Incubators Anonymous

[dblred0728]

Above, something apparently crushed the top. No damage to box or top of bator.


Above Wafer thermostat you can see the meat probe It's below the wood piece that the heat blows from.




Above, in this picture you can even see the crack at the top of the door. It now has nice wad of paper towels to hold in the heat or try too.



I think after hubby caulks the seams again and adds thicker weather stripping to the door, fingers crossed it will work better. Any other suggestions I should look into? Had one egg hatch and later die but I know it was due to too high temps. They were bantam eggs at that. Pictures don't show but has a hatching tray at the bottom.

 

[Arielle]

I need some help I was given 5 turkey eggs and I've hatched chickens before with about a 80% average but I'm new to turkeys I know there is not much difference but when these eggs were laid one cracked and leaked on the five I got now and made mud get on them but the mud was made out of egg and dirt but anyways they been in the bator about a week and when I open it it smells so bad but I don't think they are rotten any ideas all help is apreciated

WHen I have particularly dirty eggs, I wash in the sink with warm water( slightly warmer than the eggs) and then dip for about 10 seconds in a bleach/water rinse. ( 1tsp bleach/2 cups warm water). Use a spoon to let the eggs down into the diluted bleach , count and remove to dry in a carton. Definitely toss any that are cracked. Smell each one. If it looks darkened on the inside, I would be very suspisious of "it's rotten"

 

[Arielle]

How do you reduce humidity in Little Giant still air? Its at 33% with just eggs in it. I know it should be around 20% for a dry hatch. I don't want to plug all the vents as fresh air is needed.

YOu might need to use an AC unit-- though the unit also drived UP the temp. IT is a balancing act. I put the AC in my kids bedroom, and let the ac air flow into the next bedroom IT worked. You might be ok with 33%-- that is about what I use in the summer humidity. Have you check ed the air cells??

 

[Tammy N]

Is there a Good sorce for Eggs ?
Im looking for 6 Breeds but hen i look on here for them they are well over my range as these are for others not myself

Breeds are easy
RIR,Barred Rock,Austrolorps,buff Orphington and white rocks

these are just for the 4h group if there is please pm me Tammy

 

[ki4got]

Is there a Good sorce for Eggs ?
Im looking for 6 Breeds but hen i look on here for them they are well over my range as these are for others not myself

Breeds are easy
RIR,Barred Rock,Austrolorps,buff Orphington and white rocks

these are just for the 4h group if there is please pm me Tammy

ROFL... donna, don't you have most of those?

or maybe bhep?

 

[ChickNmamma]

Above, something apparently crushed the top. No damage to box or top of bator.


Above Wafer thermostat you can see the meat probe It's below the wood piece that the heat blows from.




Above, in this picture you can even see the crack at the top of the door. It now has nice wad of paper towels to hold in the heat or try too.



I think after hubby caulks the seams again and adds thicker weather stripping to the door, fingers crossed it will work better. Any other suggestions I should look into? Had one egg hatch and later die but I know it was due to too high temps. They were bantam eggs at that. Pictures don't show but has a hatching tray at the bottom.

Well, that looks like something that will work. Those "Meat Thermometers" are what the Sportsman uses too, they are pretty accurate. Once you calk all the holes and add the weather stripping I think it will work better for you. That way you can control the amount of airflow in and out. Having a gap at the top sure lets out a lot of heat. Do you have any way to check humidity? I don't see any water trays or any way to bring it up. You will need it when you hatch.

I believe somebody used something similar to that heating unit they were going to build an incubator around. It might have been earlier in this thread. I wish I could remember what it was from. That dark box looks familiar - it was a fan/heater combo.

 

[ddpbk1]

• Arielle

​

YOu might need to use an AC unit-- though the unit also drived UP the temp. IT is a balancing act. I put the AC in my kids bedroom, and let the ac air flow into the next bedroom IT worked. You might be ok with 33%-- that is about what I use in the summer humidity. Have you check ed the air cells??

​

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The eggs are at 3 days in the incubator so not sure how to check air sacs. I usually wait to day 7 is that too late?

 

[dblred0728]

Well, that looks like something that will work. Those "Meat Thermometers" are what the Sportsman uses too, they are pretty accurate. Once you calk all the holes and add the weather stripping I think it will work better for you. That way you can control the amount of airflow in and out. Having a gap at the top sure lets out a lot of heat. Do you have any way to check humidity? I don't see any water trays or any way to bring it up. You will need it when you hatch.

I believe somebody used something similar to that heating unit they were going to build an incubator around. It might have been earlier in this thread. I wish I could remember what it was from. That dark box looks familiar - it was a fan/heater combo.

I have a small hydrometer that measures it, and I placed a cakepan with 2 sponges on the top shelf for my humidity. That kept it around 65-68%. All the tuners were wired with the powersupply of the heater/fan, thus to unplug the turners you cut the whole thing off! NOT GOOD! So hubby is going to get 3 plugs and have each turner on a different plug. Will make for a mess in the back but better than it is now. It has 3 holes in the back that I was told was used for humidity. I haven't played with it enough to figure out if opening the holes increases or decreases the humidity. I will search thru this thread I'd sure like to talk to someone that has this same setup to see if it is working properly since the shipping damage.

 

[ChickNmamma]

Quote: Cake pan in the top with sponges is very close to what the Sportsman does. They also have an "auto waterer" that has a float and an outside hose to add water without opening the incubator. You might want to put something like that in for lockdown when you want the humidity to stay high.

Opening the holes decreases humidity (the moisture goes out) and increases the oxygen (which the chicks need when they start to hatch). Opening the door decreases humidity and increases oxygen too - but you don't usually want to do that a lot when they are hatching - it also drops the temperatures. Usually the vent holes are partially closed for the first 18 days then opened way up and lots of water added for the last 3 days. Some wait until they actually have a pip to add humidity.

Unless you are at a high altitude I wouldn't use 65-68 Percent for the first 18 days - that is way too high. A lot of people have changed to "Dry Hatching" where they add no water for the first 18 days. Their humidity runs from 16% to 24% though. If I added no water mine would probably be about 10% which is just a tad low. So I add some when I first put the eggs in, then let it all dry out and only add more if it goes below 10%. I add water at day 18-19 to bring it up to 60%. I also used cardboard egg cartons and poured a bit of warm water around them to bring up the humidity right next to the eggs.

Yes, you will want to be able to turn off the turners separately. They also produce heat so be aware your temperatures might drop a bit when you do that.

 

[ChickNmamma]

• Arielle

​

YOu might need to use an AC unit-- though the unit also drived UP the temp. IT is a balancing act. I put the AC in my kids bedroom, and let the ac air flow into the next bedroom IT worked. You might be ok with 33%-- that is about what I use in the summer humidity. Have you check ed the air cells??

​

​

The eggs are at 3 days in the incubator so not sure how to check air sacs. I usually wait to day 7 is that too late?​

Wait until day 7, day 3 there isn't enough difference to really tell. You may need an AC unit in the room to bring down the exterior humidity. You can try a cloth bag with rice inside the incubator to see if you can draw some of that excess moisture out.