Little Giant Incubator Tricks

[lareynadenada]

my wal-mart does NOT carry hygrometers however I did find one at Pet Smart for 5.99

 

[SunnySkies]

THe LG is pretty cheap and does a good job, IMO. I like the flexibility of two incubators. My home made Henny PEnny hatched a turkey this morning, and put the remaining eggs and poult in hatcher. I find two incubators can make hatching easier when dealing with staggered hatches. 

Treat yourself and save some stress.

That is exactly what I'm thinking We have to go to TSC today to pickup the fencing material. I'll make sure they have LGs in stock and get one going early next week. Some of the eggs from my friend might be kind of far along.

 

[cmom]

Tomorrow would be day 21. The remaining eggs could hatch out this weekend or the first of next week. I always leave the eggs in a few extra days and have had hatches before. Depending on what the chicks are, my guess would be that they can hatch up to day 28. I also have an incubator I incubate in and another for hatching.

Thank you cmom! You all are awesome! Should I turn them then? Or leave them be? I removed the turner on Friday.

You can turn them or let them be. Here is what happened to me before. I put some eggs in my incubator and forgot to mark my calendar. I took an egg out and sacrificed it to check the development. I thought I ruined my hatch and thought the eggs had been in the incubator longer so I put them in the hatcher in lockdown. When I opened the egg the chick was moving and I thought it was about 4 or 5 days away from hatching so I put the eggs back into the incubator. To my surprise a couple of day later I heard peeping in the incubator. The eggs had started hatching and some had already hatched. I put the rest of the eggs back into the hatcher. I still had a good hatch.

 

[Citygrl1766]

Ok, that means there still may be hope for me yet! Thanks for the encouraging words. I ordered Alan for my LG but now I'm wondering if I should leave it out because I ordered a genesis for my next eggs and I was going to use the LG as a hatcher. Am I better to leave it still air to keep the humidit up at hatch time? Things I've been reading here seem to indicate the fan dries them out when thy are hatching.

Thanks and I promising to chill on the bagillion questions dot a bit!

 

[Citygrl1766]

***typo. Should a fan for my lg!

 

[cmom]

I have 2 hova-bators. One circulated air and one still air and the same with the LG, one circulated air and one still air. I did put fans in my still air incubators. I haven't had any problems with the humidity and I think the circulated air keeps the temps steadier. Just my opinion. I have posted on this thread the ways I adjust my humidity that works for me.
Check post #1.

 

[SunnySkies]

TSC had no incubators in stock in the store. Seemed to think I was nuts for doing chicks this late in the year.

Good news is I can shop around. Bad news is I can shop around. I could get another LG, I was looking at a Hovabator Genesis or one on ebay that looked kind of interesting. Or a kit from Incubator Warehouse...I watched more videos on DIY incubator making, and I don't think I feel comfortable parting things together to make one. Electricity kind of freaks me out. But a kit looks OK, but it's more expensive as buying an LG. and I'm pretty OK with my LG so far. No weird temperature swings. It turns perfectly. So far, everything looks OK. And some of,those eggs I wasn't sure about seem to be growing something.

I'm going to check some of the eggs again tomorrow.

 

[Citygrl1766]

Cmom! Been reading through these threads and noticed how bold and easy to read your markings are on your eggs! Are you using something besides a lead pencil? I find the pencil markings can be so hard to read and wondered about something different but was afraid to. Thank you!

 

[cmom]

I use a felt tip pen a nurse gave me after when I had surgery. It is the pen they used to mark on me where they were putting the incision. I have used fine tip sharpies too and have never had a problem with my hatches. The ink does NOT bleed through the shell into the egg. I have done thousands of eggs this way and in the beginning was told the ink would bleed into the egg but I checked every egg shell after the chicks hatched and never have found any ink on the inside of the shell.

 

[Arielle]

I have 2 hova-bators. One circulated air and one still air and the same with the LG, one circulated air and one still air. I did put fans in my still air incubators. I haven't had any problems with the humidity and I think the circulated air keeps the temps steadier. Just my opinion. I have posted on this thread the ways I adjust my humidity that works for me.
Check post #1.

Someone did a fairly scientific study that is posted online and determined that the fans do help keep the temps steadier thru out the incubator. THey compared two models, one was the LG, and the LG was slightly better than the other model, but even that one was a reasonable choice, too.

Cmom! Been reading through these threads and noticed how bold and easy to read your markings are on your eggs! Are you using something besides a lead pencil? I find the pencil markings can be so hard to read and wondered about something different but was afraid to. Thank you!

I saw Cmom using marker too and I have a couple permanent markers in different colors that I use. Hint: don't use red on a marans egg! It doesn't show up! LOL