Little Giant Incubator Tricks

[SunnySkies]

Oh, the humidity dropped to 16% yesterday by bedtime. I'm going to not worry about it too, too much, I think, and just let it roll. But I worry I'll have trouble at lockdown, even with jars and sponges and things.

 

[cmom]

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. Good luck...

 

[SunnySkies]

Very cool!

No eggs in the mail today. but I do have enough on my plate for today. They will probably arrive tomorrow, and I'll leave instructions for my family to just put the box on the counter until I get home from work (I'm a relief veterinarian, so I work weekends).

 

[Arielle]

No eggs in the mail today.

but I do have enough on my plate for today. They will probably arrive tomorrow, and I'll leave instructions for my family to just put the box on the counter until I get home from work (I'm a relief veterinarian, so I work weekends).

WHenever I can, I pick up the eggs at the PO to save the eggs from the herky-jerky ride of the delivery truck.

they arrive today!!

 

[Peep_Show]

During the summer months here in the LV desert the humidity often drops to 2%. (Yeah, it's a dry heat!) One hatch I inadvertently forgot to add water to my incubator the whole first week. Oops! The result was that my air spaces in the eggs were a little larger than usual, but the hatch actually was one of my best....88% with shipped eggs.

My incubator is a 25 y.o. ancient one.... The labels are "Miller" which I believe then morphed into LG. All my replacement parts are LG....wafers, plugs, windows. The styrofoam box suffered a little rat gnaw damage when it was stored under Mom's house, but it holds a steady temp. Not pretty , but it works!

I have an egg turner. I take out the tray for that whole first row there by the motor and use the space to have a thermometer flat on the floor. Between that thermometer and the one I've got riding on top of the eggs I can pretty much figure out what the mean temp is of the area inbetween (the egg zone). I find that I also have to sacrifice three spaces mid-incubator due to overhead clearance of wires and wafers and whatnot. So that's 32 eggs that ride the turner per hatch. I stuff the hole where the turner cord exits with a wad of tissue so there isn't much air leakage from there.

I leave the red plugs in until lockdown and then at lockdown one or more is set at half-covered or less covered/more air as hatching commences (see next paragraph). HOWEVER, my LG throughout incubation is set on a lid of a plastic storage container so that the bottom is elevated above its resting surface. This allows physics to work the air flow through the small holes in the bottom and top of the incubator. Fresh air is drawn in through the bottom and warm air expelled out the top and the temps stay pretty much regulated.

Humidity is maintained Day 1-18 by filling only one channel in the bottom of the incubator. At lockdown they all are filled. Water level is maintained at lockdown via a squeeze bottle and straw through a red plug hole. If there is a strong hatch (lots of eggs at once), the red plugs may come off and the small buzzy computer fan is run until things are less drippy inside (this is the only time I run a fan).

At lockdown the eggs are moved from the turner into egg cartons that have the bottoms removed from each individual egg cup (so egg can breathe, as it were). This makes for a neater hatch and easy cleanup IMHO and eggs don't get kicked around by hatched chicks.

Good luck with your hatches!

 

[Arielle]

Yup, Miller makes the Little Giant! or LG.

THanks for sharing. I love comparing notes.

 

[RJHoss420]

Any changes in going from my home made fanned incubator to my LG still air?
I'm getting ready to do the still air lock down tomorrow. I cant seem to keep the humidity up in the hame made one during nights with 3 containers of water and wicks. Wont go higher than 64ish during day either so im going to just use it for incubation.

 

[Arielle]

Welcome!

64% is generally regarded as plenty high for chicken eggs, 50-60% more typical. Are you incubating turkey eggs? THey need the higher %RH, 80% according to Porters Turkeys.

You can make the switch over just fine, I often move eggs from home made to LG for hatching. Make a plan on moving eggs before you open the incubator and have the receiving one all set up with thermometers and water before making the transfer. You want to have every thing set up for a smooth transfer, and keep eggs from getting chilled.

Good luck.

 

[cmom]

I have no problems moving the eggs to my hatchers which are all styrofoam. I had to take my broody off of her nest every day for 15 to 30 minutes. She would not get off to eat, drink or poop unless I made her get off. All of her chicks hatched out fine.

 

[SunnySkies]

Gah, no eggs. We just gt back from closing(!!!!!!) and I was hoping they were left on a second pass or something. No such luck. I sure hope they are not in a truck..super hot tonight and tomorrow will be well over 103 with a heat index of probably 112 or something.