My first incubator... and yes, I made it myself!

[rebelcowboysnb]

Quote:
When we tried that with ours....wetting the bricks, the humidity sky-rocketed! We had to dry the bricks in the oven and start over. A paper towel wick set on the brick was perfect. For lock down we used 2 paper towel wicks.

I was thinking one wet brick an the rest dry might not do that but it may. Could just wet wet one brick a little at a time till the humidity comes up to where you want it... Very slowly....

 

[rickerra]

Quote:
When we tried that with ours....wetting the bricks, the humidity sky-rocketed! We had to dry the bricks in the oven and start over. A paper towel wick set on the brick was perfect. For lock down we used 2 paper towel wicks.

Yeah... I fear wetting the bricks would be too difficult to control. I couldn't undo it without dismantling the box... which would be bad with eggs in it.

When I first put the pavers into the incubator they had a lot of moisture in them from being outside and wet. It took a day to dry them out and the humidity was VERY high in the box. When I added more pavers later I first heated and dried them out in the oven and that helped.

I'm attempting to equalize RH% now with just my water tray full. We'll see how that goes!

Cheers!

 

[Lark Rise]

Keep us posted.
We did a side-by-side hatch with some eggs in a Brinsea Mini Advanced and some in our homemade incubator. The homemade incubator had a better hatch rate....maybe we just got lucky or maybe it was all the good advice we found here.

Rebelcowboy's videos were particularly helpful. We found it was more fun with the homemade as we were more involved with watching temps/humidity and turning eggs. More eggs coming next Friday, so may tweak the homemade a little....going to use an egg carton this time for the first 18 days, then lay them down for lockdown.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

 

[rickerra]

So the past day I have been monitoring humidity in my incubator. I filled my 4" round water tray and let it run for a day.

It has been reading 40% humidity at 100 degree (air and egg) for a day now. (My basement where it sits it is a constant 50% RH and 58 degrees.)

So that sounds good to me for incubating days 1-18. I'm pleased.

This morning I added a sponge to the water tray to increase surface area. I'll let that run until it equalizes and see. I'm hoping to get a tad over 50% RH which will be a good level for days 19-21. ("dry" hatching)

All this experimenting is fun! I'm getting excited to get my eggs to set this Sunday!

Cheers!

 

[Lark Rise]

Flipped our thermostat around like yours and temps in the "eggmeter" is CONSTANT!!!

More eggs coming in on Friday and we're set!

 

[rickerra]

Quote:
Great!

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Before I set my eggs, I dialed in my high humidity level. I have a 5"x7" tin lid under the wire shelf. When I fill this lid with water, my RH% leveled out at 55%. So I'm happy with that as my day 19-21 humidity levels. I can also fill this lid without opening the lid through a vent hole. So I think I'm good to go.

Hope so, cause I set my first eggs on Saturday... 10 lovely, local breed eggs... of the mix variety! haha

Cheers!

 

[nhnanna]

sending good vibes your way. I just put some eggs in last night.

 

[Lark Rise]

SWEET!!!!