bator but I believe the ideal situation is to unfortunately have a small separate hatching bator.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

I have a sportsman incubator as well and have been hatching for almost a year, fairly continuously. I have had a problem with shrink wrapping in my chicks that are trying to hatch......At this point what I've tried with varying success is to cut a small piece of a sterile sponge (like 1" x 1"), soak it in water and place it in the bottom shelf with eggs ready to hatch. The overall humidity will raise sightly but it hasn't had a real effect on my other eggs that are in other stages of incubation. The sportsman is a great bator but I believe the ideal situation is to unfortunately have a small separate hatching bator.

I'm in day 4 of my first-ever set. For this one, I set all at once and will do the dry-incubation, no water until day 18 unless my initial candling/weigh-in shows me things are too dry. I gather it is an equation that is different for everyone depending on ambient temps in the room, room RH, etc. The person I am most inclined to take advice from who LOVES the Sportsman model just increases RH for 3 days prior to hatch of each set and sets/incubates continuously...but probably every week at most so there is an interval. In his method, the "younger" eggs are getting extra moisture a couple of times for 3 days each time and he has no problems.

 

[Pathfinders]

How do I up the humidity on the bottom hatcher without it getting too high on the other shelves. That way I can continue incubating and not giving the other too much humidity when not needed.

You can't, not really (not without a lot of juggling anyway.)

That's the thing. You really can't successfully use a Sportsman for both setter and hatcher. One way or another you're going to get the humidity wrong for part of what you have in there.

Do you have a small styrofoam incubator you can use for the hatch portion? Use the Sportsman as a setter and the styrofoam one for the hatcher?

Ideally you will reach a point where you'll have one Sportsman with rotating trays as a setter, and then have another you use just as a hatcher. But you'll need to hatch a lot of chicks a year to justify that (or so my husband told me when I bought the second one!)

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

You can't, not really (not without a lot of juggling anyway.)

That's the thing. You really can't successfully use a Sportsman for both setter and hatcher. One way or another you're going to get the humidity wrong for part of what you have in there.

Do you have a small styrofoam incubator you can use for the hatch portion? Use the Sportsman as a setter and the styrofoam one for the hatcher?

Ideally you will reach a point where you'll have one Sportsman with rotating trays as a setter, and then have another you use just as a hatcher. But you'll need to hatch a lot of chicks a year to justify that (or so my husband told me when I bought the second one!)

That kind of sounds like spousal unit permission to hatch a LOT of eggs!