Little Giant Incubator Tricks

[Arielle]

Mixed breeds lay as well as purebreds and you will be further ahead if you can get your hatching techniques mastered with the LG. Using your own eliminates the shipping factor.


I've been shooting for an RH of 35-40%, temp of 100 and then the last three days were problemaxtic. Even with sponges, small cups, misting water in, keeping the plugs in, I had a very difficult time keeping RH up. And the one chick that did hatch came 18 hours after lockdown started. Ugh.

I read this and had a concern about the plugs. Late stage chicks need FAR more oxygen than ealry stage embryos. THe red plugs need to be removed to allow enough air flow. Humidity is second to air flow always, but especially at the end of the hatch when the demand for oxygen skyrockets. My chicks hatch no matter what the humidity in the hatcher. If they get stuck I help.


Run a trial and see if this makes a difference. BY moving the LG to the 22% area, watch the air cells carefully so they don't get sucked dry. Glad you put in water already--

 

[seventreesfarm]

Ok, so I have my bator set up in my pantry, which is the most temp stable room in the house (about 65F). Is that too cool of a room temp? Also, I calibrated 2 thermo/hygrometers overnight and they both read 67% humidity. Should I add more to my readings or assume they are right? Or maybe overnight wasn't long enough for an accurate reading? They're both in the incubator now and seem to agree within .5F/1%.

I have the red plug in, fan is mounted under the other spot. The turner is plugged in too. One sensor says 86.9/37% and the other says 86.5/38%. The bulb thermometer that came with it seems to agree. There's no water in either.

How long should it take to get up to temp? Meaning when should I start fiddling with the knob

 

[cmom]

To calibrate a hygrometer you will need:

1/2 cup table salt
approximately 1/4 cup water
coffee cup
hygrometer
large resealable freezer bag

Place 1/2 cup of salt in the coffee cup, and add the water. Stir for a bit to totally saturate the salt. The salt won't dissolve in this amount of water; instead, the salt should have the consistency of wet sand.

Carefully place the cup containing the salt/water mix in a resealable plastic bag. Place the hygrometer in the bag, away from the cup of salt and water. Note: make sure none of the salt/water mix comes in direct contact with the hygrometer, or the hygrometer may be damaged. Completely seal the bag.

Place the sealed bag aside at room temperature for 8-12 hours. Pick a location free of drafts, out of direct sunlight, and away from heating or cooling vents. The temperature should be fairly constant.

After being in the sealed bag for 8-12 hours, check the reading of the hygrometer. It is best to read it while still in the bag, since if your house air is dry the reading may go down quickly once you take the hygrometer out of the bag.

The relative humidity in the sealed bag with the salt/water mix should be 75 percent.

If yours is the adjustable type, adjust the screw or setting so that it would have read 75 percent. You will have to do this very quickly, or remember how much you need to adjust the setting (e.g. for mine, it read 72 percent when it should have been 75 percent, so I would need to set it ahead by 3 percentage points). You may want to put the hygrometer back in the bag for another 8 hours to double check your adjustment.

If yours is not adjustable (like mine), simply make a note of how "off" your hygrometer reads. If it reads below 75 percent, you will need to add the difference to your actual readings. If your hygrometer read above 75 percent on the calibration, you will need to subtract the difference from your actual reading. Here are some examples to help:
Case 1: after sitting in the bag for calibration, my hygrometer read 72 percent. It should have read 75 percent, so the difference is 3 percent. I will now add 3 percent to the readings I take on the hygrometer (e.g. in a tank) to get the actual relative humidity.
Case 2: after calibrating in the bag, a hygrometer read 80 percent. It should have read 75 percent, a difference of 5 percent. I would have to subtract 5 percent from readings when using the hygrometer to get an accurate relative humidity.

Remember: always give a hygrometer about 2 hours to stabilize before taking a reading, as changes in the relative humidity may take a while to register accurately on a hygrometer.

Whenever you purchased a new thermometer and about to use it for the first time, you need to calibrate it. Thermometers will also need to be calibrated whenever they are dropped or when going from one temperature extreme to another. Thermometers are a critical measuring equipments for temperature to ensure good hatch rates.

There are two methods that you could use to calibrate thermometers -

Ice Point Method - Fill a container with crushed ice and water. Ensure that the container have enough crushed ice to provide an environment of 32 degrees F, so you may need to add more ice into the container during the process. It will takes about 4 to 5 minutes for the mixture of water to stabilized. Then insert the thermometer which needs to be calibrated into the appropriate immersion depth. Hold the thermometer away from the bottom and sides of the container to avoid error. If your thermometer is not accurate at 32 degrees F, adjust the thermometer accordingly.

Boiling Point Method - Fill a container with distilled water and heat it up. After the temperature in the water has reached the boiling point, insert the thermometer . Be sure to leave at least a two inch gap between the thermometer sensing element and the bottom and sides of the container to avoid error. If your thermometer is not accurate at 212 degrees F, adjust the thermometer accordingly.

I turn the incubator on the day before I set my eggs to let the incubator stabilize. I found when adjusting the temperature you have to be very careful and barely turn the temp control just a slight whisker then walk away for awhile and let it stabilize. I think most people adjust and adjust some more, but you have to walk away. The thermostat is super sensitive.The temp will fluctuate while the eggs are adjusting to the incubator temperature. Resist temptation to adjust the temp. After a few hours if you need to adjust it then do it but BARELY increase or decrease. The slightest movement of the thermostat can make a BIG difference in the temp. You can also adjust your temp and humidity to some extent by removing one or both of the plugs. I would fill the reservoirs in the bottom of the incubator too when you turn it on to let it stabilize. It takes hours for the eggs internal temp to come up. Just my opinion.

These pictures were taken after lockdown when the hatch was nearly over.

 

[seventreesfarm]

Thanks for sharing that.

That's exactly how I calibrated my hygrometers, so I guess I'll just have to do the math when taking a reading. I thought it was odd that they both read nearly the same amount off, but they're similar models so maybe they read the humidity similarly.

The thermometers are slowly creeping up inside the bator, and since it's only been a few hours I assume they are going to keep going up a bit longer.

 

[SunnySkies]

But I don't want mixed breeds. I have a goal, and it requires purebred. I guess we can eat them.

It seems to be fine now. I'll watch closely and see what happens.

 

[Arielle]

But I don't want mixed breeds. I have a goal, and it requires purebred. I guess we can eat them.

It seems to be fine now. I'll watch closely and see what happens.

I didn't want mixed breeds either but I really learned how to use my LG on my cheap eggs. Put in just a few like 4 eggs. In the long run you will have better luck hatching expensive eggs. Hatching shipped eggs is an expensive propositon; ultimately it is less expensive to buy a trio of started breeders of high quality.

It is always your choice.

 

[Arielle]

SEVEN TREESFARM---are you using the thermometer that came with the LG? Did you calibrate it?? I found it much easier to buy new mercury type thermometers designed for a fish tank. I calibrated about 6 in a cup of warm (110) water all at the same time. AND I use a digital thermometer with a large font and compare it to the fish tank thermometers.

A new LG takes a long time to stabliize. THe longer they run the better and more stable.

Give it as long as you can to stabilize. Have you read CHookchicks sheet sheet on the LG??

REMEBER:: after setting the eggs DO NOT adjust the knob for at least24 hours; the eggs tak e a long time to absorb the heat and become stable themselves. Monitor spikes by opening the incubator if you must but realize a spike in the first 24 hours doesn't have a huge impact on cool eggs. Use a water wiggler to test this and convince yourself of this.

 

[Lisa Pedro]

Hello, I have spent the last 2 days off and on, reading over this thread. Thursday was my birthday so I got my new LG still air incubator and ordered Ameraucana eggs that will be here this week sometime. We spent the weekend setting up space in my feed/tack shed for hatching and brooding. My husband even installed a new window for me.

I will be putting a curtain on that window to control any heat.


Ok, here are the couple questions I have.
1. When my shipped eggs get here, how long should they sit before putting them in the incubator, and in what position should the sit?
2. I do not have a turner and plan to turn them by hand. Can they just lay in the incubator or do I need to put them in an egg carton with the bottoms cut out? Big side up?
3. I did a test run all day today and had 1 digital thermometer/hygrometer and 2 glass thermometers that were all reading the same. I slowly turned the heat up over the course of the day till I got it to 102. It was consistent all day. My shed is not insulated, but is tight and no drafts. I left the LG running all night so I could check the temp in the morning. If it is lower in the morning, do you think it would be good to throw a towel on it at night?
4. Humidity- Once I turned on the LG, the humidity went down from the 60's to upper 30's as the temp got closer to 102. We are in central FL and it is humid here. I think 38 was the best I could do. That was with the red plugs in. Would the humidity go lower if I took out the red plugs? Or should I just not worry about it? I was planning on running a dry hatch and putting in coffee cups with sponges at day 18 to raise the humidity.

Please let me know what you think. I am not new to chickens, just incubating. I think it is going to be fun! Thanks for your help!

 

[SunnySkies]

I didn't want mixed breeds either but I really  learned how to use my LG on my cheap eggs. Put in just a few like 4 eggs.  In the long run you will have better luck hatching expensive eggs. Hatching shipped eggs is an expensive propositon; ultimately it is less expensive to buy a trio of started breeders of high quality.

It is always your choice. 

I'd love to buy a trio and would have paid good money for,just one trio, but I can't get anyone to part with any SFH hens. Roos, sure, but they hang onto hens like gold. So I need to get a few, then I'm good to go. Yes, it costs me money, but I haven't quite spent what I would have by ordering straight run chicks direct from the importer. Coming close though. If this local bunch doesn't work, I'm done with hatching eggs until one of our half-grown Silkies will sit on eggs.

Hubby is starting to protest just a bit. I built the last coop myself, but he is starting to say, so how many do we need? LOL

 

[cmom]

I now have a turner but used to turn by hand.
If you are going to hand turn the eggs I would turn them around 7am, 3pm and 11pm. Also I would put an X on one side of the egg and an O on the other side of the egg and always turn the eggs in the same direction so that at 7am all of the X's are up, at 3pm the O's are up and 11pm the X's are up. Then the opposite the next day. Just my suggestions. Here are a couple of pictures a friend of mine took to illustrate.