Little Giant Incubator Tricks

[AmyLynn2374]

What's the best humidity and temp for a forced air little giant? I'm going to be incubating 50 Coturnix quail eggs.
Last time I incubated it was a still air so the temp was 100.5 and humidity was 60% and I upped it to 65-70% for the hatch.
BUT that made the chicks drown in the shell....so not sure what to do this time. I do a float test on the eggs instead of candling so would that make it a lot wetter inside the egg?
Thanks!

Forced air 99.5F. If you had chicks drowning then you need to run a lower humidity the first 17 days. I wouldn't run higher than 40%. I prefer 30% for incubation and 70/75% hatching. Chickens/ducks and quail all incubate under reletively the same conditions.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
Ditto!!!

 

[wabbit1964]

Day 7 of using my still air farm innovators styrofoam incubator... when I candled my eggs they did not seem to be where I thought they should be. What is your best temp and humidity for using the still air styrofoam incubator??

 

[cmom]

Still air should be kept about a degree warmer.

 

[cmom]

Forgot to mention it you can rotate the lid to help with the hot and cool spots. Are you using a turner?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Day 7 of using my still air farm innovators styrofoam incubator... when I candled my eggs they did not seem to be where I thought they should be. What is your best temp and humidity for using the still air styrofoam incubator??

Still air temp should be 101-102F taken near the tops of the eggs. Humidty should be gaged on the needs of the eggs by checking the air cells for growth. I prefer humidity at 30% usually for the first 17 days and 75% for hatch. (Unless you are in a high elevation, I highly recommend the low humidity incubation.)

 

[wabbit1964]

Forgot to mention it you can rotate the lid to help with the hot and cool spots. Are you using a turner?

Thank you I never even thought about rotating the lid. Great idea!

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I agree, but I do not keep track of the air cells. What will be will be. I do incubate at around 30% humidity and hatch at around 75% humidity. I do mist the eggs when I take chicks and shells out of the hatchers and put the chicks in a brooder box until they dry out then they go into a brooder cabinet.







Chicks I hatched out for a friend.

 

[Metella]

Read from beginning to page 110 or so - want to thank all of you for sharing ....

Doing my first hatch - I'm day 2 into incubation .... temps going from 98.9 to 102. But pretty much holding at 100 most of the time.

. So you started this thread a long time ago and it is still helping - I heard horror stories about LG's ...but so far - so go with all your tips and tricks to get it prepped before putting the eggs in.

 

[Metella]

AND .....just like that - a problem


temp was pretty steady - turner working - fan running ..... Then I go to check it and the temp- is DOWN to 94.3 ! Been about 2 hours since I checked it since it was steady for days .... turns out the Fan quit !!!

I unplugged to give it a restart - but it won't restart - so I upped the knob for now and will hover over it until I get back up .... it is middle of the night in a rural area - even our Walmart is closed ....

So should I just merge to the still air process from here? Day 3 only ..... auto turner. 25-30% humidity. .... temp was 99.5 to 100 at the bottom and 100 to 101 at the top..... I figure I should try to make it 102 at the top now???? With still air ?