Plucker was a hard job with little pay. I knew a bunch of people that all lived together in Arkansas. They all worked in the chicken business, catchers, pluckers, eviscerators, muckers, etc.. They were so poor. It took all of them to afford to rent a crappy house and fill it with hand me down furniture. If that wasn't bad enough, they lived in a dry county and had to drive to Oklahoma for beer. Then they had to drink it warm because they didn't have a refrigerator. Those were about the only jobs in that area.
Very clever on the humidifier setup.
I use an aquarium air pump just to bring air into the incubator and hatcher. It has a splitter so I can regulate flow into the incubator or hatcher. I might try something like you have for the incubator but my hatcher stays pretty humid. I have a gallon glass wine bottle upside down in a PVC coupling and a tube going into a pan above the incubator. Hatcher air is forced across the eggs up past a heat element, across the water pan, down past another heat element, past another water reservoir and back across the eggs.
I'd love to see a photo of your set up!! That is probably in your cabinet 'bator, right? I think that would be overkill for that little incuview - which has seen it's last hatch! I just bought another Brinsea to use as a hatching 'bator.
Ok, I will ask again on the question of extra oxygen during incubation.... I leave the red plug in for the first 10 days to RESTRICT oxygen, but I don't add the extra O2 on days 10 to 19. Is there any reason to add it prior to lock down?
The racional of restricting O2 in the first dayes is to expend the angiogenesis ( the formation of blood vesicles) and the number of red blood cells due to the shortage of oxygen supply. This extra blood vesicles will help the embrio to extract more O2 ( and more important get reed faster of the Co2!)in the later stage while its metabolic rate incrises, and this is exactly whay you should increase the O2 supply. To give it a bether chance to develope and get the enregy it needs in the most intensive stage of its development.
@kwhites634 How are the gasket and mind coming?
Has the weather improved? We are blessed it was sprinkly this morning, but it is now sunny and 68° with a breeze. About perfect.
Wow - your weather is warmer than mine. It's 62 and sunny at my house, but I'm at work and it's 67 here with clouds rolling in, and we have about a 40% chance of some rain this evening. Whatever rain we get here at work, usually travels over the hill to my valley a little bit later. Should be a soggy drive home.
The racional of restricting O2 in the first dayes is to expend the angiogenesis ( the formation of blood vesicles) due to the shortage of oxygen supply. This extra blood vesicles will help the embrio to extract more O2 ( and more important get reed faster of the Co2!)in the later stage while its metabolic rate incrises, and this is exactly whay you should increase the O2 supply. To give it a bether chance to develope and get the enregy it needs in the most intensive stage of its development.
I know that restricting the O2 in the first 10 days helped strengthen the chicks. Thank you for explaining HOW it helps!! What do you consider the later stage for increasing the O2. When I take out the plug on day 10, or when I lock them down at day 18/19.
I'd love to see a photo of your set up!! That is probably in your cabinet 'bator, right? I think that would be overkill for that little incuview - which has seen it's last hatch! I just bought another Brinsea to use as a hatching 'bator.
Ok, I will ask again on the question of extra oxygen during incubation.... I leave the red plug in for the first 10 days to RESTRICT oxygen, but I don't add the extra O2 on days 10 to 19. Is there any reason to add it prior to lock down?
Your incubator probably doesn't need it with the plugs out.
Early in incubation (first week) they're better with a little higher CO2. I don't remember the numbers off the top of my head. The more mature the embryo, the more oxygen they need but most manufactured incubators are just fine with the plugs out at the end.
I have some pictures on my computer but I need to take more. Here are some during the build and after some modifications.
I originally used bulbs for heat in the hatcher but have added metallic heat elements and only use LED lamps now as pilots.
The incubator has a Incubator Warehouse combination heater and fan but I'm adding another heat element on a separate controller.
This is a prototype so it looks a little rough while I work out the kinks.
The whole thing is a box (incubator) inside a box (hatcher). The incubator is flush front and back with the back of the hatcher and the door. There is an air channel top, bottom and both sides.
There's such a volume of humidified air moving across the eggs that I can open the hatcher periodically to pull chicks without problems.
It's mostly made from a shelving unit my son was throwing away and some lauan I had laying around and lined with foam board.
I've replaced the two Incubator Warehouse controllers (they weren't reliable) on the front with STC1000s and two $20 electronic controller boards from Bulgaria that live about a year before failing but they're for redundant heat control.
The push button light switches are on the right by the thermostats.
I like to use continuous hinge for this type of project. The incubator door latches are the type that draw tighter as they close.
Here I'm sliding the incubator out of the hatcher.
This is the incubator outside the hatcher.
The floor of both the incubator and hatcher are quarry tile for a heat sink.
Makes it very heavy though.
Angle iron is used to slide the incubator in and out.
On the right is the secondary hatcher heat element. The copper pipes at the top hold the primary water pan. They also contribute fresh air. There are small holes drilled in the top of them.
Primary hatcher heat element.
Bank of fans I had to replace with stronger ones because after a few hatches the low wattage (read cheap) fans were overwhelmed by dust. Especially after hatching some geese.
Here's the water pan sitting on the pipes.
It is fed from this glass gallon wine jug. It was cheapo/bad wine I bought just for the glass bottle.
Hatcher light and fan bank.
Hole in roof of hatcher for the water tube.
2 hatcher reservoirs with sponges. I've changed to better water wicks.
Beads of silicone on bottom of water pan to keep it centered on the copper pipe.
pan installed
The second water reservoir for the hatcher
Installing new beefier fans.
I went with filters so I wouldn't have to replace fans.
Finished with fan installation.
2 stc1000
12 VDC power supply for fans and a redundant 12VCD thermostat for the hatcher.
air manifold
Outlet and j-boxes on back of hatcher.
When it is operating, those receptacles are all used. Incubator heat, hatcher heat, incubator light, hatcher light, 2 turners, 12vdc power supply, air pump.
I'm planning on making my own 4 rack egg turner. I originally planned for 3 shelves so I had plenty of room for even ostrich eggs.
Chicks hatching.
I threw these junk hygrometers away cause I couldn't keep them calibrated.
@kwhites634 How are the gasket and mind coming?
Has the weather improved? We are blessed it was sprinkly this morning, but it is now sunny and 68° with a breeze. About perfect.
DW's going to pick up the gasket.
Mind's lost, probably forever
Rained off & on this morning. Finally quit, so I went out & proceeded to dismantle the last coop I built & didn't like. Got about an hour in & rain ran me in again. Now the sun's out again, so I'll give it another shot when I get caught up here.
The racional of restricting O2 in the first dayes is to expend the angiogenesis ( the formation of blood vesicles) due to the shortage of oxygen supply. This extra blood vesicles will help the embrio to extract more O2 ( and more important get reed faster of the Co2!)in the later stage while its metabolic rate incrises, and this is exactly whay you should increase the O2 supply. To give it a bether chance to develope and get the enregy it needs in the most intensive stage of its development.
I know that restricting the O2 in the first 10 days helped strengthen the chicks. Thank you for explaining HOW it helps!! What do you consider the later stage for increasing the O2. When I take out the plug on day 10, or when I lock them down at day 18/19.
I am refering to the period in between day 9-11 till day 15-17 in lock dowen the embrio is almos ready to hatce and there isnt to much to develop BUT its need a lot of O2 and ventilation to dill wite the extrem hige effort and hige metabolic heat of hatcing!
There are a few "duck" diseases that people vaccinate for... Duck plague, duck hepatitis, and maybe more. They are not vaccinated for Marek's or coccidiosis.
I can't wait to start hatching some eggs 
I'm going to a show next weekend and can hopefully pick some up!!
