Little giant used as a hatcher

[rottlady]

I have two sets of eggs due to hatch at different dates so when the first set needed to go into lockdown Fri pm I put them into a Little giant still air

I have both water wells full, a rolled wash cloth soaked and a soaked sponge in there. I have to reasoak both sponge and wash cloth twice a day. For the first hour post soaking the humidity holds at 60-67 but then drops right off to 40-48

I have one red plug out but not both of them. I have the one red plug out because I don't feel like the LG has enough air holes (the sir holes are 1/2 the size in the Hovabator) as compared to the Hovabator

The eggs in the Hovabator went into lockdown today and so far it is holding at 68%

WHY won't the LG hold humidity? It makes no sense

 

[Pyxis]

Mine's back at holding it too. I 'fixed' it by adding baby food jars and mason jars full of water to it with sponges sticking out to increase the water surface area, and now it holds the humidity until the water in jars runs out.

 

[rottlady]

today is day 21. I have had to add water to the wells daily AND I have a jelly jar of water and a sponge with water in there and still only between 40-50%
So much for "lock down" because I have to open it twice a day to add water to sponge and once a day to the wells

Did a quick candle of a couple eggs today and the whole egg is dark but for the air cell which is medium sized. no peeps no signs of pipping nothing

I have hatched a LOT of button quail before but never chicken eggs and these were $$$ eggs. Hope they hatch. Right now I have zero confidence

Have another batch different breeds in the Hovabator which went into lockdown last night. If my husband knew how much money I had in these eggs he would die

 

[AmyLynn2374]

today is day 21. I have had to add water to the wells daily AND I have a jelly jar of water and a sponge with water in there and still only between 40-50%
So much for "lock down" because I have to open it twice a day to add water to sponge and once a day to the wells

Did a quick candle of a couple eggs today and the whole egg is dark but for the air cell which is medium sized. no peeps no signs of pipping nothing

I have hatched a LOT of button quail before but never chicken eggs and these were $$$ eggs. Hope they hatch. Right now I have zero confidence

Have another batch different breeds in the Hovabator which went into lockdown last night. If my husband knew how much money I had in these eggs he would die

What model LG are you using and do you have your own checked hygrometer in the bator or are you going by the incuator's display?

 

[rottlady]

What model LG are you using and do you have your own checked hygrometer in the bator or are you going by the incuator's display?

Little Giant 5200 there is no display I have an external probe thermometer/hygrometer and it agrees with every thermometer I have. I don't have another hygrometer but I had it in the Hovabator first and it held nice and steady at the expected humidity. It is this LG that refuses to hold humidity

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Little Giant 5200 there is no display I have an external probe thermometer/hygrometer and it agrees with every thermometer I have. I don't have another hygrometer but I had it in the Hovabator first and it held nice and steady at the expected humidity. It is this LG that refuses to hold humidity

That's a lot like the 9200 I use according to the pics I found. I was just making sure it wasn't the 9300 or 10300, as they have the display and the display is usually wrong. I fill all the wells, all a little dish of water under the screen and use sponges above the screen. It usually holds fairly well in mine.

 

[rottlady]

well I final have the darn thing stable at 64% ALL I did different was take the paper towel out the eggs were sitting on

But now we are 24 hours overdue. I have never hatched chicken eggs just Button quail. They were right on time- hatched at some point the day they were due and only very rarely 1 day early/late

Last candle the air cells were ok and the whole egg was dark (Barnevelder shells are quite dark and dense anyhow) the clears and quitters were visible though

No peeping and no noise. I'll be upset if they don't hatch after all this


batch 2 over in the Hovabator (Delawares and Cream legbar) are due to hatch Thursday- their incubator has been stable since lockdown

 

[rottlady]

I just pulled an egg and held it with light on air cell for several seconds and saw movement!

Their breeder says she never lets her humidity get above 55% til pipping and then she bumps it to 60% but never above

I am currently at 60-65%

 

[rottlady]

I have two pips- 1 at noon and one around 7, but no unzipping yet

 

[Bradley2990]

I have a question how do you put the temp and humidity for chicken duck guinea Turkey quail eggs?