Little Giant Incubator Tricks

[cmom]

Here are a couple of pictures of some birds I hatched out last spring. The Rhode Island Red looking bird is actually an accidental cross between a Rhode Island Red male and a Buff Orpington female. She was in another pen but was getting picked on so bad that she didn't have a lot of feathers. I moved her in with my Rhode Island Whites and she is now just part of their flock and her feathers have grown back in nicely.

 

[dragon bait]

well i finally made through all 103 pages

i set up a LG a few days ago and put 3 eggs i got from my silkie hen, maybe should have waited a few more weeks as she just started laying 2 weeks ago. I will know more on friday when i candle them.
any way a bit about the way i set it up, i got a thermometer/hydrometer from the box store, i put 3-16 oz bottles
of water as a heat sink no fan and i am turning by hand 4-5 times a day. my temp is 99-100 degrees and my humidity is around 40+ 3 or 4 percent. i found out hot look for fertility in fresh eggs today and will look at breakfast time in the morning
my next try i will add the cap to the stem for better temp control adjustments and maybe add a fan.
oh and thanks to all who posted ideas in this thread

Ray

 

[rayray983]

well i finally made through all 103 pages 
i set up a LG a few days ago and put 3 eggs i got from my silkie hen, maybe should have waited a few more weeks  as she just started laying 2 weeks ago. I will know more on friday when i candle them.
any way a bit about the way i set it up, i got a thermometer/hydrometer from the box store, i put 3-16 oz bottles
of water as a heat sink no fan and i am turning by hand 4-5 times a day. my temp is 99-100 degrees and my humidity is around 40+ 3 or 4 percent. i found out hot look for fertility in fresh eggs today and will look at breakfast time in the morning 
my next try i will add the cap to the stem for better temp control adjustments and maybe add a fan.
oh and thanks to all who posted ideas in this thread 
Ray 

lol nice to meet another ray I just bought my 2nd lg today just heads up its addictive but welcome to the lg flock

 

[cmom]

before you know you will have several incubators. It is an addiction. I started out bu borrowing a friends LG and put some barnyard eggs in. My hatch wasn't the best but I now know my humidity was too high during incubation. Now I have excellent hatches. It is trial and error. Each hatch most likely will get better. I've posted these pics before but this is what happens when you become an addict.

 

[rayray983]

Woohoo one of my silkie eggs has a internal pip tonight !!!!! Its day 17 tmrw was supposed to be lock down but went into lock down tonight

 

[laseterlass]

I started off the season with dead in shell chicks. Heat spike or eggs got to cold before I found them.
Doing much better but none of them are making it to 21 days. The average is 19. Other than slight hernias which close quickly they are doing fine.

 

[cmom]

Woohoo one of my silkie eggs has a internal pip tonight !!!!! Its day 17 tmrw was supposed to be lock down but went into lock down tonight

I have had chicks hatch as early as day 19 but most hatch 0n days 20 / 21.

 

[cmom]

I started off the season with dead in shell chicks. Heat spike or eggs got to cold before I found them.
Doing much better but none of them are making it to 21 days. The average is 19. Other than slight hernias which close quickly they are doing fine.

How is your humidity. If it is too high when the chicks internally pip the air cell and there is condensation in it from the humidity being too high during incubation, they will drown when they pip internally. I normally try to keep my humidity during incubation as close to 35% as I can and when I set the eggs for hatching, in lockdown on day 18 or 19, then I bump the humidity up to 70 / 75%.

 

[Desiree Brown]

This is my first time incubating. How often do u guys add water and how much to maintain humidity. I don't have something to read humidity can add it when i get something on day 10 when I ck for furtility?? Also what is a max temp. I'm fluctuating with my temps I just don't want to go over. I haven't put my eggs in yet but I have some eggs that can't set out to much longer so I'm putting them in tonight. Any advice? Oh and what's internally piped mean?

 

[laseterlass]

How is your humidity. If it is too high when the chicks internally pip the air cell and there is condensation in it from the humidity being too high during incubation, they will drown when they pip internally. I normally try to keep my humidity during incubation as close to 35% as I can and when I set the eggs for hatching, in lockdown on day 18 or 19, then I bump the humidity up to 70 / 75%.

They were serious herniated. I didd eggtopsies.