little giant 9300

[stevethack]

This one zipped and hatched in 20 minutes and it's climbing all over everything in the bator.. lol
Got another one zipping fast too now, it's almost 1/2 done in 15 minutes. probably 1/2 have pipped too......lotsa cheeping going on now too.

 

[stevethack]

#2 is out and clambering all over everything now too.. first one is almost dried off.. temp is 99.7...humidity has rose from 62% to 72% after both hatched. They have some lungs on them...lol

 

[stevethack]

#3 is starting a zip ..enough showing to see it's "blonde/reddish" from a light brown egg too. One of the Marans eggs is wiggling a lot but I couldn't see a pip yet. The original EE egg hasn't done much more since it first pipped, it made the hole barely bigger a couple of hours ago, but still got my fingers crossed.. I sure was wanting to watch and see which chick came from which egg. But I guess they are all chickens of one sort or another.. lol
First thing tomorrow morning I gotta get the brooder box inside and start warming up the heating box thing I made for them.. and get a chick feeder and waterer all sterilized and ready...and chick grit. And probiotics...and electrolytes...and...and ...and...etc...etc.. These little critters are a lot of work sometimes.

 

[robgray]

I have the LG 9300 (No fan) and it's day #10 of my first hatch. I bought a Thermometer/Hygrometer from Bed Bath and Beyond just to verify that readings were correct. Unfortunately, my LG and the BB&B one have never been very close (give or take 3 degrees at all times, depending upon where in the LG they were placed). I finally went and bought a non-digital thermometer/hygrometer to find out which one was right. I also purchased a USB Fan ($1) and a USB extension cord ($4.88) to get air circulating, which I guessed might be part of my issue. Put the new thermometer/hygrometer in. Plugged in the USB fan and, sadly, it was too high powered and started cooling the LG to quickly. After removing the fan and letting it get back up to temp I decided to cut down the blades of the cheap fan a little. Put it back in, now everything is reading exactly the same. Thought I'd share this cheap way to get air circulation. Walmart: $1 fan + $4.88 USB extension cord = $5.88 (plus tax) and finally there isn't a multiple degree difference throughout the Incubator. Yay!!! Yes, I know there are 4 thermometers in this picture (there's actually another that you can't see). I was trying to be sure... do you think I overdid it? lol

Genius!!!

 

[stevethack]

Middle plus of day 22...there's 8 chicks in the brooder box all dried out and pecking the chick starter a little already.....and muddling around barely finding the water. I gave each a taste of the water when I transfered them to the brooder box. Last nite I had 3 chicks.. now 8 chicks. One piped a little bit and then croaked on me. Egg-topsy showed it was fully developed and plumb filling the egg and barely even fit inside. I think it drowned or choked zipping that little bit it did almost straight down the side instead of around the shell since it's body was so large inside the shell.
There's 9 eggs still in the bator with no sign of pips at all still. 6 eggs definitely culled as non-fertile at 15 days. 8 hatched ..so far.. and I'm thinking the other 9 eggs may not....but still hopeful.
sooooo...I'm sitting on almost 45% hatch rate with only the fertile showing eggs counted at 15 days in... and with 2 power outages! ...and all the yolks I broke early from the 6 culled infertile eggs at 15 days had really pale yellow yolks. Nothing beyond light pale yellow yolks in the other dozen I got at the same time for cooking/eating eggs. Not really a strong seeming stand up roundish yolk to any. Too pale to me...weak??
But I did get 8 mixed/different breed fuzzy butt chicks so far for $4 @ the $2 a dozen for "fertile" eggs to start....not counting the small electric usage since it gave me something to watch and kept me off of the streets...or the cost of the turner and bator since they will be reused a lot still.. I hope.
Any further hatching out in this batch will just be a surprize and just more icing on the cake.. I consider this first 9300 incubator trial a success. Especially since it's been about 50 years since I've had a hatch now..

Old dog relearns old tricks.

 

[stevethack]

Now there's 9 in brooder and one final one that mostly hatched a couple hours ago still in the 9300 drying out.. It seems weak though since it's 2 days late. But it's fairly alert. It's still in the bottom half of it's shell. I left it in there if it hadn't absorbed all the yolk sac yet. I cleaned out the remaining 12 eggs and did egg-topsy's. That when I found one kicking still with the float test and one out by a large trash can when I opened it up slightly on top. That's the lucky one still in incubator and it's looking weak...but ok. So, I'm sitting on 58% hatch out of the 17 left after culling the early quitters and non-fertiles. and finding one more non-fertile when I cracked the remaining ones that looked like they were dead this evening....pure light yellow yolk with no development. I guess I missed that one at 15 days.
Things i have found out with this hatch.
1. A low 30% or high 20% humidity is not enough for the first 18 days. The last 8-10 eggs I gently cracked the top open (egg-topsy's) on had dried/died out about 4-5 days before hatch day... dry-ish mummies. Probably with really porous shells. Probably needs 40% humidity or so early on and 70+% last 3 days. All good hatched eggs looked slightly dry actually. I couldn't see how they could possibly have drowned if they pipped wrong, pretty much nothing to drown in.
2. A 9300 will keep a fairly steady temp if it's not in a breeze or sit in more then 20 degee ambient temp swings.
3. It's digital humidity gage is quite mad-cazy or just pee-poorly designed.
4. You need an auxiliary fan in addition to the heater fan to get a consistent steady temp reading in all areas ...even under the egg tuner.
5. The incubator needs to be about 2" taller..
6. They work better with a few of the extra 1/2" "temp exploration" probe holes I made here and there open. The ones under the lid level work the best. More ventilation...the better. You just have to add water more often.
7. An accurate long metal probe thermometer works well hanging down beside the controller thru one of the little ventilation holes.
8. I left out the 2 red plastic plugs the entire incubation period.
9. A chick hatching STINKS!...I had forgotten!

 

[lpguy]

Well first i would like to say hello.
i tried the 9300 as my first incubator but had bad luck with it.
for me i think i was either trying too hard or it was too "hands on" for me.
we had only 1 egg hatch in it and unfortunately it passed away only 3 days later.

we now have a hovabator 1588 and first attempt we have so far 4/12 that have hatched and are chirp-a-holics...lol
only thing i had to worry about was the humidity. every 2-3 days i would check and fill the tray as needed.
i'm thinking now that we have at least 4 babies i need to think of names for them. the problem with this is we have
2 black and 2 blonde chicks lol.

 

[stevethack]

A 9300 is a "usable" table top incubator with a bit of before planning and work... and during a hatch cycle. For a set-it and forget-it incubator right out of the box...I would say it's not even close.
But then again even a Sportsman requires keeping an eye on it and the candling. And they require a bit of effort to set up and run to start with. Just like the huge commercial 50,000+ egg incubators require. And those are monitored 24/7 during incubation/hatch too.
I think some folks fret too much with small tabletop incubators settings or mess with the eggs inside..or not enough in some cases.

 

[Ren2014]

Well, I am a rookie at incubating and I have done everything wrong from the start. Got my eggs from Ebay because at the time I had a broody hen. Eggs were in route and broody hen turned out to be an egg crusher. So, I panicked and bought the only incubator I could find locally... LG 9300, an egg turner and the forced air fan kit 7300. I set 16 Lavender Orpington eggs after running the incubator set at 99.5 for two days. Now I am on day 3 and I can not get a mid egg reading higher than 94 and I have the thing set at 101. Is this too hot for the top of the eggs? Any suggestions? Thank you all and I'm so glad this thread is here.

PS. Any suggestions what incubator is a set and leave it? I've got all these anxieties and I'm only on day THREE. I'm going to be a wreck by day 18

 

[stevethack]

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