little giant 9300

[Ren2014]

Have you checked your thermometer for accuracy? What are you checking temp at mid-egg height with?...

I am using a Producer's Pride brooder thermometer. It's the only thing I had to put in there as soon as I read I needed something else to read. I'm researching now how to check it for accuracy. I've been afraid to open it to get the thermometer out

 

[Ren2014]

I am using a Producer's Pride brooder thermometer. It's the only thing I had to put in there as soon as I read I needed something else to read. I'm researching now how to check it for accuracy. I've been afraid to open it to get the thermometer out

I put it in ice water and it reads 30, hmmmmm

 

[stevethack]

Gently pry one of the closest "windows" out ...do your work...put window back....you lose slightly less heat. (and that stupid flat plastic/temp pick-up probe doesn't move all over either!! like it does with removing the top) I used a "window" to reach into my bator most of the time to do stuff. And opening up a bator isn't the end of the world....momma chickens get off of the nest in rather cold weather sometimes for 10-15 minutes or more.. At 3 days into incubating I would certainly make sure the temps were 99.5-ish really close.. or swinging from 99 to 100 or there about..and NOT using the 9300 temp reading either. Use a calibrated thermometer to set the temp inside the bator with! Adjust in tenth's of a degree unless there's a LARGE problem. After opening the bator up..do not mess with the temp setting again... let it rip for at least 4-5 hours to let it stabilize again. You shouldn't have to mess with the temp setting after it's 99.5 stable UNTIL you add water at lock-down...and even then let it run for 4-6 hours before messing with it. Add 100 deg water when needing more humidity.
The eggs are probably ok...at only 3 days into incubating...probably if they are only 94 degrees at mid-egg height...but need to be mid-99's as soon as possible..
And don't fret the stock temp or humidity reading from the control panel.. They "have" been known to lead ya astray!.. get an accurate thermomenter...check it with ice water test... the PP thermometers are usually fairly accurate I have found.. but check it anyway,, And the 9300 silly flat clear piece of plastic with the temp pick-up fastened to it is a pain... but if ya wanna keep the flat plastic on...put the temp pickup end right under the controller area.. not under the heater/fan. Lay it flat on top of the eggs or close as ya can with the pickup under the flat plastic so it's "egg high"..
I finally got tired of the stupid plastic crap and quickly took the wire/probe off and taped it on a golf ball with about 1 inch of the end free hanging in the air at egg height. It worked just great..tilted with the eggs...and DID NOT slide over/off/or anywhere except where I put it. Later when the eggs were hatching it stayed PUT very well too with the little idjuts climbing all over it and pecking it even. I removed a window..pulled the temp pickup out.. removed the pain-in-tushy flat plastic...taped the wire pick-up (end of wire/probe dangling free out from the golf ball about 1 inch) to an golf ball quickly and stuck it back in an empty slot under the controller.. worked far better!

 

[stevethack]

If it's reading 30 degrees in ice water (more ice then water that's been sitting for 5 minutes before dunking the thermometer in and sitting for at least 2-3 minutes in it but NOT touching the ice) then it's reading 2 degrees low. See if the glass part will slide down in it's holder...if not just allow for the 2 degrees..adding it back to whatever reading it reads. You need to be ballpark close to 99.5 degrees mid-egg high with a fan kitted 9300.
.still air about 100.5 to 101 at top egg high.

 

[stevethack]

Don't add water to channels during the first 18 days unless room humidity is less then 40%..and do not use the 9300 humidity reading on their meter display, it's a joke "usually"...but may be accurate too?? .. and then keep humidity up at 60-70% for hatch. You NEED an accurate humidity meter...search for saturaed salt test for humidity testing.. I used a remote reading temp/humidity sensor.. I know the temp was 3 degrees low at 100 degrs. I used the humidity pickup sensor inside a loosely zipped baggie with a saturated salt mix in a cup inside another loosely zipped bag and both inside a tightly zipped up larger baggie...and left them sit for 5-6 hours to stabilize...the sensor was 2% reading low...so I just added 2% to the digital reading.

 

[Ren2014]

Don't add water to channels during the first 18 days unless room humidity is less then 40%..and do not use the 9300 humidity reading on their meter display, it's a joke "usually"...but may be accurate too?? .. and then keep humidity up at 60-70% for hatch. You NEED an accurate humidity meter...search for saturaed salt test for humidity testing.. I used a remote reading temp/humidity sensor.. I know the temp was 3 degrees low at 100 degrs. I used the humidity pickup sensor inside a loosely zipped baggie with a saturated salt mix in a cup inside another loosely zipped bag and both inside a tightly zipped up larger baggie...and left them sit for 5-6 hours to stabilize...the sensor was 2% reading low...so I just added 2% to the digital reading.

O mercy, another thing I've done wrong. Ok, so I have removed the water, moved the plastic temp probe to under the reader unit and added another thermometer. The humidity reader on the unit was staying at around 50%. I will ignore it now and will get a humidity meter. I'm going to look for a golf ball now

Thank you so much!

 

[CGilbert]

Gently pry one of the closest "windows" out ...do your work...put window back....you lose slightly less heat. (and that stupid flat plastic/temp pick-up probe doesn't move all over either!! like it does with removing the top) I used a "window" to reach into my bator most of the time to do stuff. And opening up a bator isn't the end of the world....momma chickens get off of the nest in rather cold weather sometimes for 10-15 minutes or more.. At 3 days into incubating I would certainly make sure the temps were 99.5-ish really close.. or swinging from 99 to 100 or there about..and NOT using the 9300 temp reading either. Use a calibrated thermometer to set the temp inside the bator with! Adjust in tenth's of a degree unless there's a LARGE problem. After opening the bator up..do not mess with the temp setting again... let it rip for at least 4-5 hours to let it stabilize again. You shouldn't have to mess with the temp setting after it's 99.5 stable UNTIL you add water at lock-down...and even then let it run for 4-6 hours before messing with it. Add 100 deg water when needing more humidity.

The eggs are probably ok...at only 3 days into incubating...probably if they are only 94 degrees at mid-egg height...but need to be mid-99's as soon as possible..

And don't fret the stock temp or humidity reading from the control panel.. They "have" been known to lead ya astray!.. get an accurate thermomenter...check it with ice water test... the PP thermometers are usually fairly accurate I have found.. but check it anyway,,  And the 9300 silly flat clear piece of plastic with the temp pick-up fastened to it is a pain... but if ya wanna keep the flat plastic on...put the temp pickup end right under the controller area.. not under the heater/fan.  Lay it flat on top of the eggs or close as ya can with the pickup under the flat plastic so it's "egg high"..

I finally got tired of the stupid plastic crap and quickly took the wire/probe off and taped it on a golf ball with about 1 inch of the end free hanging in the air at egg height. It worked just great..tilted with the eggs...and DID NOT slide over/off/or anywhere except where I put it. Later when the eggs were hatching it stayed PUT very well too with the little idjuts climbing all over it and pecking it even. I removed a window..pulled the temp pickup out.. removed the  pain-in-tushy flat plastic...taped the wire pick-up (end of wire/probe dangling free out from the golf ball about 1 inch)  to an golf ball quickly and stuck it back in an empty slot under the controller.. worked far better!

Fantastic golf ball idea! Totally doing that tonight... If I can find a good ball or equivalent. Might have to steal the fake egg out of the chicken coop outside.

 

[stevethack]

Fake eggs works too.. or a kids split plastic easter egg with some gravel in it and taped up. Just make sure the probe end sticks out (the bigger end piece on the end of the wire is the actual sensor inside the heat shrink) about 1" in free air. Or a real egg blown out of the shell ...tap a small hole (maybe 1/4") in each end and blow the goody out into a bowl..wash empty shell well and fill with gravel/cornmeal/dirt/sand..something... and tape the ends closed..completely filled (quickly! cuz it sets up like rat-now!) with a wet slurry of plaster of paris the "real" eggs hold up well for use out in the nesting boxes. And are easily recognizable unless you are using white egg shells and do really good work...lol
adding: boil the empty egg shell for a few minutes in boiling very salty water to clean/disinfect the membranes inside before filling.

 

[Ren2014]

Fake eggs works too.. or a kids split plastic easter egg with some gravel in it and taped up. Just make sure the probe end sticks out (the bigger end piece on the end of the wire is the actual sensor inside the heat shrink) about 1" in free air. Or a real egg blown out of the shell ...tap a small hole (maybe 1/4") in each end and blow the goody out into a bowl..wash empty shell well and fill with gravel/cornmeal/dirt/sand..something... and tape the ends closed..completely filled (quickly! cuz it sets up like rat-now!) with a wet slurry of plaster of paris the "real" eggs hold up well for use out in the nesting boxes. And are easily recognizable unless you are using white egg shells and do really good work...lol
adding: boil the empty egg shell for a few minutes in boiling very salty water to clean/disinfect the membranes inside before filling.

Do you by chance have a picture you can post of how you mounted it to the golf ball?

 

[stevethack]

Just remember to remove the egg turner at the end of 18 days.. and you "can" make one of these rings really easy out of any size up to 1"x1" hardware cloth.<---metal wire cloth and it's approx 4-4 1/2" tall and as big as you need inside the incubator... IF you need to sort some eggs to see what they look like at hatch and you know the possible parentage. It makes recognizing the chicks somewhat easier if you mess with them every day in the brooder later.. or separate them into different areas. It makes a mixed pure breed and mutt mix of "brown" or whatever color eggs a lot easier to know which egg gave up which chick.



Can make several of them for little to zero cost with leftover hardware cloth from other projects. You can mark all the eggs you want with magic markers and rock them for 18 days in a turner...but when you go to sleep and there's a couple hatched from eggs at 21 days you ain't interested in much *but* when ya wake up there's 8 or 10 running around and a lot of zipped open eggs it's sometimes hard to tell which went with which shell..until they grow up...even then?? sometimes. A dot of different food coloring on it's lightest spot will tell which is which for weeks too.. It's a good thing for hatching a mixed mutt (but knowing which roo/hen combo did what and marking) hatch from indiscernible all "brown" eggs.