Incubator Questions

[obsidianembrace]

How would I calibrate it? It's a thermometer and a hygrometer. It has buttons that say max/min, clear, and C/F. How would I calibrate that?

 

[holachicka]

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Mmm.. Those muffins look good...

Back to the topic

If money is tight ( as it is with me) you could always find some scrap chicken wire or hardware cloth and use it to fold and create a shelf like the cookie tray. just remember to put some paper toewls or something down at hatch time. Rocks are a great idea! especially with low shelves like a cookie tray! Anything that will hold onto the heat and realease it slowly...

 

[obsidianembrace]

My mom wants to know how critically important humidity is to the eggs.

 

[Sweetfolly]

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Super-critical. Right now, it's just about making sure the eggs lose the right amount of moisture. By hatch time, it's life or death - if you can't get the humidity to at least 65-70% at hatch time, the ducklings will shrink-wrap in the membrane, be unable to move, and die.

Calls seem to have much more of a problem hatching than other breeds - so, with Calls it's of particular importance.

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If it's warm going in, the incubator should keep it warm - it won't cool any more than the ambient temperature inside the 'bator. You shouldn't have to add any more water until it dries out.

Here are some instructions for calibrating a hygrometer:

To calibrate the hygrometer, you'll need:
* 1/2 cup table salt
* approximately 1/4 cup water
* coffee cup
* hygrometer
* large re-sealable freezer bag

Place 1/2 cup of salt in the coffee cup, and add the water. Stir for a bit to totally saturate the salt. The salt won't dissolve in this amount of water; instead, the salt should have the consistency of wet sand. Carefully place the cup containing the salt/water mix in a re-sealable plastic bag. Place the hygrometer in the bag, away from the cup of salt and water. Make sure none of the salt/water mix comes in direct contact with the hygrometer, or the hygrometer may be damaged. Completely seal the bag.

Place the sealed bag aside at room temperature for 8-12 hours. Pick a location free of drafts, out of direct sunlight, and away from heating or cooling vents. The temperature should be fairly constant. After being in the sealed bag for 8-12 hours, check the reading of the hygrometer. It is best to read it while still in the bag, since if your house air is dry the reading may go down quickly once you take the hygrometer out of the bag. The relative humidity in the sealed bag with the salt/water mix should be 75 percent. If your hygrometer doesn't read 75% - say, it reads 60%, then just mentally add 15% to all your readings. This method tells you about haw far your hygrometer is off, then you have to do the math.

EDIT: holachicka, we must have been typing at the same time!

 

[holachicka]

1/2 cup salt + 1/4 cup water in a bowl, put it in a gallon ziplock bag with your hygrometer, (not letting the hygrometer get wet) seal and wait 12-24 hrs. It should read 75% humidity, if not then you know how off your hygrometer is... EG: mine read 65%, so I know that the actual humidity of the incubator is 10 degrees higher than what my hygrometer reads... Make sense?

 

[obsidianembrace]

Should I calibrate it now? I have a thermometer that's not digital that I can read from while I'm doing it. Right now the humidity says 26% but it lowered the temp to 97.3. Maybe I should go grab some warm rocks from outside before they cool off.

 

[holachicka]

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Super-critical. Right now, it's just about making sure the eggs lose the right amount of moisture. By hatch time, it's life or death - if you can't get the humidity to at least 70% at hatch time, the ducklings will shrink-wrap in the membrane, be unable to move, and die.

I lost about 30 out of 100 quail... The humidity was right, I just opened the incubator too many times during lock down... and lost a lot of birds... humidity is reall life and death for the birds!!

 

[obsidianembrace]

I think I just found out by pressing the max/min button on the thing that it can only read as high as 62% humidity and as low as 20% humidity...so the actual humidity is probably lower.

But then, to calibrate it, how do I know what the actual humidity is that it says? Do I just add 13% on to what it reads? Because it should be 75 in the bag, but then it can only read as high as 62...

 

[Sweetfolly]

holachicka - I know what you mean! I've lost quite a few Runner ducklings this year because they pipped into the air cell early, before I bumped up the humidity for hatching!

obsidianembrace - the max/min shows the highest and lowest readings it's been exposed to since the last reset. So, the lowest humidity it's been exposed to so far is 20%, and the highest is 68%. I'm sure it actually will read a much wider range.

 

[obsidianembrace]

oh okay, that's good. I'll go ahead and try to calibrate it then. So it'll be ready to mess with in the morning. The temp was holding steady at 98.4, so I won't change anything between now and then.