little giant 9300

[stevethack]

It's just taped to the golf/fake/round object with the probe end sticking out from the "round object" that sits in one of the egg turner spots somewhere under the controller area.. That puts it just about 3/4 of the way up on a large egg...you can gently bend the probe end (NOT at the very end! or for less then 3/4" or so from the end tip) up to the top height of an egg..or leave it in the middle...or put it up against an egg if you wanted.<----But I prefer it measuring the surrounding air temp and not an egg temp cuz hatched "dried off" baby chickens run at 103+ or so for a body temp at about hatching age. Which WILL force a cool down of the air/incubator heater and the rest of the unhatched eggs will find it rougher to hatch...probably. So...don't let a newly hatched baby roost on the temp probe end,,,,or close to it. Maybe not even let it touch an almost to hatch egg since they run at 102+ degrees at the shell surfaces.

 

[Ren2014]

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.

Thank you for the picture. Re: removing the egg turner... I read somewhere that when you remove it, the eggs drop down lower and therefore do not get the same amount of heat as when they were up higher. If this is true, can I leave the turner and just turn it off at lock down?

 

[stevethack]

Little legs on newly hatched clumsy chicks can get caught on a thick patch of air I think. And the wobbly legged critters will try and walk all over the place! (I put a couple of paper towels down for them to walk on and avoid getting in the screen bottom. It doesn't hurt the chick drying out process any either. ..they catch on quick to the paper towel too! and you will find them congregating mostly under the heat element area until they are dried out good) so remove the turner! ...quickly...and just put the golf ball/probe down with the eggs. It measures air temp...and the heater will run to get the temp back up with it at egg level no matter how low....up to ramming the thing through the bottom of the bator. The bator will keep the same set temp (more/less) with the golf ball sitting on the bottom on the screen...with the probe UP about egg top high.. Watch the humidity at lock-down and during the hatch cuz it goes up quick when those cute but stinky eggs start zipping open and the damp chicks start running around..wobbling around! Leave both the red plugs out all thru incubating and try to keep the humidity at 35%-40% for the first 18 days..and 60% or so during lockdown/hatch.

 

[Ren2014]

Today is a better day

. Removed both plugs yesterday, mounted the unit probe onto a golf ball and re-calibrated both thermometers. The PP is at 98 +2 , the other at 99-100 and the unit is reading 95.5 but fluctuates to 100. I have a digital thermo/hygro on order because I didn't like any I found at the stores. Thursday is day 7 but my Brinsea Ova Scope won't be here until Sat. I have a little incubright that I will attempt my candling with. I have candled before but not very successfully.

 

[stevethack]

Those eggs should be happier too.. I wouldn't worry much about candling till Sat or later. I only pitch out any that are clear at about 14 days.. But you can usually tell easily about 7-8 days in to it.. But since your bator may have been a bit cool it may have set the eggs back a few days in development..And the LG 9300 does warm/cool fairly fast.. Just keep it out of much breeze...direct sun light and temps below 60 degs or so. They will work fair. But that little flat piece of plastic that holds the temp probe puzzles me... that's an obvious mess up with little thought as to working properly. It keeps the probe at egg top high ok...if ya don't use a turner..or open the bator...or move the bator..or sneeze hard...or look at it hard.. Good in thought and development.(cheap "something" to keep the probe from falling down between eggs or turner rails) ..poor performance in the real world.
Good luck with the fuzzies hatching in a couple weeks!! Keep posting too.. There's a lot of disgusted and down-hearted LG and other brand cheaper styro-bator owners that tried to use it as a set it and forget it incubator..they ain't.. neither are the huge commercial continuous process incubators ...they are monitored 24/7. And surprize...surprize..they have hiccups too!
If a simple home-made styrofoam cooler-bator will hatch eggs... so will the 9300's.. successfully, too. It just takes knowing the bator..it's short-comings...and some forethought to get it squared away before the first use.

 

[Ren2014]

Those eggs should be happier too.. I wouldn't worry much about candling till Sat or later. I only pitch out any that are clear at about 14 days.. But you can usually tell easily about 7-8 days in to it.. But since your bator may have been a bit cool it may have set the eggs back a few days in development..And the LG 9300 does warm/cool fairly fast.. Just keep it out of much breeze...direct sun light and temps below 60 degs or so. They will work fair. But that little flat piece of plastic that holds the temp probe puzzles me... that's an obvious mess up with little thought as to working properly. It keeps the probe at egg top high ok...if ya don't use a turner..or open the bator...or move the bator..or sneeze hard...or look at it hard.. Good in thought and development.(cheap "something" to keep the probe from falling down between eggs or turner rails) ..poor performance in the real world.
Good luck with the fuzzies hatching in a couple weeks!! Keep posting too.. There's a lot of disgusted and down-hearted LG and other brand cheaper styro-bator owners that tried to use it as a set it and forget it incubator..they ain't.. neither are the huge commercial continuous process incubators ...they are monitored 24/7. And surprize...surprize..they have hiccups too!
If a simple home-made styrofoam cooler-bator will hatch eggs... so will the 9300's.. successfully, too. It just takes knowing the bator..it's short-comings...and some forethought to get it squared away before the first use.

Last night we had a spike in temp. My thermometers were reading 102. How can that happen?? I opened the bator and it certainly didn't feel like a 102 inside.

 

[CGilbert]

Last night we had a spike in temp.  My thermometers were reading 102.  How can that happen??  I opened the bator and it certainly didn't feel like a 102 inside.

Do you have a secondary thermometer/hygrometer? If so, what was that reading? If not, it's a necessity of any incubator.
102° shouldn't really affect your hatch too much. They might hatch a little early, but not a lot.

 

[stevethack]

Keep tabs on the temp.. might wanna unplug the power cord for 20 seconds or so to the 9300 and then replug it in. Sometimes if there's a slight surge in the electric coming into your home it can affect some electronics.. Unplugging and plugging back in will do a reset on it's mind. Just watch the temps for a bit to make sure they are back in proper operating area.
That's why I ran mine after I bought it for weeks off and on. I had a couple times early on with a spike, but they settled down in a week or so of use later (no eggs inside early testing stages). I haven't had a "burn-in" period for any electronics in years now till I bought the 9300. But mine got fairly stable (temp swing of -3 to +3 of temp setting but about 1 degree low for the stock meter...more-less 98.7 but it was really about +-99.6) after a week er two "burning in"/breaking in period. Just keep babysitting it for a while. It should settle down and behave..

 

[Ren2014]

Do you have a secondary thermometer/hygrometer? If so, what was that reading? If not, it's a necessity of any incubator.
102° shouldn't really affect your hatch too much. They might hatch a little early, but not a lot.

I do have two thermometers in addition to the unit's. Both thermometers were reading high. I added a digital thermometer/hygrometer today. The two thermometers are reading right at 100 and the digital is at 101.1.

Keep tabs on the temp.. might wanna unplug the power cord for 20 seconds or so to the 9300 and then replug it in. Sometimes if there's a slight surge in the electric coming into your home it can affect some electronics.. Unplugging and plugging back in will do a reset on it's mind. Just watch the temps for a bit to make sure they are back in proper operating area.
That's why I ran mine after I bought it for weeks off and on. I had a couple times early on with a spike, but they settled down in a week or so of use later (no eggs inside early testing stages). I haven't had a "burn-in" period for any electronics in years now till I bought the 9300. But mine got fairly stable (temp swing of -3 to +3 of temp setting but about 1 degree low for the stock meter...more-less 98.7 but it was really about +-99.6) after a week er two "burning in"/breaking in period. Just keep babysitting it for a while. It should settle down and behave..

This is probably a stupid question but when I open the incubator lid, shouldn't it be hot inside and steam escape or something?? Hot like at the end of the day when I get into my car that's been closed up in 98 degrees.

 

[stevethack]

No...not really... your normal body temp is 98.6F...eggs like 99.5F to 100F or so for development and hatching.. Not a lot of difference...just about one degree. And If you had steam showing when you opened the lid it would mean 185+ degrees.. It's within range really.. Just keep the faith and let it go.. but do keep an eye on the temps.. I just fired up my 9300 again to stabilize and get ready for another dozen eggs from my own ladies out back... It started up and stabilized at 101 in a few hours....it had ran for weeks at 99.6 or so for the last hatch but when restarted after sitting it needed resetting the temp.. it's stable as a rock now at 99.7.....golf ball and all. But I only set the temp point down 9/10ths to get it to drop just over 1.3 degrees.. But...stable is stable..no matter if the 9300 readout is saying it's set to 96.8 degrees. I ignore the 9300 readings for temp and humidity and rely on my calibrated known thermometers. Which I rechecked both in ice water and they were still right on.
And if you ever open the bator up and feel lots of really hot heat swarming out...just go ahead and chill the partially hatched eggs down and peel them...they will be hard boiled. This is called Balut in the Philippines and Hot Vit lon in South East Asia.