I have no choice now.... I have to fire the incubator up!

[TinaK]

A month or so ago I started to make a homemade incubator out of an old cooler. I've got all of the light globe and thermostat wiring done & working. All I really need to do now is put in my fan, fit the perspex viewing hole to my lid, set up some hardware cloth / mesh and give it a test whirl!!
My hubby got a message on his phone last night... telling him that there are fertile duck eggs waiting in his locker at work

We told one of his work mates that I was making the incubator... so he took it upon himself to get me eggs!

(Chicken math coming into play - The eggs were unexpected.... so if anything ever hatches... they won't count)

So it looks like i'll be 'forced' to fire up the homemade bator

. I'd better hop to it! I'll need to have it going for a day or two first to see how stable my temps are.

This will be the first time I have tried to incubate eggs... ever! Wish me luck

 

[chickmama1662]

good luck! Keep us posted!

 

[TinaK]

Thanks chickmama! I'll be sure to provide plenty of updates & photos along the way.

Just got a call from the guy who has put the eggs into the work locker... There is 24 EGGS! 12 duck eggs and 12 guinea fowl eggs!

Now that has thrown a spanner in the works!! My manual egg turner only has room for 12 eggs all up! modifications are required!!

 

[nwfl]

funny ! i came home after inspecting a 22 bird flock a woman is giving away and she told me to please take all the eggs from 4 broodies. out came our little bator and in went the 41 eggs, i crushed one, drat.

good luck on your first hatch in your creation!

 

[TinaK]

After finding out that I have both duck and guinea fowl eggs to set I'm a little concerned about putting them both into my incubator at once.

I suppose it is going to be a 'hit and miss' anyway. I have no idea how the eggs have been stored... how old they are or anything!

I've read that duck eggs take around 28 days + depending on type of duck. I have also read that it will take between 26 - 30 days for guinea keets to hatch.... I have tons more research to do!!!

Ahhh well.. you have to start somewhere I suppose!

 

[TinaK]

OK I have fired up the incubator!!!!! It's been running for about 5 hours now in the spare room in my house.

I have chosen which eggs are going to bet set (If I can fit them!). It’s 12 guinea fowl eggs and 7 duck eggs. I decided not to put in a few duck eggs I was given because they were quite heavily soiled. I’d prefer to start off with only half a dozen chook eggs for my first hatch but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.

Found out today that the duck eggs are probably 4 – 5 days old and the guinea fowl eggs are probably 10 – 14 days old. The fowl eggs are older than I’d like.. but hey the eggs were a ‘gift’ so I won’t complain. I also won’t have very high hopes for success because I can’t know the full history of the eggs and it is only my first time, in my home made bator!

I pre-candled all the eggs, numbered them, wrote notes on shell and air sac size.....

Humidity seems to be fairly stable in the bator at the moment at 60%. I have a jar of water in there (no lid) and a lidded jar as a heat sink.

My thermostat seems to have a larger tolerance than what I’d like. The temp of the bator rises to 37.5 degrees Celsius (99.5F) and then drops back to 33 celsius (91.4F) before the light comes back on. I haven’t done the water wriggler check because... we don’t have wriggler toys here. I’ll give the bator overnight to stabilise (hopefully) and set the eggs tomorrow if all is well.

My hubby is more excited than I am! Probably because he thinks we will have babies on the way! I’m a pessimist... I've already decided that all of the eggs are bad