Incubator or desk lamp?

[Riocotesei]

Sounds like you got chickens on the brain, Mahonri!!

 

[citygal/countrygalRN]

Ok I'm in...I was tryin this before I read about the contest. I have to find the balance... when m temp is right the humidity is waaay too low. I turned off my heat source and was gonna give up, now the humidity is right and the temp is waay too low. Now I'm trying a slightly different approach. We'll see what happens!

 

[Fox]

Quote:
Get your temp right and then find another way to increase your humidity. I ended up using a tall, tupperware, kool-aid/punch container. They are tall and rectangular. I wanted something tall because I didn't want the chicks to fall in it after hatching. The idea is to have more surface for the water, so the more the water can spread out, the better. I read that depth doesn't matter so much. I used a cup in the corner too and sponges all along the side as needed. I hope this helps you to find some balance. Good luck!

 

[CrazyChickieMama]

I am speechless. . . . .

 

[Fox]

Quote:
I was just happy... I didn't realize it was a big deal to hatch them like this. Hmm... if I get a bator and don't do as well, then back to the box it will be! LOL!

 

[hillbillygreen]

Quote:
Yes, I did!

I got a deep box with a lid. I cut out another rectangle of cardboard and cut the center section out of it and taped it the one of the top lid flaps of the box. I put clear packaging tape over the cut open area so I would have a window and wouldn't have to open the box every time I wanted to check the eggs and temp. I put a thick towel on the bottom and covered that with paper towels. I put my desk lamp in the corner of the box because the box was too tall for it to stay outside of it. Ideally, I would prefer either a bigger box or a lower one so that the lamp could stay out and just be bent over into the box. I used a long, rectangular container for a water tray and also put in a glass of water in the corner for my humidity. I used a temp/humidity gauge from Wal-mart to monitor how things went. I put my eggs in the center, I had 8 to start out with and ended up with 5 fertile. I centered the lamp over the eggs. If it seemed a bit too warm, I raised the lamp up. Not warm enough, I lowered the lamp down. I turned the eggs three times a day. I wrote down my temp at the time of turning and the time.

It was hard to raise the humidity levels at the end, but I used sponges to create more water surface and it did rise. I had a power outage during the hatch. I had to move the box to the garage to plug up to a temporary power source. I lost a lot of humidity. When the power came back on and I could see, I took a humidifier and flooded the box with the humid air, then shut it up lowered the lamp to raise the temps that had also dropped. I removed the two chicks that had already hatched into another box with another lamp, so they were not effected by any of that. The other two hatched out fine, one right away, the other within the hour. Only one died, but it never made it out of the shell. It had stopped peeping even before the power outage. And that is pretty much how I did it. I will say that at one point, I did start having to get up in the middle of the night because the temp would get to high, but it was toward the end and it was in the summer. I think some of my swinging temps had more to do with the air-conditioner kicking on and off than anything else. I think I'd want a new place for the box as I didn't like the last space for that very reason. Sometimes I covered the top of the box with a towel.

Here is a picture of my incubator box
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/18048_batorfull.jpg

Here is a better picture of the lid
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/18048_batorlid.jpg

Here they are during the hatch
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/18048_bothbabies.jpg

And here is one of those two a few months ago.She was the first hatched and is on the left in the picture.
http://www.longhairloom.com/chickpicsinternet/Maxpurewhitehen.jpg

Edited to add more pictures

That... was... amazing...

Fox, I love you

 

[happyhens]

Wow! Great idea. Did you decide to try it again?

 

[Fox]

Quote:
I had a broody hen, two actually, that hatched their own Silkies. I ended up using an incubator on some Ameraucana eggs I got, but unfortunately, the eggs were cracked in shipment, and I think the bad handling ruined the rest as we had none show any signs of fertility. I really don't think it was the eggs, but the shipping. However, the Little Giant Incubator didn't seem to do any better at holding the temps steady than I did with the lamp, so I may revert back to my box set up... at least I know what it going in that way! LOL!

 

[Gayle-the-Australorp]

I'm curious about trying with a desk lamp but any recommendations to avoid it becoming a fire hazard? I'm afraid of leaving the lamp on while I'm out.