Incubators Anonymous

[DMRippy]

Well, we are in lockdown with 3 good eggs. Humidity is at 63% right now, will this be good or should I go higher?

it will go higher when they start to hatch... just happens that way

 

[SRHartley]

Thanks everyone for advice and information in all threads! BYC has been very informative and helpful

 

[ThePaganJew]

Hey, I was wondering if anyone could help me trouble shoot. I finished my cabinet incubator but it seems to be having a difficult time regulating temperature. I have the probe inside of a folded heat/cold pack, the air where the eggs will be sitting ranges from 95 to 100 but the heat/cold pack stays at right around 99.5. I'm using http://incubatorwarehouse.com/225-watt-cabinet-incukit.html to heat it and the sizing for the cabinet is fine. Am I freaking out to much as it's the air temp and wouldn't be the egg temp? I have 28 eggs sitting nearby waiting for it and if I can't figure it out I'm tempted to just go and get a hovabator so they don't go to waste. Any help would be appreciated. here is a picture of the innards of the incubator. I have added more water bottles and such to help as heat sinks and added an open 6qt tub of water for humidity.

 

[ki4got]

Hey, I was wondering if anyone could help me trouble shoot. I finished my cabinet incubator but it seems to be having a difficult time regulating temperature. I have the probe inside of a folded heat/cold pack, the air where the eggs will be sitting ranges from 95 to 100 but the heat/cold pack stays at right around 99.5. I'm using http://incubatorwarehouse.com/225-watt-cabinet-incukit.html to heat it and the sizing for the cabinet is fine. Am I freaking out to much as it's the air temp and wouldn't be the egg temp? I have 28 eggs sitting nearby waiting for it and if I can't figure it out I'm tempted to just go and get a hovabator so they don't go to waste. Any help would be appreciated. here is a picture of the innards of the incubator. I have added more water bottles and such to help as heat sinks and added an open 6qt tub of water for humidity.

how fast is that high/low temp cycling?? if it's over the space of a couple minutes that's not a big deal, if it's over half hour that might cause issues. i would say, if you can, adjust your temp probe to something more the size of an egg, then you'll know if the eggs would be affected. i made one of my own, took a plastic easter egg, drilled a hole in one end to put the probe in, and filled it with plaster of paris - using a large basting needle and syringe, with tape on the seam to keep it from leaking till the paster set. the plaster doesn't hold temp as well as water would, but gives a closer approximation than a heat/cold pack would since it's designed to resist temperature changes.

i might also suggest adding some flex-watt heat tape to get the temp back up a bit faster. could be the incu-kit is having a harder time maintaining the temp and/or catching back up once it starts to drop.

oh, and for humidity, that 6 qt tub may be overkill... but then if you've read much of this thread, you'll know i'm a proponent of dry incubation (not adding humidity until near hatching). IMO most incubation failures result in too high a humidity over the course of incubation. chicks develop normally, but when they internally pip are so bloated with the excess water they can't turn to hatch normally. the excess fluids also put strain on the heart and lungs. so in this respect, only the very strongest chicks will hatch, the rest... well, they don't.

I've dealt with wet hatches before, where 20+ eggs make it to lockdown only for 5 or 6 to hatch. it's quite disappointing. after that first time, i started cutting back my humidity, now don't add any. and even then, my sfh chicks were wet hatches this time around... the other dorking (and dorking mutts) all hatched just fine.

 

[Dahlisgrams]

Very cool cabinet incubator.

This hatch was amazing, I'm still in shock actually... 100% hatched from shipped eggs.

 

[ThePaganJew]

Quote: Thanks, I'll try the fake egg thing. Some of my spare thermostats have long enough probes to where I may be able to take up a slot in the turner to get something really accurate. Also I have flexwatt at home already, I keep and breed reptiles and you would be surprised at the amount of overlap in supplies used, but the largest panels of it I have at the moment at 11" by 12". However I do have a large heat panel made for tortoises that is 18" x 18". I may try putting that on the bottom. Looks like this still needs some tinkering with to work, but I won't give up on it, I'll just have to used my backup hovabator in the mean time.

Very cool cabinet incubator.

This hatch was amazing, I'm still in shock actually... 100% hatched from shipped eggs.

Thanks! and congrats on your hatching success!

 

[ki4got]

Quote: Thanks, I'll try the fake egg thing. Some of my spare thermostats have long enough probes to where I may be able to take up a slot in the turner to get something really accurate. Also I have flexwatt at home already, I keep and breed reptiles and you would be surprised at the amount of overlap in supplies used, but the largest panels of it I have at the moment at 11" by 12". However I do have a large heat panel made for tortoises that is 18" x 18". I may try putting that on the bottom. Looks like this still needs some tinkering with to work, but I won't give up on it, I'll just have to used my backup hovabator in the mean time.

Very cool cabinet incubator.

This hatch was amazing, I'm still in shock actually... 100% hatched from shipped eggs.

Thanks! and congrats on your hatching success!
you're wrong there. LOL i know quite well how good flexwatt works. 8)

and i was thinking even just a 4" high strip along one side might be enough to make the difference in temperature gradients, since it seems to have a faster response time than some other heating elements i've used. (tho my 'bators are still hovabator - just because i know them well and they work for me)

 

[ki4got]

ok here might be a silly question... does anyone have a spare regular egg rail to fit the little giant turner (like pictured in the homemade 'bator above)? i broke one, and was thinking maybe someone had a spare because the motor died or something... PM me and let me know if you do please?

 

[ozexpat]

Thanks everyone for advice and information in all threads! BYC has been very informative and helpful

how is the hatch going?

 

[louisianarednek]

Well I got my chickens a month ago they were already laying so I just couldn't wait to sit some eggs so I got a little giant bator and was going to put the eggs from Tuesday to Friday in it so Friday came along and I had five eggs pretty happy but we also had about three hens getting out everyday and couldn't find where they were laying eggs but a couple of minutes before I put those five eggs in the bator we found 18 eggs his in some pine straw so I sat 23 eggs and now it's day 12 and I have 13 eggs developing at a good rate I'm so excited for hatching day