Incuview Incubator

[ErniesFlock]

I have manages to save two of my Isbars (aircel was detached) I used an egg carton cut and put on top of the awesome egg turner so they are in an upright state (that is large end up) all the time. I had to sacrifice turning but this way it appears that the aircel may have stabalized? It doenst just slosh around anymore and there is a little fetus swimming around in there. I did turn it for the first 7-8 days so hopefully they will hatch with no defects. Fortunatley I have a 8ft boa constrictor in case they do. Tempest gets all the ones that dont make it.

 

[sm2teach]

I locked down 26 eggs today. I have 3 that have funky air cells on the sides of the eggs instead of on the end. These were shipped eggs. I guess next time I set shipped eggs I'll do the egg carton thing and hand turn them. The rest looked good so now we wait and see. Friday is hatch day!

 

[stonecoldchey]

Sorry for the late update but on day five I candled my 15 eggs and they were all developing! Lockdown is in 6 days can't wait!

 

[sm2teach]

About half of my eggs have pipped! I noticed my first pip this morning. This is day 19. They are rocking and pipping and peeping. I had a feeling that the incubator was running a little hot. I remember reading through this thread and it seemed several people had early hatches. These are bantam eggs. I don't know if that makes a difference. Next time I will adjust the temp. I had planned on these hatching Friday and Saturday. My husband and I will be at work during the day tomorrow. I am so nervous. I hope they hatch and are fine when we are away.

 

[sm2teach]

The first one is out!

 

[ErniesFlock]

Wow we are literally in the same boat day 19 about half pipped and 1 just broke out about 2 hours ago. I had barely locked it down and they started to pip. I am concerned cause some have pipd more than 12 hours ago :O not sure what to do keep the light on all night or off and go to sleep. Ha ya right.

 

[HugHess]

About half of my eggs have pipped! I noticed my first pip this morning. This is day 19. They are rocking and pipping and peeping. I had a feeling that the incubator was running a little hot. I remember reading through this thread and it seemed several people had early hatches. These are bantam eggs. I don't know if that makes a difference. Next time I will adjust the temp. I had planned on these hatching Friday and Saturday. My husband and I will be at work during the day tomorrow. I am so nervous. I hope they hatch and are fine when we are away.

Congratulations!
Just a heads up, I am almost positive, that Bantam or any smaller eggs will take less time to mature when they incubate, as a general guideline... you could easily verify that by hunting through related threads and posts and as for temperature during the overall incubation period, it can, indeed, make a difference for hatch timing. Colder=usually longer. Hotter=usually shorter, 'Newbie' here, but again, you can find that info here or on other related forums or threads....

 

[sm2teach]

Congratulations!
Just a heads up, I am almost positive, that Bantam or any smaller eggs will take less time to mature when they incubate, as a general guideline... you could easily verify that by hunting through related threads and posts and as for temperature during the overall incubation period, it can, indeed, make a difference for hatch timing. Colder=usually longer. Hotter=usually shorter, 'Newbie' here, but again, you can find that info here or on other related forums or threads....

Yes, I was wondering if the early hatch was due to them being bantams or from hotter temps. I will have to read through this thread again. I am going to hatch regular eggs next time, so I may leave the temp alone to test it because despite the early hatch, most of them hatched.

 

[sm2teach]

My hatch is over. My last one hatched sometime today. I had two eggs left when I went to bed last night. I candled and showed movement in one but no pips. There still were not any pips this morning but I decided to leave them and go to work and when I got home one of the eggs had hatched.

So now for my review:

I set 17 shipped eggs.
Out of 10 Mille fleur bantam frizzled cochins 9 were fertile and made it to lockdown. 7 hatched. 1 pipped but died before hatching. 1 did not pip.
Out of 7 sizzles 7 were fertile and 6 hatched. 1 pipped but died before hatching.

13/16 fertile eggs hatched giving a 81% hatch rate on shipped eggs!

I set 17 local eggs.
Out of 11 Mille fleur bantam smooth cochins 7 were fertile and 6 hatched. 1 pipped but died before hatching.
Out of 2 polish mixes 2 hatched.
Out of 4 calico bantam cochins 1 was fertile and 1 hatched.

9/10 fertile eggs hatched giving a 90% hatch rate on local eggs.

Combined 21/26 eggs hatched giving a 87% hatch rate.
I was very pleased.


This was my very first hatch. I have to say I am extremely pleased with this incubator. I ran fairly dry during the incubation period. My humidity stayed between 16%-40% with the needle staying in the correct range on the gauge. Most the time the humidity stayed at around 22%. I was originally worried that the incubator wasn't turning correctly but now I see that it was. I did have a few air cells on the sides of the eggs or saddle shaped on some of the shipped eggs. I think this is why a couple of the eggs pipped but didn't hatch. This was probably due to the eggs lying on their sides instead of upright. With shipped eggs it might be better to use an egg carton to prop them up. I was super afraid of shrink wrapping my eggs after all the horror stories I have read and because of the dry incubation so I filled up the water trays and put a wet cloth in at lockdown. The gauge showed within range and a humidity monitor started at 75% humidity but quickly rose to 85% after they started hatching. By the next morning the humidity monitor had died and I had taken out the wet cloth. Because they were hatching early and I wasn't going to be home to monitor them in the brooder (and I was still afraid of shrink wrapped chicks), I left them in the incubator until that next evening. By that time 18 had hatched and they were all soaking wet. There was a lot of condensation on the lid. Still the gauge showed within range. I will have to learn how to manage the humidity during hatch time. I figure that comes with experience. Clean up was a piece of cake. I do have to say that I LOVED the view. It was the first time that my kids and I had ever seen a chicken hatch. It was amazing to watch. I was able to take a great video were you couldn't even tell there was a lid. I showed the video to my students and they are now extremely excited to get to do this in the classroom. I would definitely recommend this incubator. I am so glad I ran across this thread. Otherwise I would have never considered this incubator. I will get some pictures of the sweet little chicks in a while and share them.

 

[HugHess]

Yes, I was wondering if the early hatch was due to them being bantams or from hotter temps. I will have to read through this thread again. I am going to hatch regular eggs next time, so I may leave the temp alone to test it because despite the early hatch, most of them hatched.

We must be doing something just right because I got 6 out of 7 to hatch (my first ever) and when I thought the 7th , that I water candled on day of lock down and it showed me nothing...so I thought she was a late 'quitter' well I put 'her' in the incubator anyway...and while discarding egg carton today, I candled her again and she bobbled in the water...so...ya just never know!