Little Giant Incubator Tricks

[Sylviaanne]

It's been raining a lot here and raising the humidity in my LG incubators to 50%. How can I lower it? Sylvia

 

[Arielle]

It's been raining a lot here and raising the humidity in my LG incubators to 50%. How can I lower it? Sylvia

You might need to just live with it a few days . . .a good reason to run lower on the RH for the start of the incubation period . .

Try AC

Increase the venting -- add a fan if one not already in the LG

Blow afan across the top -- someone suggested this one to me years ago.

Some people use rice bowls.

Are the wells emptied??

 

[Arielle]

Taking cmom's trick of sponges soaked in water cups to keep the humidity up, I discovered that store-bought sponges are exactly the right width to fit in the spaces around the water reservoirs. The lengths, end to end, aren't quite right on two of the sides so I shortened them a bitand placed the fragments at the other side of the bottom airholes.

I've been using this set up for lockdown only thus far. The red LED numeric display is from another thing I'm trying: a Digital AT8001 All Purpose Temperature Controller that I got off E-Bay for $15.

I don't have anything to report on how well this works yet because I constructed a larger DIY incubator using the AT8001 and the hatches haven't been low -- only about 30%. I'm trying to figure out where the problem is but it is likely with the DIY incubator as I've double checked the temperature on the LG lockdown independently and I'm pretty sure the humidity is very good.

HOw do the air cells look on the eggs at days 7, 14 and 18 for chickens?

Is the chick developing fully?? When does it quit??

How well are the hens being fed? A missing nutrient, or one too low can effect hatches . .

Looking forward to seeing better hatch rates.

 

[jabowery]

HOw do the air cells look on the eggs at days 7, 14 and 18 for chickens?

Is the chick developing fully?? When does it quit??

How well are the hens being fed? A missing nutrient, or one too low can effect hatches . .

Looking forward to seeing better hatch rates.

I haven't candled. The only postmortem I've done is when I throw the unhatched eggs out. I break them open. The majority of them are nearly fully developed.

The hens are being fed the same way they always have: Free range. They've never had a problem before this.

 

[Sylviaanne]

You might need to just live with it a few days . . .a good reason to run lower on the RH for the start of the incubation period . .

Try AC

Increase the venting -- add a fan if one not already in the LG

Blow afan across the top -- someone suggested this one to me years ago.

Some people use rice bowls.

Are the wells emptied??

What is the RH?
We are trying not to use AC right now, it really runs up the electric bill as we only have window ACs.
I don't have any of the plugs in and one of the incubators I am worried about has a fan.
Blowing a fan across the top, I can do. Do you think I'd need to raise the temp?
What do the rice bowls do and how do I use them?
No water in the incubators, just the humidity in the room. If I take the temp/humidity meter out, the temp goes down but the humidity for the room goes up. This is the room with the most steady temp and I'm trying to keep the air conditioning out of the next room so the temp stays steady.

 

[Sylviaanne]

I haven't candled. The only postmortem I've done is when I throw the unhatched eggs out. I break them open. The majority of them are nearly fully developed.

The hens are being fed the same way they always have: Free range. They've never had a problem before this.

I have been wondering, when people say free range are the chickens offered feed also?

Mine free range but I feed them also and it seems to me that they much prefer the feed and do the free ranging just for snacking. Sylvia

 

[jabowery]

I have been wondering, when people say free range are the chickens offered feed also?

Mine free range but I feed them also and it seems to me that they much prefer the feed and do the free ranging just for snacking. Sylvia

I'm a special case -- surrounded by corn and soybean harvest leavings. See my breeding project description.

Although its unlikely nutrition related, since I did have a good initial hatch this year -- prior to changes in the incubator set up -- in the event that it is nutrition related then I'm fine with the low hatch rate since that, too, will select for the genetic qualities I'm looking for.

You may have the time and money to take care of your chickens and you may even think it inhumane to let them go semi-feral, but when the middle class is being wiped out and young people are having a hard time starting families due to job and food insecurity, the time has come for the tough to get going.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I have run an AC just for the incubator-- only a few days usually.
Put a bowl of dry rice in the LG. Put in oven to dry it and put it back into the LG again.
Using a fan does pose a potential problem with temp and on second thought just drawing more moist air thru will not work; WIll work to dry down eggs only if air is dry. SOrry for the mix up.

RH is relative humidity. Have you candled the eggs to see if the size of the air cell is fine??

 

[griggy]

I have had 8 hatch so far today. Here's a quick shot of #3

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I understand where you are going with this. I too am trying to developmy land to support my flocks without additional commercial feeds.

If it is not likely to be nutrition, than look at 2 possibilites. Temps : too low, too high or spiking. ANd look at devellpment of the ait cell to see if that is on track for days 7, 14, and 18 ( when humidity is usually raised, or not if air cells not big enough.)

Given those suggestions, what do you think??