Mahonri's First Annual New Year's Day Hatch/Jan 2010

[Mahonri]

I guess I need to have a long time hatcher tell me how you keep humidity up with holes????

 

[kathyinmo]

That's why you add more water, because some will evaporate out the vents and holes. But, it is imperative to leave the vents open. The oxygen is as important, or more so, than the humidity. My very second, I lost nearly the whole hatch (hatched 2 of 26), because I did not know. I had covered all the holes on the bottom of the styrofoam bator with tape, because I thought they were, "overflow holes," or the like. I also kept the 2 top vents closed to hold in humidity. Just keep adding water, to increase humidity. Use sponges, or other means.

 

[geosheets]

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yep, as kathyinmo said... add sponges... increasing the surface area of the water will increase the humidity.

 

[dinahmoe]

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Paying my first grandchicks hatch well for you!

"first grandchicks"--now you're making me nervous.

 

[pips&peeps]

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What kind of incubator do you have?

I have about a dozen wheaten/blue wheaten eggs that should hatch on the first too........

 

[hcammack]

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Paying my first grandchicks hatch well for you!

"first grandchicks"--now you're making me nervous.

sorry its fine just hope for the best and the eggs will do their thing! I am going to set as many of these as I can collect next week and hopefully have lots of fluff running around.

Henry

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Those styrofoam incubators causes premature greying-age wrinkles,,,,you can have them set perfect for 4-5 days in a row,,and absolutley NOTHING is changed,yet then all of the sudden the temps are up to 105 degrees and you have no idea how long it has been that way.I had 2 of these here extra this summer because of a huge unexpected shipment of eggs that came unannounced,,believe me,as soon as there was room in the Brinsea,,the eggs came out of those styrofoam bators.Many times with 3 thermometers ,,the temp would fluctuate 7 degrees in just a few hours,,it drove me nutts constantly checking,tweaking to increase-decrease just a little bit,then wait and see if that setting helped.They should name these Stress-Foam Bators,,seems to me with as small of an area that is made avaialble for the eggs,,(maybe 2 sq ft) it woudn't take that much to be able to keep the temp constant in these,,I think a wafer thermostat hooked to a 100 watt light bulb inside a cardboard box is less problematic.

 

[Mahonri]

Yeah, the brinsea is stress free, but the 1588 is causing me wrinkles.

I'm doing the dry hatch this time.

I've kept humidity in both bators right at 30%... but it hasn't been easy with the hovabator. It would stay around 32 all day and then just before I'd go to bed it would plummet down to 25.... so I'd add a couple of tablespoons of water and it would be good for another 8 hours. I don't know how I'm going to keep it at 65% for three days.... and then when they start hatching, the humidity will go through the roof.

My 1588 only has one hole, should I make another?

It should be interesting to see the difference in hatch rates between the two bators.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Mahonri,get you a small spray bottle,and keep it full of water inside the bator so the water is around the 100 degree temp,,you can easily mist the eggs to keep humiditity levels way up,,just barely lift the lid,and give it a pump or two and then watch the rh levels climb,,misting is fast and easy,but the water temp must be same temp as the eggs,,

 

[dinahmoe]

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i guess it depends on where you are.i live in georgia and my hovabator(1602n) works great.i set it on my first hatch and have not touched it since.it doesn't ever fluctuate.the humidty drops gradually as expected but add just a teaspoon and it comes back up.on lockdown,i removed the 2 plugs and i filled both trays and it shot up to 80%.i actually had to take some water out.i didn't have to add anymore.i love mine,if it were only bigger.----now let me go check my bator to make sure i didn't jinx it.