It's Official...

[R2elk]

I made sure I ordered one with the Dickey... because my average humidity here is 16% or lower especially during the summer with the dry air and A/C on all the time, and I have to add water every 3 days or so to my Hovabators. So I know I will love not having to open the Dickey. Not sure I need the auto humidity system for the hatcher, the pan (or pans) I'm going to use shouldn't run out of water for a 3 or 4 day lock-down... I hope not anyway, lol.

Thanks for the tip about distilled water for the float valve. That system is a pain in the hind end to put in/take out, so it wouldn't be that easy to work on it in a hurry if the float fails. My well water is bad about deposits, so yah... time to stock up on a few gallons of distilled water.

Sounds like the herpstat temp controller is the way to go... how much did that set ya back?

You may be right about not needing it for a hatcher but if you are constantly adding eggs to the hatcher it may be beneficial. Wow it must be nice to have humidity that high. During the winter my house humidity can and does get below 10%. In the summer it is a different story. Because of the naturally low humidity, I use a swamp cooler and no air conditioner bringing the humidity up into the 40% range.

When you consider that an electronic thermostat runs in the mid $80.00 range, the herpstat is not that bad price wise. I got the herpstat 1 basic because it came with a three prong plug and then found when I opened things up that even though my 1202 had a three prong plug on it, it was not a grounded system and it would have worked just as well to go with the herpstat intro or the intro +.

I did have to open the cabinet by removing the top to get at the wiring to divorce the turner and fan from the thermostat and heating element. I put them on a switched cord so that I can just turn the switch on instead of plugging/unplugging the cord to control the on and off. I also removed the old electronic thermostat but did leave in the wafer system to control over heating. It is just purring along so well that I have finally quit checking the temperature every time I go past (mine is in the dining room).

http://spyderrobotics.com/home/products.html

I did get an indoor/outdoor weather station and put the remote sensor inside the incubator to give a double check on the temperature and an easy way to see what the humidity is inside the incubator. It is another item that turned out to be well worth it to me.

Good luck and keep hatching those keets. By the way, I put my first batch of turkey eggs in the incubator last Saturday but still haven't found any guinea eggs from my lone lavender hen.

 

[PeepsCA]

You may be right about not needing it for a hatcher but if you are constantly adding eggs to the hatcher it may be beneficial. Wow it must be nice to have humidity that high. During the winter my house humidity can and does get below 10%. In the summer it is a different story. Because of the naturally low humidity, I use a swamp cooler and no air conditioner bringing the humidity up into the 40% range.

When you consider that an electronic thermostat runs in the mid $80.00 range, the herpstat is not that bad price wise. I got the herpstat 1 basic because it came with a three prong plug and then found when I opened things up that even though my 1202 had a three prong plug on it, it was not a grounded system and it would have worked just as well to go with the herpstat intro or the intro +.

I did have to open the cabinet by removing the top to get at the wiring to divorce the turner and fan from the thermostat and heating element. I put them on a switched cord so that I can just turn the switch on instead of plugging/unplugging the cord to control the on and off. I also removed the old electronic thermostat but did leave in the wafer system to control over heating. It is just purring along so well that I have finally quit checking the temperature every time I go past (mine is in the dining room).

http://spyderrobotics.com/home/products.html

I did get an indoor/outdoor weather station and put the remote sensor inside the incubator to give a double check on the temperature and an easy way to see what the humidity is inside the incubator. It is another item that turned out to be well worth it to me.

Good luck and keep hatching those keets. By the way, I put my first batch of turkey eggs in the incubator last Saturday but still haven't found any guinea eggs from my lone lavender hen.

Yah, um... my plan is to hatch larger batches, less often, and not have to constantly be adding eggs to this hatcher (you're one of those enablers aren't you? LOL).

Thanks for the herpstat link, I might have to go that route. The cost would be worth it to me, just for peace of mind. I am walking by and checking temp and RH constantly on 2 units now (plus checking on the eggs I still have in my 2 1588s), to the point of being OCD lol (mainly just a conditioned response from incubating and hatching in table top incubators for too many years I think, lol). The back on these GQF come off, so I don't think I have to take off the top to make any changes...

16% humidity is high? LOL, I'm from the Northern CA coast, so I grew up in the fog. Over here 200 miles inland where I am now everything gets crispy crunchy dead/dry in the summer, I HATE IT!

Congrats on setting Turkey eggs. This will be my first year hatching poults from my own Turkey Hens' eggs. I'm looking fwd to it. I've hatched somewhere around 2000 keets, so it's not all that exciting anymore, but watching poults hatch will have me glued to that big clear door, lol. There's 26 fertile Turkey eggs developing in my 1588s, plus 30 more eggs in the Dickey that should all be fertile too, but we'll see how they all do...

Ohhhh, only one Guinea Hen? You need more. Hope you find those eggs (and that she has a mate) so you can hatch some more (speaking of enablers, lol)

 

[R2elk]

Yah, um... my plan is to hatch larger batches, less often, and not have to constantly be adding eggs to this hatcher (you're one of those enablers aren't you? LOL).

Ohhhh, only one Guinea Hen? You need more. Hope you find those eggs (and that she has a mate) so you can hatch some more (speaking of enablers, lol)

Me an enabler

I hatched 9 keets last year. Of the 8 that survived there was just the 1 lavender hen. I kept 3 Coral Blue and 1 Powder Blue males. One of the Coral Blues decided to eliminate himself by flying into the dog pen where he became lunch.

She has chosen one of the Coral Blues as a mate. The Powder Blue is the odd male out as the two Coral Blue males will gang up on him but one on one he is quite capable of taking care of himself. I have a couple of dozen hatching eggs coming next month and really hope to find some of her eggs to add to the batch.

 

[PeepsCA]

Ooh ouch, only 1 Hen out of 9 keets... dang. And yah, I get a few of those Guineas that hatch with the death-by-dog-wish each season too.

You could pen your Lavender girl and her boyfriend up a couple weeks before your hatching eggs are scheduled to arrive, and then collect her eggs every day so you have some to add to the batch of shipped eggs.

I'm completely envious of your Blue Slate and Royal Palm eggs, 2 of my favorites!

 

[R2elk]

Ooh ouch, only 1 Hen out of 9 keets... dang. And yah, I get a few of those Guineas that hatch with the death-by-dog-wish each season too.

You could pen your Lavender girl and her boyfriend up a couple weeks before your hatching eggs are scheduled to arrive, and then collect her eggs every day so you have some to add to the batch of shipped eggs.

I'm completely envious of your Blue Slate and Royal Palm eggs, 2 of my favorites!

Unfortunately I do not have the facilities to pen a pair of guineas up. With this particular group it would stress them out to the extreme to be penned up.

You don't want to get me started on just how wonderful the Blue Slates are. The tom ruled all of the poultry and would not tolerate any fights among the others be they chickens, guneas or turkeys. When new chicks were involved he intervened in disputes between the hens.

I did not keep a Royal Palm tom so all I get from the Royal palm eggs are Royal Palm/Blue Slate offspring. Mostly those are either a black turkey or a blue turkey with an extra amount of black splashes and a few white feathers. The blue crosses put on weight faster than the purebreds did.

 

[PeepsCA]

I had a Blue Slate poult that I hatched last season... spoiled rotten, but a total pet. He made it to 4 months then he jumped the fence into the dog's yard, and well you know how that goes. I was devastated... he was my Blue puppy. I want more Blue Slates, and the Royal Palms are just beautiful, period.

Won't Blue Slate over Royal Palm produce Blue Palms? Guinea genetics I have a pretty good grip on what produces what, but Turkeys are another story, lol.

 

[R2elk]

I had a Blue Slate poult that I hatched last season... spoiled rotten, but a total pet. He made it to 4 months then he jumped the fence into the dog's yard, and well you know how that goes. I was devastated... he was my Blue puppy. I want more Blue Slates, and the Royal Palms are just beautiful, period.

Won't Blue Slate over Royal Palm produce Blue Palms? Guinea genetics I have a pretty good grip on what produces what, but Turkeys are another story, lol.

When my current tom (self blue) was about the same age last year he did the same thing. Fortunately for me he did it while the dog was sleeping and I saw him before she did. My poultry are never raised as pets so getting caught by me was a traumatic enough experience that he never went in the dog pen again.

In my case the only thing I ever got out of a blue slate/royal palm cross was either a black or a blue slate looking turkey. I never carried it to farther crosses which may or may not eventually produce a blue palm. I have a neighbor who crossed a royal palm tom on a narragansett hen and got a poult that very much resembles a blue palm.

A good place to get a handle on turkey color genetics is http://www.porterturkeys.com/

 

[PeepsCA]

I've visited Porter's site many times... I get too overwhelmed with all the I WANT SOME OF THOSE AND SOME OF THOSE AND SOME OF THOSE TOO, lol.

I have a Narri Tom covering a Narri Hen and 2 Black (sort of mottled) Hens. They are all siblings (ugh), and all from a Blue Slate Tom/Narri Hen pair. I'm probably dreamin' but I am hoping to see the Blue Slate genes show themselves at least once or twice out of the 50-60 (or more, lol) poults I plan to hatch from their eggs...

 

[PeepsCA]

Just a small hatch this time, since I just set a few eggs to hatch with my Turkey poults so the keets would help teach the poults to eat and drink...
Gorgeous Blondes! (2 Blondes, 2 Coral Blues and a Brown).



And here are my 12 Poults... not Guineas/keets but I hatched them (addicted to hatching) and they are still WAY cute!
The 2 that hatched out mostly yellow were a total surprise. I am SO keeping them!!!
(Yep, now I will be hoarding Turkeys too, lol).

 

[Mmmatt13]

They're all awesome! I like the black ones with little white masks. Awww!!!