Little Giant Incubator Tricks

[LanieJane]

Help! I have an older LG9200.. no additions, turner or fan. I'm hatching pekin ducklings. My original thermometer that came with it seems to run high.. so today I purchased a digital hygrometer/thermometer. I put it in the incubator the humidity is about 35% with water in the bottom rings, but the temp is all over the place. I read through this thread and it said about using a aquarium thermometer, so I grabbed the one out of my tank.. it's reading about 4° lower. So what now? How do I know which one is correct? I tried putting them close together in case the temp varied THAT significantly across the incubator. This is my first hatch, day 2. I started turning today. What else should I do?

I appreciate any help you can provide!! Thank you

 

[cmom]

Help! I have an older LG9200.. no additions, turner or fan. I'm hatching pekin ducklings. My original thermometer that came with it seems to run high.. so today I purchased a digital hygrometer/thermometer. I put it in the incubator the humidity is about 35% with water in the bottom rings, but the temp is all over the place. I read through this thread and it said about using a aquarium thermometer, so I grabbed the one out of my tank.. it's reading about 4° lower. So what now? How do I know which one is correct? I tried putting them close together in case the temp varied THAT significantly across the incubator. This is my first hatch, day 2. I started turning today. What else should I do?

I appreciate any help you can provide!! Thank you

Where you have the incubator can also affect the temperature and humidity such as a room with a lot of windows and doors that are opened and closed frequently. I know of some people who put their incubators in a closet. Still air incubators have cool and hot spots so you will get many varied temperatures. When you turn the eggs move them around. The temperature should be around 101 as it is generally hotter towards the top and cooler closer to the bottom. I put fans in my still air incubators. For chicken eggs I think the humidity is perfect and probably OK for duck eggs. If the temperature runs low it may take a day or two longer for the eggs to hatch and hotter temperatures the eggs may hatch a day or two sooner. A broody will get off the nest daily for several minutes to eat, drink and poop. Good luck and have fun...

 

[cmom]

Hi, Everyone! I know this thread is old, but I've read the whole thing (!) and it's packed with so much awesomeness...thank you to anyone who posted, especially the people answering questions and sharing their experiences!

My small, in town, backyard flock (including a broody with teenage chicks - I gave her fertile eggs) was all slaughtered in the Fall.

Now that it's Spring I'd like to start building a flock.

I hatched out 2 chicks recently (first try). That's out of 14 eggs but many were early quitters. Two died in their shell at the end (actually, I was doing eggtopsies on day 25 and surprised a chick so I stuck it and another one that was developed back in, but they didn't make it.) that whole hatch was dubious from the beginning because my sister collected the eggs over time, but let her broody sit on some for a few days -they didn't know how many- before handing them all to my mom who put them on her front seat with the seat warmer on and drove them from Lubbock to the Waco area (~6h) and then tried to keep them warm overnight and then drove them 2.5 hours to Dallas to give them to me. I love them both, but they didn't know what they were doing and I could have advised them had this not been a surprise for me.

She brought my sister's incubator and I put them in asap without having time for stabilizing b/c they were already started. Sigh. I think I did ok with what I was handed. LOL

That was BEFORE I read this thread and bought the IncuTherm Plus and a couple aquarium thermometers to track LG better. Now I know that the digital LG hygrometer is off and H% really was much higher than it registered. I just kept adding warm water to last batch to soak the multiple sponges and just let it overflow out the bottom. The lid was always full of condensation, typically each window was 25% clouded, but sometimes up to 75% b/c the LG digital display still said I was only getting it up to 60%. I'm kinda surprised any chicks lived!

Try #2: I bought some shipped eggs (yes, I know my chances are dismal, but I'm going to work within that assumption and do the best with what I've got

! ) I want to see how I do (and maybe even add a couple more layers to this flock).

The weather here is so gorgeous right now (80s/60s) that DH insists we leave the windows and doors open and don't run any a/c or heat. I love it *for me*...cold and night and maybe a bit warm in the heat of the day, but the fresh air is awesome. However, it has made keeping the incubator consistent very hard. Just a still air LGthat is borrowed so I'm not going to make modifications. Wish me luck!

The air cells didn't look too damaged from shipment...

I let them sit a few hours and then candled. I didn't see any rolling air which is great, but I also didn't see an air pocket in all of them (of course I'm just using my phone flashlight to candle and there are limitations!). Fingers crossed!

I went ahead and loaded them into the LG that had been stable for days. I have them in a cutdown carton big side up and have been spinning the whole carton a few times a day and moving it around the floor of the incubator since the still air has cooler spots, but I haven't removed them from the carton. I *plan* to wait to lay them down and roll/rotate for at least 3 days, maybe 5...maybe 7...thoughts? Or maybe I should leave them in the carton the whole hatch???

I would take them out but they will probably hatch ok in the carton. Once I took a half dozen eggs out of my incubator because I thought they were quitters and left them in a carton in the room I was hatching in. I was checking the other eggs one day and I heard peeping but not coming from the incubator. To my surprise the chicks were hatching in the carton that wasn't in the incubator. I mark my eggs so I can keep track of which coop they are from. Here is one I thought was a quitter, so I put an X on the egg, shortly after it hatched.

 

[cmom]

I have the incubator in a room without a window and we're keeping the door to the room closed to try to help with the room temp swigs caused by the doors and windows being open other places.

I have large pebbles in the wells and two large river rocks in the main chamber as heat sinks.

I'm dry hatching and H% is the 30s/40s.

I'm on day 2 assuming I don't count the evening of setting them at 9pm as anything.

Having more data is actually stressing me out more, but hopefully worth it to know what's really going on. I tried to check the validity of the 2 aquarium thermometers using the ice water, but they never went below 34 degrees. I figured they were both off by 2 degrees high, but now that I compare their reading to the LG digital and the IncuTherm Plus, I'm not so sure. The IncuTherm Plus in ice (no water) never went below 34 degrees either and the H% reading was 71% after 12+ hours in the bag with the wet salt.

The probe keeps registering temps up to 104 and stressing me out! (The other three register 100-101 so I'm confused!) I'm home and can check frequently, but I'm trying to wait 30 minutes to an hour between any changes or even checks because opening the door might effect it.

Thoughts?

Incubate at 30/40% but around day 18 when it's time for them to get ready to hatch, kick the humidity up to around 70/75%. They need the added humidity to help them from sticking in the shells and then they can move around to zip and pip and hatch. I think if three thermometers are reading very close to each other, I would tend to rely on those and not the one that is off. Good luck and have fun...

I just loaded my incubator yesterday.

 

[chicken curious]

Thank you for the replies and the calm reassurances, cmom!

I bought the IncuTherm Plus thinking it would be more accurate for this hatch, but it alone has been spiking high (104) and low (98).

I *do* feel better knowing the H% it measures is close to correct b/c the digital LG kept measuring low humidity so I kept adding warm water and sponges and towels and extra jars with sponges, etc and it still registered only as high as about 60% even though the windows were clouded over at least a quarter of their surface constantly, sometimes 3/4s of the viewing windows. In reality, it was probably way high, huh?

 

[cmom]

Thank you for the replies and the calm reassurances, cmom!

I bought the IncuTherm Plus thinking it would be more accurate for this hatch, but it alone has been spiking high (104) and low (98).

I *do* feel better knowing the H% it measures is close to correct b/c the digital LG kept measuring low humidity so I kept adding warm water and sponges and towels and extra jars with sponges, etc and it still registered only as high as about 60% even though the windows were clouded over at least a quarter of their surface constantly, sometimes 3/4s of the viewing windows. In reality, it was probably way high, huh?

Don't put water in the incubator if you are incubating. The eggs initially need to loose some moisture. If the humidity is too high during incubation, moisture will build up in the air cell and when the chick internally pips the air cell, it can drown. I keep my humidity around 35% during incubation and bring it up to around 75% the last 3 days when the chicks are getting situated to hatch, first they internally pip the air cell, then pip the outer shell, then zip, then hatch. Once they pip internally you may be able to hear them peep in their shells. The shells will wiggle and wobble while the chicks are turning in the shells, positioning themselves to hatch. I wish you good luck and have fun...

 

[chicken curious]

Those humidity percentages were for lockdown...it was previously a dry incubation. Two chicks made it and two others were fully developed. I eggtopsied and the rest were barely developed probably due to early handling of eggs before I got them and continued the incubation.

I am having fun and continuing to learn! Thanks!

 

[cmom]

Those humidity percentages were for lockdown...it was previously a dry incubation. Two chicks made it and two others were fully developed. I eggtopsied and the rest were barely developed probably due to early handling of eggs before I got them and continued the incubation.

I am having fun and continuing to learn! Thanks!

It's hard to say why they quit but some are just not meant to be. I just put eggs in my incubator. Now for the wait. Years ago I used my styrofoam incubators to incubate and hatch in but eventually bought a cabinet incubator. I'm hooked. I have to set up the hatchery. We are moving it to a new location. I use the styrofoam incubators as hatchers. This way I can keep track of the chicks and from what coop is hatching. I also mark the eggs but I put the same hatches in the same hatchers. I am line breeding but now have 4 families so I'm not inbreeding. It is fun and I love to watch the chicks hatch and grow. I never stop learning. Here are some pictures.

 

[chicken curious]

Cmom, my family would revolt if I covered a room in incubators! LOL Also, I'm the city and would not be able to keep all the adorable balls of fluff I hatched, but it's fun to live vicariously through you and other BYC folks who get to hatch and hatch and hatch...

Thanks again for your help and support.

 

[duckhead18]

My little giant incubator is reading 199 degrees when I got it set fir 99.5 I took the lid off and its cold any suggestions on what's broke and what I need to order