Janoel 12 incubator help!

[dawn secord]

just hatched 3 and the 4th is pipping. kept mine set at 38 for temp which stayed at 99 degrees on my thermometer. For the most part, kept the humidity at 60% and increased it to 70% the last few days.

this is my first time using an incubator so I don't know if I was just lucky - lots of advise from the groups and definitely was glad I got a hydrometer. Had the humidity too high without knowing it.

 

[peeperT]

i can only fit 6 lg or 9 sm eggs. the instructions say they need at least 1/5" space all around/ i leave a little more room. to check it, you can put the eggs in the tray and then move the tray on the tracks to see if they effectively roll. good luck!

 

[melishkia]

Just hatched 8/9 Isbar chicks, happy and healthy. I still do not have a hydrometer lol.
This was my first time hatching someone elses eggs so that 9th egg that didn't hatch is a bit of a mystery.

 

[melishkia]

nevermind, last egg hatched. I still have a fantastic 100% hatch rate with this incubator, will always recommend it to others.

 

[naf_appaz]

1 week to go and candling looks good. I live in central Mississippi and my humidity has been very high since day 1....60 to 80. This is with no water! Tried some rice and dry paper towel it did not bring humidity down. Might try desiccant packs? At this point air cell looks about right. Any body have experience with high humidity? All I see deals with raising it not lowering it. We'll see what happens?

 

[naf_appaz]

Little more to the story....got a lot of info here and youtube. I am attempting 20 light Sussex from ebay. A post on YouTube shows how to incubate on hatch out level. To rock the eggs you tilt the whole incubator manually from side to side. I got a 7 dollar hygrometer/thermometer on ebay. It had a remote thermo couple that I mounted to hang lower on the hatch level than the one it comes with that is mounted just below the electronics. Noted that there was a good 5 degree difference depending how high or low you are taking the reading. The temp has remained very steady throughout first 14 days. I did cull out 2 eggs with no growth at all and 1 with a blood streak that seemed to have died at about one week. The rest seem to be on schedule only concern is humidity.

 

[CarlaJeanchickenlady]

What do you do for your incubator on lock down? I have this style and it’s my first attempt and lock down behind tomorrow. I am a nervous wreck and terrified I’ve made it this far and something will go wrong. What steps have you taken on lock down to maintain a good hatch?

 

[CarlaJeanchickenlady]

Little more to the story....got a lot of info here and youtube. I am attempting 20 light Sussex from ebay. A post on YouTube shows how to incubate on hatch out level. To rock the eggs you tilt the whole incubator manually from side to side. I got a 7 dollar hygrometer/thermometer on ebay. It had a remote thermo couple that I mounted to hang lower on the hatch level than the one it comes with that is mounted just below the electronics. Noted that there was a good 5 degree difference depending how high or low you are taking the reading. The temp has remained very steady throughout first 14 days. I did cull out 2 eggs with no growth at all and 1 with a blood streak that seemed to have died at about one week. The rest seem to be on schedule only concern is humidity.

I had 3 not becoming fertile and1 quitter day 7-8. What section of the turner was your quitter in?

 

[naf_appaz]

I have never used the auto Turner in mine. I manually rock the whole incubator with eggs in a stationary rack. At lock down just remove your auto turn rack and lay them on there side. No turning necessry after lock down, just keep the humidity up above 70 and you should be fine.

 

[Newtosilkies]

Hello, I have been reading a little about the Janoel 12 incubator and have looked online for better instructions, as the one included in the box for us english speaking people is incomprehensible, to put it nicely. And I am an American, so my english isn't proper english anyway!

I am very good at interpreting what people whose native tongue is not english are trying to say in english, I have lived abroad and traveled all over the world but some of these instructions have even me baffled. So, let me do a simple quick run through for how to get it set up and going.
Hatching shipped eggs: Let them sit pointed end down in an egg carton for 24 hours at room temp, in the room you will have the incubator running in. because you don't know the breeder as well as yourself, don't know cleanliness, if they cleaned off the poo before shipping to you, if there is some still on there, etc. you need to sanitize your eggs before putting them in your incubator. If you see any brown spots or streaks on the egg, wipe it off gently with a dry piece of material, dish rag, paper towel, etc. then, get out some purified bottled water- I use this for my wash solution and rinse water. I use Brinsea brand Incubation disinfectant concentrate, and follow the directions on the bottle EXCEPT- I make sure the water temp of the wash solution is 100* F, and then I rinse them off with 100* F of the bottled water. Wash your hands first! After sanitizing and rinsing them, I let them set on a paper towel and dry at room temp, then I load them in the incubator. Any time I touch the eggs after this, I wash my hands first. I dont candle my eggs until the 18 day when I remove the turner, and I only toss eggs with a blood ring. All others except the blood rings go back in. I also wait for approx. 26-28 days until I remove any unhatched eggs. Late bloomers are ALWAYS hatching out and suprising me, every time.
For the Janoel 12:
I use this one for a small clutch I want to hatch, or any expensive or rare important eggs I want a good hatching success with, or any eggs which I cant tell which end is the pointy end- which happens a lot with my younger araucanas for some reason. Reason being is that in a stand up incubator, you have to put the pointy end down, and if it is not then you are essentially putting them in upside down and preventing the hatch. Again, I don't candle my eggs until day 18, so I don't look for air sacs, etc. In the Janoel 12, the eggs are laid on their sides and rolled around slowly and gently in the automatic turner, much more like they would be naturally under a hen. When you open the box, you will have two different white trays, one with stands and one with two raised bars running along the sides, no stands. Place the one with the stands to the side, this is the one you will put in the incubator later for hatching. For the first 18 days you will be using the one with the two raised lines on the sides. Put the egg tray inside of the raised lines, so it can slide back and forth. put two of the dividers inside of the egg tray, spaced evenly. This is so you can put 3 eggs inside each lane, for a total of 9 chicken eggs- it will not turn 12 chicken eggs properly because they are too close together to move and roll like they are supposed to, only put 9 in there. Do not try putting two on the outside and hand turning them, this will break them trust me. It is hard to tell if it is turning them or not, if you are new to this, and you have to make sure the metal rod that is sticking out of the round plastic circle is inserted inside the rectangular handle on the side of the egg tray EVERY TIME YOU PUT THE LID BACK ON or it will not turn the eggs. Mark your eggs with an X on one side, and an O on the other if you are concerned it is not turning them- then you will see that it actually is, so long as that metal rod is in the hole of the egg tray handle. If the turner is not working, or if it stops working, you will then have to turn them by hand 3 times a day yourself. The temperature is not always perfectly accurate, so I keep two medical grade mercury thermometers sitting on top of the eggs to keep an accurate temp- excessive, yes I know but the temp is the most important thing, humidity can fluctuate.
I don't set the low and high parameters on this incubator, never have. I've heard too many people losing chicks when they do this. I simply see what my medical thermometers say, and adjust the temp on the incubator up or down until the medical thermometers read right at 37.5 C or 99.5 F. Then I leave the machines temp adjustments alone, for the entire time. It adjusts and keeps it where I set it just fine. But, of course I have my thermometers inside the whole time, sitting on top of my eggs and check them any time I open the incubator to add water, etc. just to make sure the incubator is doing its job right. I also wrap a bath towel around the outside of the entire incubator- dont cover the top, just the sides. This helps the incubator keep temp accurate without burning out the motor from constant on and off. Dont ever cover the airhole in the top- the eggs need this little oxygen to help them incubate properly.
For humidity, I have a good hygrometer I put inside to check the humidity with. It is a small round one, and I tape it inside on the end where it wont interfere with the tray movement, so that I can see my humidity through the clear plastic without having to open the incubator every time. I keep the humidity between 40-55% the first 18 days. Then, for the last few days during hatching (lockdown) I put it at 65% by adding tiny bits more water. I don't go higher than 65, because when the eggs start cracking open the humidity goes higher and sometimes really high if they all want to hatch at once. One thing I've learned with this incubator is that the instructions to put 100 ML of water in there is wrong- I usually only need to add approx. 15 ML when I first start it up, then maybe 5 ML every few days to keep it between 40-55%. I suppose if it is winter time and the air is very dry, or if you live in a very dry arid climate it may actually need the 100 ML of water, but you have to use a hygrometer to check the humidity on the inside of your incubator and adjust accordingly, don't go by what the instructions say, go by what your thermometer and hygrometer sitting inside the incubator says and add tiny bits of water until it is right. I have a syringe that I put a piece of fish aquarium tubing on the end of, and I insert the tubing through the airhole until it hits the bottom of the tray, then gently inject a little water. Dont drip water all over you eggs, and don't ever use cold water. Always use warm, clean (filtered) water. At day 18, I quickly open the lid, gently take out the eggs and lay them on a towel, and quickly candle them in a dark room. If I see any blood rings, I throw them out. Blood rings are easy to recognize, it's exactly what it says, a red blood ring around the inside of the egg. This is bacteria involved, and these can explode inside the incubator due to being a dead egg and growing bacteria inside which the high temps are perfect breeding ground for bacteria. Throw these out. I take the tray with the two raised sides that the egg tray has been sitting in the last 18 days out of the incubator and put in the tray with the stands (peg legs on bottom). I add about 10 ML of water to the bottom of the incubator and I have a piece of rubber/foam shelf liner I have cut to fit inside the incubator, and clipped off 1/4 of it from the end, so the moisture on the bottom can still rise up and keep it humid inside without being blocked by the rubber pad. The pad is for the baby chicks after they hatch, to keep the other eggs from being rolled around too much by little chicks jumping all over them, and to keep baby chicks from getting splayed legs (deformed legs) from the slippery plastic floor, and for easy clean up when I'm done. I gently lay the eggs down on their sides, spaced evenly apart so they have room to roll around and hatch without bumping into each other, then I put the lid back on. I check to make sure the humidity is at 65% and add tiny bits of water through the airhole with my tube if I need to until it is at the right humidity for hatching. I never open the lid after this. At 19-22 days there is activity, you may hear peeping, you may see little holes, you may see rocking and rolling, cracked lines along the side of egg- you may see a chick come out and lay there like its dead for a long time- resist the urge to open, don't open it. The peeping from one chick encourages the other chicks to hatch out and join it- so don't remove it even if it's fluffy and adorable and staring at you with those cute little birdy eyes through the plastic- leave it with its little buddies. If you feel it is too crowded, and 3 or more are really rolling the unhatched ones around in there, take a few fluffy, fully dry energetic jumpers out quickly, put the lid back on in a hurry but leave one in there to peep and encourage the others to come out. another thing to note is that the humidity will rise a lot when eggs start hatching out, because of the moisture released during hatching, so don't stress about adding water and getting it up to say 75%, trust me it will rise a lot during hatching, you will see. I wait a full 28 days before I am done with a hatch. I've had chicks hatch at 26 days a lot. Maybe because they were kicked around a bit by the other chicks, I dont know but I always have one or two late ones, so be patient and don't count all your eggs before they've hatched.

Good luck! I hope this helps better understand the hatching process, the Janoel 12 incubator and how to use it, and maybe a few little tricks and things you can do to get a better hatch rate

Thankyou so much Jo. This is the most helpful post I have found anywhere.