Incubators Anonymous

[maryhysong]

I have not yet bought an incubator. I am reading and shopping and discovered a question I have not found the answer.
If I buy an incubator with hatching tray in the unit, how do I increase the humidity for the last four days while keeping the humidity low for the incubating trays? example is the Dickey 3 by 1
http://dickeyincubators.com/products.htm
I want to have three sets of eggs, putting a new set in each week to keep the eggs fresh(less than 10 days old).

you dont. that incubator is designed for large single run hatches.

how many eggs are you planing to hatch at a time?

I have an awesome Robert Bradley redwood incubator from the gosh, probably 40s or 50s. All spring I had great hatches (even 100% on some of my duck hatches) There are two regular trays and the bottom tray has been modified with hatching baskets. I put this weeks eggs in the top tray, then each week as I candled I moved them to the next tray down. The night of day 18 or morning of day 19 I moved the eggs due to hatch to the bottom tray. My humidity ran 25-30% until this point. As soon as I heard cheeping or saw pipping I would raise humidity to about 65% until hatch was done, then get rid of the water and let it drop back down to 30 or less. Once I fill the water reservoirs with like 36 cellulose sponges in then it only takes about 10 min to get the humidity up.

I would probably not try this in a regular styrobator unless I had two of them; one to incubate and one to hatch in because they all have their the water trays on the bottom, under the egg tray, so too much fiddling around with them.

 

[Arielle]

I have not yet bought an incubator. I am reading and shopping and discovered a question I have not found the answer.
If I buy an incubator with hatching tray in the unit, how do I increase the humidity for the last four days while keeping the humidity low for the incubating trays? example is the Dickey 3 by 1
http://dickeyincubators.com/products.htm
I want to have three sets of eggs, putting a new set in each week to keep the eggs fresh(less than 10 days old).

Better to have two units. One as the hatcher, the other as the incubator. Much easier.

 

[Tammy N]

I have not yet bought an incubator. I am reading and shopping and discovered a question I have not found the answer.
If I buy an incubator with hatching tray in the unit, how do I increase the humidity for the last four days while keeping the humidity low for the incubating trays? example is the Dickey 3 by 1
http://dickeyincubators.com/products.htm
I want to have three sets of eggs, putting a new set in each week to keep the eggs fresh(less than 10 days old).

Its tricky but i have staggered 3 weeks apart the temp when hatching needs to go down from 99.5 to 99.0 add water your humidity will raise wont hurt the chicks but i am using a leahy
the temp is not too low and not too high do not open iwas told i would be safe for 48 hrs not to get chicks i checked every 5 threw the glass well more so then that opened only long enough to tuen other eggs and grab the chicks out . 5 hrs each time this did not cause issues the chicks where 1 week 2 weeks and 3 weeks apart 100% hatch 90% hatch and 99% hatch go figure

 

[Runawaylobster]

I have not yet bought an incubator. I am reading and shopping and discovered a question I have not found the answer.
If I buy an incubator with hatching tray in the unit, how do I increase the humidity for the last four days while keeping the humidity low for the incubating trays? example is the Dickey 3 by 1
http://dickeyincubators.com/products.htm
I want to have three sets of eggs, putting a new set in each week to keep the eggs fresh(less than 10 days old).

I do staggered hatches in my sportsman 1502. I run it with one or no pads for incubation and both pads for hatch that bumps the RH up to about 63-65. I start the higher RH at the lockdown day, I have not had any issues with doing this. I tend not to let the hatch run out longer than say 22 days because i have started believing that if a chick is not out on it's own by that time then i don't want to propagate the lack of hatchability into my flock or anyone elses. It minimizes the high RH time for the eggs in the incubation phase. I used to successfully do help outs, the chicks did well for a few days and they they would die.. so I have pretty much stopped doing it. Since i got the sportsman my hatch rate has gone up from something like 30% to usually 80% or higher ( a bit lower for shipped eggs) and this is with staggered hatch and the tray in the bottom.

 

[pdb1]

hello my name is paul from the uk and I am a incubating addict so much that i now have 11 incubators all different types but i keep getting dead in shell or they pip then die i am now trying the dry incubation so far i have 30 quail hatch ive got some more chicken and duck eggs too go will let you know how i get on paul

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
I still like my hovabators... I can rotate hatches up to about every 4 days or so. sometimes less for a single egg or 3... just pop them in when they're to go in.
I have 3 I use for incubating and 1 is a dedicated hatcher only... I clean it between hatches, the incubators get cleaned every couple months or when I don't have eggs in one. and unplug when they're empty too, if i'm not expecting to incubate larger numbers.

 

[ki4got]

hello my name is paul from the uk and I am a incubating addict so much that i now have 11 incubators all different types but i keep getting dead in shell or they pip then die i am now trying the dry incubation so far i have 30 quail hatch ive got some more chicken and duck eggs too go will let you know how i get on paul

dry incubation is the only way to go IMO... I haven't ever added water to my incubators except maybe during the winter if we run wood heat. and only then if the humidity drops below 15% or so...

 

[Runawaylobster]

I still like my hovabators... I can rotate hatches up to about every 4 days or so. sometimes less for a single egg or 3... just pop them in when they're to go in.
I have 3 I use for incubating and 1 is a dedicated hatcher only... I clean it between hatches, the incubators get cleaned every couple months or when I don't have eggs in one. and unplug when they're empty too, if i'm not expecting to incubate larger numbers.

the one I had before was an LG with an added computer fan and auto turner, I still have it for emergencies but I would be scared to use it. I do hatch alot of eggs at once because i want all my chicks to be the same age, or close enough to put them in the same pen, so i will do 3-4 staggered hatches. I recently ran a one month batch, and hatched something like 100 eggs.

I have not repaired the fan yet, i called GQF and they reccommended that i pull out the entire panel and get it replaced but that sounds really expensive so i am going to
pull the panel and then hopefully dismount just the one offending fan, I can clean them at the same time.... you are right i never through about compressed air... I have a zillion scuba tanks i can use for just that, woohoo... I drive around with a small 40cuft one in my car so i can fill tires and i have had to use it loads of times... LOL!!!!

ps: is suspect it IS the bearing that has gone..

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
oh you've got a cabinet 'bator? i'm jealous... but then again, like I've said before If I had one i'd fill it. LOL

that's probably a 110 fan then if it's hard wired in. if you've got electrical experience shouldn't be any problem detaching the bad one and replacing it... ebay has replacement fans in all sorts of sizes. i'd measure that one and find a similar replacement. if it IS the panel, can I have your old one?

i'd pay for shipping it of course. hubby and I tinker with electronics (like most hams do IMO) and I might be able to build something with spare parts from others. LOL

 

[ozexpat]

the one I had before was an LG with an added computer fan and auto turner, I still have it for emergencies but I would be scared to use it. I do hatch alot of eggs at once because i want all my chicks to be the same age, or close enough to put them in the same pen, so i will do 3-4 staggered hatches. I recently ran a one month batch, and hatched something like 100 eggs.

I have not repaired the fan yet, i called GQF and they reccommended that i pull out the entire panel and get it replaced but that sounds really expensive so i am going to
pull the panel and then hopefully dismount just the one offending fan, I can clean them at the same time.... you are right i never through about compressed air... I have a zillion scuba tanks i can use for just that, woohoo... I drive around with a small 40cuft one in my car so i can fill tires and i have had to use it loads of times... LOL!!!!

ps: is suspect it IS the bearing that has gone..

My small car tank is 9cf. Now you have made me miss scuba diving. I must make time next trip to the Phils. I dive there with independent doubles and stay down till I my computer is getting ready to lock me out.. The joys of "valet" diving