Little Giant Incubator Tricks

[SunnySkies]

Ok, now I'm wondering what has gone wrong. I had 2 dozen eggs. Half were quitters or cleards by day18. I pulled those. One egg hatched on day 19! Shocked me. These are all shipped eggs, so I know weird things can happen. Bator ran perfect at 99-100 from days 1-present, with one small drop and one small spike, like less than 2 hours, of 97 and 102. Humidity was 40% more or less, with the last3 days at 50-70% (I am having all kinds of trouble keeping it up; I put bowls, I out sponges,and I resorted to squirting water through the holes and onto the paper towels.)

But nothing. I have no pips, no noise, just the one chick.

I want to make this bator work, but this is frustrating me.

 

[cmom]

Where is your incubator located? That can have an effect. Does the room have AC? There are so many things that can affect a hatch. Is your incubator a circulated air or still air? Are you using a turner?

 

[SunnySkies]

dining room, away from AC, windows or doors. The roomis not used often. Temp was much better than last time, much more even. Has a fan and a turner.

Now when I go in that room, I smell something...off. Ugh. Do I bust the bator open and check all the eggs, or do I leave it be for another 48? Ack.

I might try putting it in the basement next hatch.

 

[cmom]

If you smell something bad, you may have a rotten egg and you may want to find it before it explodes all over inside the incubator and then you will have a real mess.

Shipped eggs can be hit and miss. I have had some good hatches with shipped eggs and other times poor hatches with shipped eggs. Now I have the birds I want and have breeding pens set up so I can now hatch my own eggs and my hatches are much, much better.
I have a broody BO right now sitting on a dozen eggs.

 

[Peep_Show]

Air temps can fluctuate tremendously. I found the best (steady) place for my incubator in the winter was in the computer room/office. In the summer I actually had it in the bathtub (I figured the coolest house place in the Las Vegas heat).

One thing I found helped my hatch rate was I set the incubator on a storage tub lid and not on a flat surface. It perched on the edges and created just enough elevation to make an air space UNDER the incubator. (If you notice, there are ventilation holes in the bottom of the bator) I believe doing this made for good still air circulation if you figure cold air drawn in from the bottom and expelled from the top....and made sure there was plenty of fresh air for eggies. And the gap was not all that big between the bottom of the bator and the top of the storage lid it rested on, so *perhaps* the fresh air being drawn in was somewhat heated first? I dunno. But I used to have it just resting on a towel and my hatch rates weren't nearly as good as what I'm getting now.

 

[Arielle]

I also set my LG one four stacks of styrofoam under the little legs to be sure air flow is possible,

YOu did not mention candling or wieghing the eggs during the incubation process. Only the one at day 18 to remove clears. How did the air cells develop? That is another important key to correct humidity.

How often did the eggs get turned? Better hatch rates are obtained with 3 or more turns a day. Especially during the first week.

When I have shipped eggs, I put them in an egg carton to help the air cell stabilize at the correct end of the egg; then "turn" by putting a flattened tp tube under ONE side to lift the eggs slightly, then put it under the other side. Shipped eggs need very gentle treatment.

All eggs need gentle handling especially the first wek as the embryo is fragile as well as the very tiny vessels it is creating.

Summer can be one of the lowest hatch rates; fertility of the roosters can be down, they are effected by the heat. Some roosters perform just fine at fertilizing the eggs --ask me how I know!!

We are here to help.

Do you plan to open some of those eggs to see where they stopped in the development. A nasty job but very enlightening. I could better guess at the age the chick quit after opeing MANY eggs.

THe number of clears is different than the number of quitters, because the reason for not having a live chick is different. HOw many clears? How many quitters?

Nutrition of the hen can cause quitters. Or a problem in temps --it is possible the spikes were too much for some of the eggs.

THe temps are not even around the LG; Ihand turn to change where the eggs are. Better yet I made a homemade one with more even heating thruout the incubator. ANd use the LG for hatching. How is your fan istalled? IT should not be blowing on the eggs and it needs a little space to move the air. SOmetimes I let one end hang down a bit and I think I get better air circulation. ( I have a PC fan)

Keep at it--you will learn how to use the LG. Just know that I see different results as my humidity due to seasonal changes effects my hatches if I don't keep up with candling and adjusting the humidity. We had more humidity in July than usual and I had too many eggs not dry out properly. We do not use AC at all.

Well, I hope some of these ideas sparks some thought and you can figure out the answer.

 

[cmom]

Another thing to consider with the humidity is you can adjust it somewhat with the plugs in the top of the incubator. Depending on the weather I have hatched with the plugs in and with them out. In the summer months I have found the fertility lower so I don't hatch in the summer. If I have a broody I may let her have some eggs and hatch them. My last broody had 8 eggs of which 5 hatched. Right now I have another broody sitting in a dozen eggs due to hatch in about 2 weeks.

 

[cmom]

You could put it in a closet too. I have some friends who hatch and they put their incubators in a closet. I think the hatch maybe off because the eggs were shipped and the handling is not the greatest no matter how well the eggs are packed. The container they are shipped in still will get bounced around.

dining room, away from AC, windows or doors. The roomis not used often. Temp was much better than last time, much more even. Has a fan and a turner.

Now when I go in that room, I smell something...off. Ugh. Do I bust the bator open and check all the eggs, or do I leave it be for another 48? Ack.

I might try putting it in the basement next hatch.

Did you find the source of the odor?

 

[SunnySkies]

I let them sit for 24 hours in the turner but off before turning it on. These were expensive eggs, and I wanted to give them every chance.

I candled at 7 days and then at 18 to pull whatever hadn't developed from the day 7 candling. My dad never candled until day 18, so I'm cool with not candling a lot. Honestly, the air cells looked great.

I have the auto Lg turner. It worked perfectly. I leave one plug and cover half the other with tape, or the temp and RH really fluctuate. I keep eggs away from the motor as it increases temperature by a degree nearby.

The RH was excellent between 35-40 the whole time until the last 3 days. I had trouble boosting it. I added cups under the wire in addition to filling the wells via my set up shown eariluer , I added sponges, and I resorted to squirting water through the holes onto paper towels I had lined it with to keep the chick mess contained. it still would drop within hours, and I had one panic-stricken day on Tuesday where I babysat it and added water to keep it at 65 every couple of hours after it had done well the day before.

I actually have two LG, but I forgot to set the second one, the hatcher, up because I worked a 48 hour shift last weekend and came home to eggs ready for lockdown! Oops.

The eggs came from 2 sources, 2 different breeds (Swedish Flower Hens and Dark and Light Brahmas). They had very fast transit and were both packed beautifully. The light Brahmas were all Clears, the darks looked great, the SFH looked iffy to me as far as fertility goes.

We have to use AC here. It's a million degrees and lots of ambient RH. We would die of heat exhaustion! My family would riot if I said no AC.

Fan is installed per LG directions, and I don't put eggs under it.

I had it sitting on a box to allow air flow through all the lower holes, as I felt last time maybe there wasn't enough air.

Temperature was very even this time, much better than for my first hatch (local eggs, and I got 100% from the ones that made it to lockdown). Just the two small spikes, one down and one up. Short lived, but there they were.

Can't find the rotten one, but I float tested them. They are all dead. I am thinking about opening up a few, once I get some peace and quiet from these kids! I'm thinking they may have died just prior to lockdown.

I'm so discouraged. I can't keep spending money on eggs. My hope was to get enough of my own and then use broodies, but I can't even get to that point. I think I got three roosters from my first SFH eggs.

Trying again with a BYcer's eggs, but they will be shipped. Nobody local has SFH. Even the guy in PA is basically a day's drive up and a day back.

 

[cmom]

I let them sit for 24 hours in the turner but off before turning it on. These were expensive eggs, and I wanted to give them every chance.

I candled at 7 days and then at 18 to pull whatever hadn't developed from the day 7 candling. My dad never candled until day 18, so I'm cool with not candling a lot. Honestly, the air cells looked great.

I have the auto Lg turner. It worked perfectly. I leave one plug and cover half the other with tape, or the temp and RH really fluctuate. I keep eggs away from the motor as it increases temperature by a degree nearby.

The RH was excellent between 35-40 the whole time until the last 3 days. I had trouble boosting it. I added cups under the wire in addition to filling the wells via my set up shown eariluer , I added sponges, and I resorted to squirting water through the holes onto paper towels I had lined it with to keep the chick mess contained. it still would drop within hours, and I had one panic-stricken day on Tuesday where I babysat it and added water to keep it at 65 every couple of hours after it had done well the day before.

I actually have two LG, but I forgot to set the second one, the hatcher, up because I worked a 48 hour shift last weekend and came home to eggs ready for lockdown! Oops.

The eggs came from 2 sources, 2 different breeds (Swedish Flower Hens and Dark and Light Brahmas). They had very fast transit and were both packed beautifully. The light Brahmas were all Clears, the darks looked great, the SFH looked iffy to me as far as fertility goes.

We have to use AC here. It's a million degrees and lots of ambient RH. We would die of heat exhaustion! My family would riot if I said no AC.

Fan is installed per LG directions, and I don't put eggs under it.

I had it sitting on a box to allow air flow through all the lower holes, as I felt last time maybe there wasn't enough air.

Temperature was very even this time, much better than for my first hatch (local eggs, and I got 100% from the ones that made it to lockdown). Just the two small spikes, one down and one up. Short lived, but there they were.

Can't find the rotten one, but I float tested them. They are all dead. I am thinking about opening up a few, once I get some peace and quiet from these kids! I'm thinking they may have died just prior to lockdown.

I'm so discouraged. I can't keep spending money on eggs. My hope was to get enough of my own and then use broodies, but I can't even get to that point. I think I got three roosters from my first SFH eggs.

Trying again with a BYcer's eggs, but they will be shipped. Nobody local has SFH. Even the guy in PA is basically a day's drive up and a day back.

I hope you installed the fan with it blowing up on the lid and not down towards the bottom. I made that mistake the first time I put the fan in. I have since changed it and my temp and humidity are much better. There is a hole above the fan that I sometimes put tape partially covering the hole.