Little giant incubators!!

[farmgirlforever18]

i have an LG still air and just had my first hatch but it was the third try

you just have to get the hang of it.

 

[Arielle]

Preston, keep a journal of every detail.That's what big hatcheries do. You may not see the "error" otherwise.

The manual was very basic not covering a few important details IMO.

DId you calibrate your thermometer? I used 3 human thermometers; tested them for samenes in a mug of warm water at 199 degrees ish. Toook several tries! Then compared the other thermometers. the one provided with the LG is way off about 2 degrees off. Reads 104 but others read 102.

Temperature is measured at the top of the eggs; 101 for still air or 99 w/fan.

I forgot to mention in my earlier post the benefit of filling the LG. Either loading it up with eggs to capacity ( skip hole next to motor) or add heat sinks. I used 4 mason jars filled with water because I only have 8 eggs in.

Have read of many people who have had good success with the LG; I read everything I could find and wrote many notes, like in school! Followed what the successful hatchers did looking for those that used LG still air. Found many for chickens. Read CHookschicks notes. PM me if you can't find it.

 

[cmom]

I agree with the other posts. The temperature doesn't have to be right on 99.5 and a fan definitely helps circulate the air so the temperature stays more even. My LG fluctuates between around 98.5 and 100.5. One of the incubators went down to 93 the other day because of a power outage and I still had some chicks hatch. When the power came back on one of the incubators went up to 115. I went away for about an hr to do a couple of errands when the power was off but had put the incubators on battery backups before I left and when I got back home the power was back on. I took the lid off and let it cool down for awhile as the eggs were hot. After awhile I put the incubator lid back on and let the temp settle for a couple of hrs or so then I candled some of the eggs and saw movement. I thought for sure they were cooked. So far yesterday on day 18 I set the eggs for hatching in the morning and in the late afternoon I had a hatch and 3 more today on day 19. I only put a dozen eggs in this time and 2 turned out to be not fertile.

 

[Bantam Chase]

I have a 15+ year old still-air LG incubator, basically the same model just dingier, lol! I've used it to very successfully hatch out quail eggs, the main thing is to get the temperature regulated... this means setting up the bator DAYS before you plan on putting eggs in it. A HUGE help is having it in the basement where the room temperature does not fluctuate much at all. It is a fairly tempermental machine and you do need to get the hang of it, get the temperature right and then leave it alone... adjusting the knob even half a hair makes a big difference. A lot of people give it bad reviews, but once you get it working for you it definitely works well.

This will be my first chicken batch (starting this weekend) and I"m using some cheap local eggs as a test hatch before I order the expensive eggs, but have had 100% hatch rates with the quail eggs.

 

[Christie Rhae]

I have been using a hova bator 1588 for my incubation. I got more eggs so had to get a second incubator for hatching. I bought a little giant (no fan) because that was the only one I could get on short notice from the feed store. I have to say... for a first timer... the hova bator was waaay easier to set up. No brainer. Plug in and works. The lil giant needs to be fussed with more. I am sure it works fine but in my opinion the hova bator is more "incubating for dummies".

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I agree...