Little Giant Model 9200 Still Air Incubator--general questions

[madornato]

Hi. I apologize if these questions have been asked and answered elsewhere. I got kinda tired of sifting through the posts--the Olympics opening ceremony is about to begin. What temp. should I run my LG at? A book I looked in said 101.5 to 102.5, but the booklet for he LG said 99.5. Also, there is this whole thing about the vent holes and water troughs--sponges, humidity. Help! I am using it as a still air--no fan. And, I am using an egg turner. Any information will be so helpful and appreciated because I want as good a hatch as possible. I am hoping to put the eggs in there tomorrow morning. I am going to try to using a digital thermometer (a probe in the incubator with the readout outside the incubator. Someone said to put duct tape around the seam to help with humidity. Any suggestions about that?

Thanks,
Melissa

 

[Serrin]

Welcome to BYC Melissa!

I have the LG 5200, which as far as I know is just an earlier model of the 9200. As to the issue of temperature: If you keep the unit as a still air, you'll want the higher temps. If you chose to add a fan to it, as I did (and believe me, it was a very smart move!

) then go with the 99.5-100F

As to the vent holes and humidity issues, a lot is going to depend on where you live. If you live along the gulf coast for instance, humidity isn't nearly the issue that it is for folks living in say Tuscon Arizona! So far, I have found that if I keep the first water ring filled, it usually keeps the humidity right around 55%. This is perfect for much of the incubation period. Wet sponges and putting more water in the outer rings might become necessary as you go into lock down. I haven't seen the need for duct tape around the seam of lid and base at this point.

Do you have a good Hygrometer yet? If you have access to a good quality hatching equipment supplier, I would recommend investing in a quality thermometer/hygrometer combo. GQF offers one such. The #3520. I'm pleased with it's performance thus far, but you will still need to calibrate the hygrometer.

I have two combo units in my incubator and they are always within a few tenths of degrees of each other in temperature and about 5% on the humidity. The second thermometer/hygrometer unit is an inexpensive Springfield from Walmart for about $8. It calibrated out better than the much more expensive GQF unit on humidity. Though I will say that many here have complained about the accuracy of the Springfield unit. As I said in another thread, I think sometimes it's just the luck of the draw on those. I use mine strictly as a back up.

About the only recommendation I can make to you Madornado, is to add a fan to the unit. If you have a dead computer laying around, salvage one of the CPU fans for this purpose. You'll need a power supply for it and the charger from a dead cell phone works very well. Check out some of the home built incubators here for more information about converting a CPU fan into an air circulating fan for incubators:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/chicken-coop-incubator.html

You'll never regret adding a fan to the unit! Believe me!! They become ten times easier to regulate the temperature and your chicks will dry and fluff much faster with a fan!

On my unit, I glued the fan to four small blocks of wood at the corners, to give it some space to circulate the air and then glued that whole assembly into the space between the thermostat wafer and the heating element. This would be towards the front of the unit if they are still laid out the same way, and I'm pretty sure that they are.

I then tucked the cut wire ends out through a conveniently located small fresh air vent and then wired it to the power supply unit. If you need pictures of this proceedure, PM or email me and I'll be happy to send you some pictures of the whole thing.

Good luck with your first hatch! What will be your first eggs? Looking forward to hearing of your progress of your set up. And again, Welcome to BYC!!

 

[madornato]

Thanks for the information. We do not have an extra CPU sitting around, therefore no CPU fan. Thanks for the link, though, because we might be able to come up with one from a friend or family member eventually. I think we will just do this hatch as a still air--maybe our hatch percentage will be pretty good. I do not have a hygrometer--I'll try to get that one from Wal-Mart ASAP until I can get one of the other kind you recommended (GCF?--I'll have to look back at your message). I have 24 eggs to put in there. I did not want to fill it up on the first run. I am hoping that most of them are RIR. The only roosters we have with our hens are RIR, but we have a variety of hens. I tried pulling some of the RIR hens out for part of the day into a temporary enclosure to lay their eggs, but they did not lay any eggs there. I guess they did not feel comfortable enough laying there. So for the last 4 days I have been making numerous trips to our hen house trying to catch our RIR hens in the nesting boxes or just leaving the nesting boxes. Most of them seemed to be OK with me checking under them to see if they had completed the task or not. We have only one who really squawks at me if I even come near her in the nesting box, and if I try to touch her, she will try to bite/peck at me. So, I just let her be until she is through with the nesting box altogether. I was successfull for most of the 24, trying to get all RIR, but I ran into a few times where there were 2 eggs in the box that they had just vacated. So, I did not know which one was theirs, so I took both. I think a couple of them belong to my 2 barred rock hens, which would result in black sexlink chicks--AOK with me.

What hatch rate percentage do you think I will get if I keep the temperature regulated and plenty of water in the bottom? For the last 5 hours or so I have gotten temperatures of 100.6 to 100.9 with the digital thermometer. I think that is an acceptable variation, don't you think? We have let it run all day today, but have only had the temperature regulated the last 5 or 6. I am going to let it sit the rest of the night, and if the temperature is the same in the morning we'll put in the 24 eggs and hope for the best. I am hoping they will hatch over the weekend 3 weeks from now so that my kids can watch.

Someone told me to candle at the 2 week mark because he said it was hard to tell anything when candling at 1 week. What do you think? Hopefully, my roosters did their job and fertilized those eggs.

Thanks for all the help,
Melissa

 

[trilyn]

Hopefully we can revive this thread as I just got my incubator yesterday!! TSC had the still airs at a good price so...I am going back today to get the egg turner though, I'm too scared to keep opening the bator and turning eggs-afraid I'm going to crack one by rolling too hard or something. Klutzy, I am for sure!! lol I've been running mine with the water troughs filled and have 45 % humidity and temps of 100 degrees even. Is this alright? I tried raising the bator with books on one end and then switching, (in place of a turner) but for some reason the temps fluctuate a few degrees everytime I move the bator, so that's a no go for me unless I'm doing it wrong. I was going to put the eggs in cartons and raise one side then the other to save a couple bucks, but...not gonna happen, I'll just end up staring at the thermometer all day! I'm only going to set 15 of my eggs, I have one roo/22 hens. We'll see how many are fertile/develop after I candle on day 5. I still can't believe I'm doing this!! We'll be setting eggs tonight after I get the turner and let it run awhile to let the temps reregulate (is that a word?).

I am going to add a computer fan after this hatch or I may just buy the fan that is recommended for it, we'll see.

 

[bigstack]

Hey, I just Hatched out my first set with the LG still air, w/turner from TSC. I got 14 of 16 out. 2 showing a no go. Well FIRST, Toss any thermometers Made by LG. ALL 3 I bought were off by 3 degrees. You canget a hygro/thermometer at any wally world or Lowes, Home Depot etc. under $25(what I paid) I got a wireless unit with a small sensor unit. so it would not mess with the turner.

VERY VERY IMPORTANT......Take temps at egg level!!!!!!

I checked mine. it was 99.5 at egg level on screen bottom. it was 86 in the bottom of the tray. and 102 above the eggs. I had a hard time keeping my humidity right on lockdown. I placed as many small plastic containers in tray bottom as I could get. I got somebaby med syringes. Found some sall tubing that would fit over syringe so I could slip it in vent holes and fill tubs and trays. When you remove the turner. ADD wadded up paper towels, under small vent holes at corners. then you can just squirt warm water in using syringe if needed.
Expect Temp spikes with LG! Dunno why almost all LG do it. Mine would spike to 101-102 for an hr. then go back to normal. I Now only use the LG as my hatcher. Just too many units out there that are less work, If you can afford them. I got lucky. I found a sportsman all bells and whistles fo $200. I found it 2 weeks after i set my first eggs of course.
Depending on the weather and where you live the LG can be a pain. alot of people don't like the LG. BUT alot have had great runs. I am only using mine as a hatcher now.

will post some pics soon.

Good luck and God Bless!

 

[trilyn]

Quote:
Oooh, thanks for all the awesome advice!! Yeah, I have noticed the temp spikes, instead of adjusting-I have learned to let it go and it will regulate itself. I figure as long as it doesn't go over 102, I'm safe; some books have said 100-102 is fine for a still air, so....I'm letting it go and praying it will be okay. I did put the turner in and am waiting for it to come back up to temp, I put my hygrometer/thermometer combo on top of an egg slot and it seems to be okay there, no room in the bator otherwise. I will definitely be purchasing the wireless next payday, I need another one anyways. For lockdown I was thinking of trying sponges soaked in water and seeing how that goes. Great idea with the syringes though, I've got a ton of those laying around (dh is a diabetic), so I can use those with some tubing that I've got from my tanks.

Eventually I would like to purchase the brinsea eco 20? I'm not sure of the name, it runs around 123.00 with shipping and handling. Hopefully in another month or so I can get that and use this as just a hatcher also or what the heck, just run the both of them!

I have to say, this is incredibly exciting-I'm not sure how many of these eggs are fertile, but the experience is priceless!

 

[bigstack]

sponges work better than paper towels. Just didn't have any on hand. So far every thing your doin sounds great! Go chickies go!

Good Luck and God less!

 

[trilyn]

Quote:
Awww, thank you-God Bless you too!!

 

[Egg_newton]

Hey Serrin, you can go to a computer repair shop and get a used PC fan for next to nothing or I've seen them on e-bay for $1 or so. And they are super simple to wire. We have on attached to an old cell phone charger (ac/dc transformer). It is 12v input to 6v output. We tried one that was 12v/9v but it spun faster and was louder. The 6 volt seems to work just as well. I agree that they are well worth the little extra effort and money to put in.

 

[quiltnchik]

What does "at egg level" mean? Should I put the hygrometer/thermometer IN the turner or lay it on top of the eggs?

Also, I'd love to see some pics of adding a fan to the LG still-air, since that's what I have. It would be a great project for my husband and son, who are computer geeks! lol