Little Giant Incubator Tricks

[cmom]

My fan is a pc fan and it is mounted under one of the bigger vent holes (the ones where the plugs go) and is blowing up. I have never checked the temp at various spots in my incubator. Mainly because that means opening it up. I am on day 2 of my second hatch. The temp has been rock steady at 99.5 degrees on top of the eggs according to the LG bulb thermomter.

That is great. I keep my temp as close to 99.5 at the top of the eggs. I just hatched 31 out of 32 eggs on Day 20. Egg 32 had piped but on the pointy end and sadly it expired before hatching.

 

[moetrout]

I open my LG to hand turn, so I am in and out as needed like a mother hen. lol

With several thermometers I can read the temps in diferent locations at the same time under the same conditions. That's how I noticed different areas have diferent temps. And different layers also vary: high ( top of egg) then 1''high and floor have different temps all in spite of a fan.

How was your hatch rate in you first batch? Was it complete by day 21?

My first hatch I managed 14 out of 24 eggs to hatch and yes it was complete by day 21. I did help 4 chick out of the shell. 1 of those probably would have made it, but I'm a egg meddling fool. It worked ok for me. I hope to do better this time and have a better hatch rate. That is why I am really taking a hands off approach. I did have to open my incubator last night because the humidity dropped really low causing the temp to go up b a couple of degrees. Since the incubator is full I really can't get to the water wells in the bottom and I also did not rig up a funnel and tubing to allow me to fill it like I had planned to do. What i did instead was grabbed a plastic easter egg (one half anyway) and filled it with warm water and put it in one of the empty holes of my turner in the very corner so I can refill as needed. My humidity went from like 10% to 34% within a couple of hours. I doubt those numbers are accurate as I bought the cheapest hygrometer I could find. I try to think of it as high and low humidity and not worry too much about exact numbers. It's not like a mother hen has a hygrometer in her behind anyway.

 

[Arielle]

Quote:

The hydrometer gets me in the ball park, too.

Great job on your first hatch 14/24 is quite good for the first time!

I try to have my meddling be meaningful. I'm in for chicks or to fix baskets or replace wet sponges. I'll tell you at the end of the hatch if I get any stickies--so far so good. I did notice that the LG decreases in temp as the humidity hits a high % like 80. THough I am wondering if opeing the top so often is somehow fouling up it's ability to maintain temp.

Clever to use a plastic egg!

 

[perrym1962]

The best trick I found for the 2 I had was to sell them. LOL...

 

[roadrunner0]

Keeping the peeps out of the fan is no problem.. Even if they got near it the fan is very small and stops at the slightest touch.. It provides just enough air flow to move the air and is not strong enough like an 80mm fan to suck them up.. The sponge tray moisture tank is in the center of the incubator and we run this little fan at 9 volts.. Dry chicks go straight to the brooder box to get them out of the way.. This incubator is less than 2 square feet so a flow of 5cfm will circulate the air 3 tines per minute..

 

[Arielle]

Even with the PC fan installed my LG experiences hot and cold zones. I tried moving the eggs around when I hand turned, but figured out rotating the lid was easier.

My LG is a hatching machine. Hatched about 15 last weekend; and waiting for this weekends chicks, at 19 now out of 54, well . . . , 60 including the 6 turkey eggs I just put in to hatch.

 

[jabowery]

You didn't mention how the girls are fed; breeders birds benefit from a better plane of nutrition, including a higher protein level and more vitamins.

I don't.

I'm breeding for low-maintenance starting from a variety of heritage breeds. Its going to take a lot of generations to get results given the way I'm going about the breeding program: uncontrolled mating starting with several founding breeds. If I had more time and money to devote, I'd do a proper breeding program by intensively inbreeding F1 hybrids based on carefully selected pairs of heritage breeds. Having confessed my studied neglect of my birds in breeding, I further confess the only time I feed my birds is when there is snow cover that's too deep for them to scratch through. I have two cattle dogs that have cleared out predators for at least a quarter mile radius. I don't kill the roosters and the big guys do seem to handle birds of prey quite nicely (as well as protecting against the dogs "playing" with the chickens). Finally, we're in the middle of corn and soybean fields with about 2 acres of grass and weeds. We get about 1/2 the egg laying rate during the winter that we do during the summer and I preferrentially incubate winter eggs for breeding purposes. (I also turn out cockerels to the elements early so I do, in a sense, cull the roosters.)

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I like your thinking creating a more natural food supply and trying to get very selected birds to adapt to a more fend for yourself self sufficency.

THose of us that sell eggs for hatching have customers that expect pure breeding, so that requires penning which requires feeding. ANd we as a nation have come to depend on grains as the basic food staple for all animals and humans here. THe vegies are not as included and I do think should be for good health. So I supplement my animals and birds.

If you are looking for survual of the fittest, perhaps let the birs determine the breeding program, survival of the fittest, and make it easier on yourself. Most of our modern birds do not fare as well in this arrangement because there has been some level of human care. THough there are some breeds that still have the moxie.

GL and welcome to BYC.

 

[jabowery]

If you are looking for survual of the fittest, perhaps let the birs determine the breeding program, survival of the fittest, and make it easier on yourself.

All breeding programs are "survival of the fittest" -- its all a matter of artificial vs natural selection determining what is "fit". For example, nature doesn't really care about producing extra eggs and, indeed, you can end up with egg eaters dominating the hens and roosters that are good at little other siring most chicks. With roosters, especially, its important to impose artificial selection for the desired characters.

The idea of starting with carefully selected pure breeds for your founding stock is you get a head-start on evolution. It can save literally decades. I am actually considering starting over if I can get the resources.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: THere are many good discussion here on BYC. Finding them can be tricky. Use the advanced search feature. THere is a bird in FL that is very thrify, many people favor the game birds, THis may be of interest to you. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/466642/foraging-and-feed-effeciency-comparing-breeds and lead you to other threads.

WOuld you like to start another thread and continue this interesting discussion? I don't want to hijack this thread for the Little Giant and the techniques we use.