Spangled -- Thank you so much! I am doing this by the seat of my pants and your help is greatly appreciated. I heard that I need to be turning them, do I also need to have them sitting "pointed end down"? It is usually around 65 in our house and being in the south, usually pretty humid - but not 75%! I was thinking of maybe putting a large cardboard box over the eggs and maybe a small bowl with 1/2 cup water and a couple of ice cubes, just to lower the temp a bit and add some humidity. If the eggs are in a paper carton (the open kind that holds 30 eggs) and I prop one end up on a VHS tape will that be enough tilt to work? I mean to swap ends with the tape. And should I rotate thrrough all four sides or just back and forth like the auto turners do?
Just to be clear ... I do a lot of it by the seat of my pants. You can get away with a lot. It really doesn't have to be perfectly 75% humidity. Like I said, I don't even know what the humidity is in that closet of mine. There are so many variables and things that could go wrong that there's a reason why they call it the "miracle" of life. But I think storing them at less than 70F is probably wise. I kind of think of it as a rule I shouldn't break.
(Oh dear, look at that guy's finger.)
I don't know what the proper degree of tilt is. I didn't research that. Maybe it is 45degrees (you know, like in geometry with triangles,
not temperature!). I tilt mine a little more than a VHS tape usually, but only probably 1/2 an inch more. A turning rack in an incubator only tilts two ways, so that's all that's necessary. I usually take them out to turn them or put more eggs in, then I can't remember which way they were tilted, so mine get a sideways tilt also some of the time. I don't know what is optimal.
I like your idea with the cardboard box and ice. A mini cooler ... and the cardboard box will soak up a little moisture itself. That should work pretty well since you say your house is already fairly humid. Mine's 49% right now. Our pump gets condensation on which keeps our cupboard a little more humid than the rest of the house. Can you put your hygrometer in there to check it out? (I got a temperature/humidity meter in the hardward section of
Walmart. Works well enough for one hatching season. I think they're about $7-10 now. I think that was the cheapest one there. Deluxe ones from FarmTek are about $40, I think.) I wouldn't worry about changing the ice cubes as soon as they melt, though, since your house is already at an acceptable temp.
Yes, pointy end down will get better results for artificial incubation. Of course, natural incubation, with the mom, gets good results on their sides during "storage." Well, as long as a predator doesn't come along an eat the eggs during the storage period.
