Incuview Incubator

[Storybook Farm]

Taking PD's advice, I went to bed exhausted at 8 PM last night. As of 6 AM, we have 11 eggs unhatched, so that's 11 chicks hatched so far. This is day 21, but none of the rest of the eggs show pips currently...however, its not broad daylight and the pips could be wrong side down. The chicks really do roll them around like bowling balls! I'm glad someone told me that that's the way it would look.

 

[Storybook Farm]

So, I ended up with a 50% hatch (from lockdown), which is OK for a first attempt but not great. We have yet to do eggtopsies but I don't blame the Incuview at this point.

This was my first time, and I know that during the first week I had way too low humidity, and I also struggled with candling. As a Newbie I didn't quite know what I was looking at, so I could have put non-viable eggs into the hatch. Finally, I had a second thermometer in the 'bator at egg level that read a consistent 101°, but I trusted the bator's readings of 99.5 more. I suspect now from the fact that I had early hatchers that the 'bator ran a bit hot. Does that seem right?

This maiden voyage used "mutt" eggs from my beginner flock. All 11 that did hatch are so cute and are doing well in the brooder. I am getting 16 Columbian Rock eggs shipped on Wednesday. I know shipping lowers the hatch rate but am hoping to hatch at least one cock and one hen to be foundation birds for upgraded flock.

Many thanks to all who offered help and great advice! I'll let you know how the next hatch goes!

 

[junebuggena]

You did pretty good, considering it was your first time using an incubator, and your first time with this particular incubator. Now that you've got things figured out, you should do about the same or better with your shipped eggs.
Make sure your candling light has fresh batteries and check those air cells as soon as they arrive. If they've got loose or funny shaped air cells, don't turn them for the first week of incubation.

 

[PD-Riverman]

I had a second thermometer in the 'bator at egg level that read a consistent 101°, but I trusted the bator's readings of 99.5 more. I suspect now from the fact that I had early hatchers that the 'bator ran a bit hot. Does that seem right?

If your """eggs""" started hatching a day early---it was to hot----if only one or two hatched early and the rest on time---I would say you were real close. I think you are beating yourself up over the lower humidity the first few days---and that probably had nothing to do with your outcome. Learning the incubator can take time. Don't make major changes your next hatch in every area----if you feel the humidity was to low----increase that and do the rest the same way as this hatch and see if you have a better hatch-----keep learning and I hope you get into the 90% range soon.

 

[Storybook Farm]

Thanks for the encouragement, folks. I agree with try, try again. My shipped eggs are in the mail today! We'll see what that adventure brings. Meanwhile, I'm thinking about tweaks:

We just did our eggtopsies. 11 didn't hatch. Here's what we discovered, by category of ills:

First: Of the 11, six didn't have absorbed yolks. What does that say? Details:
*They seemed to all be at the stage where the yolk should have begun to be absorbed (i.e. formed with feathers). From the video of embryo development, I'm guessing that they died before lockdown.
*I'm not aware of any event (like a power shortage...?) that would have caused this, but there may have been a power surge or some such thing... especially if temps were running a bit high and these were somehow nearer stress levels than the others?

I don't know if anyone has ideas about this or not.

Second: One of the eggs was an early quitter. Had a tiny, one-week old embryo and mushy egg yolk and white mixed. This says to me that I need better candling skills.

Third: One had absorbed 75% of his yolk... not sure what that was all about.

Fourth: Two were malpositioned: they had drowned because they couldn't pip the air sack.

Fifth: One was fully formed and in the right position, but just never pipped even his air sack.

Conclusions:

1. Plan to keep humidity for first 18 days right around 40-45%

2. The Incuview temp setting was at 95.X (slight variations) pretty much every time I checked. I'm thinking it ran a degree high the whole time. I base that on two things: 1) the early appearance (all within 24 hours, during Day 20) of the hatch, and 2) the fact that my hygrometer/thermometer consistently read 101.X (spiking to 102.X not infrequently) throughout incubation.

I'm doing more testing of this device vis a vis other known temps in my home, and adding I'm also adding a second, wireless hygrometer/thermometer this next time, because during the hatch, the chicks sat on the probe of the one I have and tossed around the display of the one I placed loosely in the incubator, so I couldn't see it; the new one is designed to put an outdoor probe (read: tough) that the display reads wirelessly.

3. A question that has been niggling me is the horizontal nature of the Incuview setup. I was fearing a high number of malpositions. Two out of 25 were malpositioned. Does that seem like a high proportion to you? I plan to manually turn the shipped eggs upright if, as I anticipate, they arrive with rolling air sacks. We'll see!

Comments?

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Well good luck with ur next hatch if that's what u were meaning and today is day 20 and nothing yet I am hoping for something soon I can't wait any longer I am very impatient I don't even have the patience to go fishing I either need to catch a fish within about 15-20 minutes or i am done I can't stand sitting there doing nothing waiting and waiting

 

[pommes]

Hi, i just received my incuview in the mail, plugged it in and it worked fine, i adjusted the temperature from f to c. I Unplugged the incuview for 10 sec. and plugged it back in. Since then, the digital screen flashes... anyone else have this problem?

 

[WillowC]

Is the green light on the black battery plug thing (that's the technical term I believe) flashing as well? I had the same problem and it was a faulty plug thingy. I emailed the company and they mailed another one right away. I got the original one to work until the new one arrived by banging it on the counter top.

 

[rainydayzjmb]

Incubatorwarehouse.com customer service is amazing!!!

My husband ordered me the incuview to surprise me for my birthday and unfortunately it was destroyed by USPS. We assume it fell off the delivery truck as a passer by found it in the street and delivered the destroyed package to us.
my hubby was bummed his surprise for me was ruined and he showed me my broken surprise - he was convinced he wouldn't get it replaced by my birthday.

I called incubator warehouse and they were empathetic to the situation and sent me out a new incubator the very next day!

All I had to do was send picture of the damage do they could open a claim with usps-

Incubator warehouse made the replacement process so easy and fast I would recommend them as this kind of customer service is so rare to find these days!

They did this so quickly, I likely will have my new incubator well before my birthday ( April 2) and this is one birthday present I will be super EGG-cited to get early!!!

We are urban chicken keepers I had been eyeing this incubator because my kids and I love the space & visibility - I had a brinsea mini advance before , but it was stolen last year after I let someone from a Facebook chicken group " borrow" it. I felt it was cramped and look foward to trying the incuview.

I will surely be posting pics of future hatches!

Jennifer B.

Thank you Incubator warehouse!!!

 

[Moma]

I bought an IncuView Incubator. Im excited to try it out. I've never tried hatching eggs before.