Little Giant Incubator Tricks

[Arielle]

Just had an 'epiphany' reading this thread, my incubator is sitting on top of a 5 gallon bucket, and the thought just occured to me to fill that bucket with water, which will help a lot with humidity here in super dry CA (10% humidity common). Might help my lousy 10% hatch rate since moving to this dry place.

Interesting idea!!

I do check my eggs for water loss by checking the size of the developing air cell; IT allows me to adjust the humidity if necessary. Here the spring is the best time to hatch without adding water; in hte winter I need to add water, and in the really humid months of summer, I need to us AC to dry them. So ya, I do need to candle to check.

 

[WalnutHill]

Just had an 'epiphany' reading this thread, my incubator is sitting on top of a 5 gallon bucket, and the thought just occured to me to fill that bucket with water, which will help a lot with humidity here in super dry CA (10% humidity common). Might help my lousy 10% hatch rate since moving to this dry place.

Brilliant idea, thank you. I retired my LG yesterday in favor of a tabletop Leahy 65-4 redwood incubator. While humidity was great yesterday after scrubbing it out in the bathtub and adding a sponge in a container and a canning jar of water in a corner (there is no water pan), I was struggling to keep it up to 60% today during lockdown. I put a couple of glass blocks on the table underneath, then a pan of water just a couple of inches below the incubator. Humidity has already gone up 4% in a matter of minutes. The old redwood is thirsty and sucking the moisture right in! I am sure that once the wood reaches the proper moisture content the pan will be unnecessary.

 

[duckmeister]

Set up my LG last night sitting on top of the full 5 gal bucket with a new set of 31 call duck eggs, already see a big rise in humidity. Removed the extra pan of water from inside the LG, had removed the auto turner and added the extra water pan because it was impossible to get enough humidity. Now the auto turner is back in, and hopefully will get a good hatch in 26 days. I may not have to add water to the built in water pans, because i just filled the middle one last night and the humidity shot up to 70% already which is to high, will let it go empty and see what humidity i get just from sitting on the 5 gal. Bucket.

 

[duckmeister]

 

[cmom]

I never tried a 5 gal bucket under my styrofoam incubators but do use one on my cabinet incubator.

 

[duckmeister]

My cabinet incubator out in the barn has a 5 gal bucket I think, it's been so many years since i used it. If i get 300 eggs at one time, might use it again, but for a couple dozen eggs the styrofoam works for me. My styrofoam incubator actually has a hard plastic outer shell and styrofoam liner, exactly like the LG but with the plastic outer shell.

 

[cmom]

My cabinet incubator out in the barn has a 5 gal bucket I think, it's been so many years since i used it. If i get 300 eggs at one time, might use it again, but for a couple dozen eggs the styrofoam works for me. My styrofoam incubator actually has a hard plastic outer shell and styrofoam liner, exactly like the LG but with the plastic outer shell.

Is it a Fall Harvest? They look like the LG. I did fill my cabinet twice so far. I am going to put a few more eggs in for an experiment I'm doing, RC RIR male with RC RIW females. I want to see what the chicks turn out like. I have put a SC RIR male with SC RIW females and got nice Red Sex-Links. I just had my first RC hatch but have more due to hatch on Tuesday.

 

[cindy parker]

I have an lg4300 digital with turner. So far so good at day 16 candling. We started with 22 eggs...2 were infertile and one was a quitter at day 7. Yesterday I added 10 blue marans and a dozen welsummer eggs. Can't wait til Friday. Me Andy 5 year old granddaughter are on our second hatch and we have it under control. We have another styrobator for hatching too.

 

[cmom]

I use my styrofoam incubators as hatchers. It works out perfect for me.

 

[cindy parker]

One of men has the hard aero shell too...it's called "farm innovater " I think. It's actually full of eggs right now with 19 Easter eggers due to hatch Friday and the rest are blue marans and welsummers that should hatch in 19 days