Incubators Anonymous

[mollybuck]

http://www.amazon.com/Farm-Innovato...092&sr=8-1&keywords=farm+innovators+incubator is this the one you are referring too? Its the only one I could find with circulated air.....but this one comes with a turner also.

thats the one i have for the first part.

this is what i use for lock down

http://www.amazon.com/Little-Giant-...UTF8&qid=1398953900&sr=8-9&keywords=incubator

 

[mollybuck]

Does the humidity just get to high around hatch time or?

i think its hard to keep up. at least for me it is. I had the tray filled and lined the whole bottom with a damp cloth and I still had to sneak water in through the vent holes every so often.

 

[blucoondawg]

Does the humidity just get to high around hatch time or?

I use dry hatch method with mine, I can easily maintain humidity with a full load of eggs and no water unless the house gets extremely dry, at hatch last time I filled the wells and got around 80% humidity then at hatch time the chicks released a lot more moisture and it was way high, this time I am not going to fill all the water wells at lockdown. My humidity is easy to manipulate mostly by opening or closing vents.

 

[ladycat]

Does anyone use a water wiggle with a probe? I put one in my still air styro, but should the wiggle go on the floor or on top of the eggs?

 

[puglady]

i think its hard to keep up. at least for me it is. I had the tray filled and lined the whole bottom with a damp cloth and I still had to sneak water in through the vent holes every so often.

The opposite for me at LD. A little water would make it spike.

 

[blucoondawg]

Does anyone use a water wiggle with a probe? I put one in my still air styro, but should the wiggle go on the floor or on top of the eggs?

I don't use a water wiggle but the water wiggle should be sitting on the floor the same as the eggs would, the point is that the temperature is inserted into the center at the same height (or close enough) as the center of your egg would be to replicate what the temperature should be inside the egg.

 

[5 Acre Rooster]

Think a little giant ( I think that's what they are called), the Styrofoam ones from TSC/Runnings, would suffice for just using it as a hatcher? I'm so used to my brinsea just taking care of everything, even though this is only my 2nd hatch, that I'm a bit intimidated by have to actually watch the humidity etc.

Second question, those of you with the cooler bators, can you somehow put the basic turners in those? I really like the idea of having all the room to put different stages of eggs in there. (Planning on hatching a lot of my own eggs next year from the breed pens I want to get done this year)

A little giant would work just fine. I have 2 still air LG's and use as incubator/hatcher every year. Had to replace a thermostat in 1 after a few years. Both working fine still. Just as with any styro cleaning can be annoying.

 

[blucoondawg]

 A little giant would work just fine. I have 2 still air LG's and use as incubator/hatcher every year. Had to replace a thermostat in 1 after a few years. Both working fine still. Just as with any styro cleaning can be annoying.

with my current hatch I have lined the bottom with aluminum foil just poked holes for the small holes on the 4 corners. Hopefully this will eliminate pretty much all the mess from hatching. Foil is a little bulky and kind of a pain to deal with but I was leary of using saran wrap in the heated environment, though I doubt it would have hurt anything

 

[ladycat]

with my current hatch I have lined the bottom with aluminum foil just poked holes for the small holes on the 4 corners. Hopefully this will eliminate pretty much all the mess from hatching. Foil is a little bulky and kind of a pain to deal with but I was leary of using saran wrap in the heated environment, though I doubt it would have hurt anything

I use paper towels during hatch.

 

[blucoondawg]

I use paper towels during hatch.

on to of the wire or under? I put the foil under the wire so I can still easily access the water troughs