Incubators Anonymous

[TherryChicken]

Ladycat, thank you, im still working on it.

 

[sonderah]

Just pulled 19 BO babies out of the hatcher!! 5 I think left that haven't done anything yet. My biggest hatch yet. It was so funny! There were so many little ones running around like little maniacs everywhere, I couldn't even et a head count!! LMBO. Love it!

 

[marchick]

Just pulled 19 BO babies out of the hatcher!! 5 I think left that haven't done anything yet. My biggest hatch yet. It was so funny! There were so many little ones running around like little maniacs everywhere, I couldn't even et a head count!! LMBO. Love it!

WOW! all out of your hova-bator!So happy for you! Enjoy your babies!

Glad I got one of those!

 

[sonderah]

WOW! all out of your hova-bator!So happy for you! Enjoy your babies!  Glad I got one of those!

Yup. This is the 1st time that I've hatched in it. I usually take them out and move to my LG at day 18, because of staggered hatching. But this time I wanted to start fresh, so hatched in it. Works AMAZINGLY!

 

[marchick]

Yup. This is the 1st time that I've hatched in it. I usually take them out and move to my LG at day 18, because of staggered hatching. But this time I wanted to start fresh, so hatched in it. Works AMAZINGLY!

At lock down did you lower temp. and add water to raise humidity. Or did you add water and pull the vent plug?

 

[DMRippy]

Great job on the brooders!

I am just LOVING the wire floors. We want to convert most of my current brooders over ASAP. I am just a little conserned about wire floors in my main shop. It is unheated but enclosed and I will have heat available but will it be enough with an open floor?

 

[ozexpat]

FYI for everyone looking for a good electronic thermostat for an incubator, here is the first part
of a series of three YouTube videos showing how to use a single relay Willhi controller (available in °F and 110v):


part 2:


part 3

I am glad you found a thermostat that is right for you. I really hope it works out for you with numbers you can understand. I am sure it will help others with an aversion to metric system.

After watching the video I stand corrected on the reason for the delay. It can be set at zero however please note there will be a longer (almost double) reaction time than with the other versions as the differential is 1o (in your version F) rather than 0.3oC with the devices I use. As you eluded to by saying you preferred the precision of F over C, the precision is negated by the inability to narrow the differential by more than a whole degree. The temp it turns on at is just as important as the temp it turns off at.

In all reality, its not a lot but the swing in your bator temps will be larger so you may need to raise your set point higher.

While Mr LizardKing, with your experience you are undoubtedly aware of this, there are many reading who are not and have trouble with incubating so let me explain this for novices.

Correct incubator temperature is critical for hatching good quality chicks. It is not the air temperature of the incubator that is critical, incubator temperature should be based on what is experienced by the embryo inside the egg.

Most novices fail to grasp this. You will find threads filled with people having 5 thermometers in their incubators and still have poor quality chicks or low hatch rates. Others are concerned because their hovabators are swinging widely and then even more tweak their little giants because a random temp as they are walking by is 101.5F, invariably damaging their hatch.
There are two ways to do this.

Eggshell surface temperature is closely related to internal egg temperature. It is therefore a useful tool for determining whether or not setter temperature is correct. Shell temperature can be easily measured using a medical grade infrared thermometer.

Another option is to use an calibration verified, accurate digital thermometer probe (I use one of the WILLHI Celsius devices I won’t use for hatching or a spare STC 1000. A Brinsea spot check is also a great but pricier option) and place it in a water wigglie. Its close enough in size to emulate an egg and thus get a better picture of where you need to be with your thermostat setting.

Optimum internal egg temperature for maximum hatch and chick quality is 37.8 - 38.3oC (100 - 101oF) throughout the whole setting period.

I prefer the water wigglie method and a WILLHI thermostat with just the thermometer wired as I have a continuous read out. I verify accuracy by putting the probes of both inside the wigglie after measuring 0oC or 32F in ice water with my thermostat probe

For critical eggs, I use single stage incubating methodolgy and as the embryos develop and generate heat,

The number to set on your incubator’s thermostat will vary based on heater type, wattage, incubator air mass, insulation properties and the mass of eggs in the bator. You may even have two different incubators in the same room set at two different numbers to get the same egg temps.

Most minor swing in temperature in an incubator is tolerable – as long as you understand the effect on the egg temps. My experience with the WILLHI in Celsius and the differential was that I had to set it a full degree higher than the STC 1000 as it took a over ten seconds (and thus my confusion last evening) longer to kick in when used on a 150 egg incubator. At a guess, 1F will probably be around 5 seconds longer.
As most people don’t realize the facts stated here, they will set their incubators at 100F and feel that all is good in the world when in reality the mean temp will be closer to 99.F and many will be posting in the help sections that its day 21 and they don’t have pipping or after 22 days saying they have chicks with curled toes.

Great hatching everybody.

 

[theresam22]

Based te name="theresam22" url="/t/569950/incubators-anonymous/9840#post_13521871"]
I've done some between 30% and 40% and some 40% to 50%, raising to 60-65% at lockdown. I've had some on the automatic cradle turner thingy and others that I have turned 3-5 times a day by tilting the brinsea and twisting the lid on the turn-x. The last batch of silkies I opened the turn-x and turned by hand, and none of those hatched, most quit before lockdown. The muscovy pipped before I stopped auto-turning and before I raised the humidity. I raised it when he pipped, and wonder if that killed the others. The other muscovy had a heck of a time and got a lot of help, good bad or otherwise, but she is alive and healthy today.

I'm tempted to leave the humidity alone on this batch and not raise it. At least until some pip, then maybe only a litte. This batch has been a 45% humidity, non-autoturner, brinsea batch and I've had only 3 quitters out of 13 of 18 that started. Best yet. All 10 alive at tonight's candle.

Eggs I've opened in any given batch have had normal looking chicks as well as ones with a lot of fluid. I don't know that they looked to big or too small.

Based on the excellent details you provided it sounds like humidity issues. Despite all the books saying run bators in the 40 most of us try for the twenties and low thirties.

Also make sure the vent plugs are out during the last half of the hatch.

Humidity is a killer.

You can try weighing eggs and tracking weight loss. It's the most accurate way of knowing your humidity is set right.

If they lose the right amount of water then look to other causes.

Turning eggs early is also a factor. Even with shipped eggs I rest them upright for 12 hrs then put them in the bator and turn on the Turner. There are loads of scholarly research articles showing that no turning for the first few days causes late Embryo death.

Good luck. It's a soul destroyer having so many die at the end.

1200 shipped eggs at >45% humidity I got less than 20% hatch while local eggs 60%. Since I added a dehumidifier set at 40% my shipped hatch rate is up to 55% and local eggs 89%[/QUOTE]
Thanks so much oz, part of it could be lack of early turning. I read several people say they had better results with shipped eggs not turning 3 days. I did that on a couple batches. All my muscovy eggs had damaged and rolling air cells, so I sat them upright with no turning for a week or maybe even 10 days. Others I set after resting 8-12 hours and turned right away, no matter how the air cells looked. Seemed I still lost at least half.

What humidity do you recommend at lockdown and do you raise it gradually or just bring it right up? I've been turning these newly set eggs from the start and will lower the humidity back to the 30's. Can't wait to build my breeding stock up so I won't have to mess with shipped eggs anymore!

 

[LizardKing]

Quote:
The temp differential differs by model and you can purchase ones that do either 1°F or .1°F, I will be testing
and verifying that on the one I purchased (WH7016F, 110v, 0.1°F delta) because I will have to see to believe
that it is really a tenth of a degree diff capable.
Simple conversion shows that the 0.3°C is ~0.5°F.
The on and off temps of the heater can be programmed.
Your on/off settings will also depend upon your heater and inside air flow.

Quote:
I would be wary of using those on eggshells that are very dark coloured or very shiny but I would be it works well on most chicken eggs.
The dark color or shiny surface can throw the temp off on those thermometers.

Quote:
I prefer to use 6 to 12 inch MERCURY thermometers but have not been able to purchase any at a reasonable price.
In a previous post I give the info about the type I am currently using that is a 6" spirit filled thermometer, etched marking, 25-125°F scale,
with 1°F graduations and all four I initially bought all tested exactly the same and spot on for temp.
They also react rather quickly to temp changes.
These I trust 100% to give me accurate temp measurements.
I have yet to find a good electronic one that I trust but I also have not bought any of the more expensive ones.
I am using a plastic stand for my dry and wet thermos that keep the bulb at about the height of the quail eggs in the turners.
Placing the temp sensor in something that simulates the mass of an egg is a good idea and preferably that mass should approximate that
of the eggs you are incubating but you also lose knowing what the air temp is.

I wonder why no one has made an incubator that uses some sort of water bag with heated water in contact with about half or less of the eggs surface
that would better simulate a hen?

Quote:
That is also optimum for a lot of other bird species!

Quote:
Making incubation more of an art than a science with a lot of work going into developing proper techniques and closely watching the bator all the time.

Now, to make things even more interesting I also have a Willhi humidity controller on order and an ultrasonic atomizer
in mind to automatically control the humidity.
The hovabator type foam incubator with the wafer is FAR more stable than the electronic Little Giant I had my poor BQ eggs in for a few days
but I will in the future have a need for an incubator for more valuable bird eggs.
Quail and chickens will be my inexpensive test subjects and everyone needs quail and chickens anyhow!
We will see how it works out, bought some cement board and coated Masonite today to start on the new incubator.
Already have foam insulation for the unit, thinking of going two layers for one inch total thickness.

What is funny is that 25 years ago I built a small incubator out of scrap clear plexiglass, a $5 thrift store heater (fan/heater coils/coil standoffs)
and a wafer thermostat that I was able to hatch lots of button quail and lovebirds eggs out of and I manually turned those eggs!
My success rate was about 80% after some trial and error!!!
I ended up selling it to a guy for $100 because I was wore out from feeding the baby lovebirds every two hours all day and night
for the first week and a half after they hatched...

 

[ozexpat]

Thanks so much oz, part of it could be lack of early turning. I read several people say they had better results with shipped eggs not turning 3 days. I did that on a couple batches. All my muscovy eggs had damaged and rolling air cells, so I sat them upright with no turning for a week or maybe even 10 days. Others I set after resting 8-12 hours and turned right away, no matter how the air cells looked. Seemed I still lost at least half.

What humidity do you recommend at lockdown and do you raise it gradually or just bring it right up? I've been turning these newly set eggs from the start and will lower the humidity back to the 30's. Can't wait to build my breeding stock up so I won't have to mess with shipped eggs anymore!

I stop turning on day 18. When I raise humidity if a function of air cell development. As most of my incubating is done in a high humidity environment and struggle to get bator humidity as low as I want, its normally once the eggs start to internally pip and i hear chirping. I raise the humidity to 60% and let the early pippers brig it up further.