Some 8 months ago my good lady wife and myself decided to look into keeping chickens, this site turned up after an exhaustive search and I drifted to the Incubating section. I was not long before I thought 'I could do that', with some guidence from the established DIY bator makers I went to it. I changed designs a few times and at present I'm making a thermostat to regulate the temperature better. I tried the water thermostat with some 50w heating elements, the heating elements were not very good after prolonged heating times, I tried regulating with a dimmer switch, in frustration I changed to some slim lights (40w on each side) and went back to the thermostat and then had huge temperature swings, so back to the dimmer switch.
Well I got the temp up and much more stable once the vents had been drilled but still had an expected swing with the ambient temperature.
Along come my neighbour with some of his guinea eggs to try out the incubator. He gave me 8 eggs I should have thought about it but the Guineas had only been laying for a week and were on there first year, not exactly a track proven record.
In they went, 3 power cuts dropping the box to 75 F for a good few hours at a time, a few spikes to 105 and a lot of in between 95-102 temperatures. At 14 days I tried candling and could not see any veins but 2 had a dark area right in the middle, one had a clear blood ring and the other 5 were clear, I left them all in and the day we stopped turning (6th June) I recandled and threw out the 5 clears and the one blood ring. 5am and the dogs wanted out so my wife checked on the incubator.nearly 3 days early and against all the odds.
Introducing.............
What else than Prissy!
Without her enthuasim and publishing of her pitfalls I woudln't have bothered.
While she is not alone, her posts and pictures and original ideas have shown anything goes.
The other egg?, well that chick is busy shedding it's shell as we speak.
Actually as it took so long to type it seems we have 2 chicks to go with the 34 Buff orpingtons and SLW's in the other brooder. (Prissy and ? Everett maybe)
Have to go and check on the chicks again now.
Thanks for listening.
Well I got the temp up and much more stable once the vents had been drilled but still had an expected swing with the ambient temperature.
Along come my neighbour with some of his guinea eggs to try out the incubator. He gave me 8 eggs I should have thought about it but the Guineas had only been laying for a week and were on there first year, not exactly a track proven record.
In they went, 3 power cuts dropping the box to 75 F for a good few hours at a time, a few spikes to 105 and a lot of in between 95-102 temperatures. At 14 days I tried candling and could not see any veins but 2 had a dark area right in the middle, one had a clear blood ring and the other 5 were clear, I left them all in and the day we stopped turning (6th June) I recandled and threw out the 5 clears and the one blood ring. 5am and the dogs wanted out so my wife checked on the incubator.nearly 3 days early and against all the odds.
Introducing.............
What else than Prissy!
Without her enthuasim and publishing of her pitfalls I woudln't have bothered.
While she is not alone, her posts and pictures and original ideas have shown anything goes.
The other egg?, well that chick is busy shedding it's shell as we speak.
Actually as it took so long to type it seems we have 2 chicks to go with the 34 Buff orpingtons and SLW's in the other brooder. (Prissy and ? Everett maybe)
Have to go and check on the chicks again now.
Thanks for listening.
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