Name Change, My First Experience with Farm Innovators Bator

[blucoondawg]

I opened the incubator because the sticky backed hygrometer fell off the wall and stuck to a chicks foot it didn't seem to effect humidity as it was still way over 70 after that, people put so many rules on here about incubating, I think much of it is dependant on the situation and some common sense and knowing your current conditions will dictate what happens. I have learned a lot on this site but I also see where people are worrying about some stuff for little reason.

 

[blucoondawg]

Just moved to the brooder, ended up with 26 chicks total maybe 25 idk hard to count with them chasing all over the place. I have 11 in the incubator still just waiting to see if they are late hatchers though I don't hear peeping so I think they are dead. I had 3 die during hatch which I am attributing to leaving the chicks in there with them, the eggs were all pushed around and pieces of the hatched shells were stuck to the hatching eggs possibly preventing the chicks from getting out, next time I am either taking the chicks out as they hatch or devising some sort of holders to keep the eggs from rolling about. I figure I got about a 66% hatch, that is if none of the 11 that are left hatch, not bad for the first time. Also I didn't do anything special with these eggs before the incubation, just left them sit in the egg basket on the kitchen counter, if they would have been stored upright and turned maybe results would have been improved.

Since the purpose of me starting this thread was to review this incubator I may as well get back to that, I give it 2 thumbs up, lol. I think it is a good first time incubator, gave me good results as long as I did my part, only thing bad about it is none of the built in thermometers or hygrometer work. But I think that is common with this style incubator.

 

[fuzziecreatures]

Removing the plugs would lower your humidity unless you had very high humidity in your house, if you are having trouble maintaining it then you would want to leave in a plug or 2 but you will have to remove them eventually to ensure the chicks have air. When I added my eggs my humidity skyrocketed, I even opened the lid a couple times to knock it down to the 35ish range, it took a few days to get into the 20s and that is where it seemed to want to stay, upper 20s to mid low 30s, I didn't add water until lockdown and then it went up to around 70. I have 4 pips right now as we speak on day 19 almost to the minute. my thermometer read between 98 and 100 through almost the entire hatch but it must have ran a little warm for them to be wanting to hatch on day 19. How many eggs did you set? My first attempt I only set half the capacity and had trouble maintaining humidity but with this full batch it held itself fine with the moisture from the eggs.

The humidity in the house is 47%, so with 2 plugs out I don't have to add water every day. The humidity is usually around 25% for several days then it will drop and I'll add about a tsp of h2o again.I have to figure out how to increase humidity in less than 2 weeks though. I was thinking wet clean sponge. How wet though? Sunday, 4/13, was 1 week since set. 10 out of 19 set eggs were developing. 6 eggs look like something might be going on, 1 bad egg, 1 cracked egg that I missed, 1 definitely didn't have anything going on. Sunday, the temp bumped up a little. From a steady 99.5-99.8 range to 100.8-101. I don't know if it was because it has been warm the last couple days. Though today it was snowing, ugh. So my husband has been watching it, and making sure it isn't going over.

 

[A roo or two]

The humidity in the house is 47%, so with 2 plugs out I don't have to add water every day. The humidity is usually around 25% for several days then it will drop and I'll add about a tsp of h2o again.I have to figure out how to increase humidity in less than 2 weeks though. I was thinking wet clean sponge. How wet though? Sunday, 4/13, was 1 week since set. 10 out of 19 set eggs were developing. 6 eggs look like something might be going on, 1 bad egg, 1 cracked egg that I missed, 1 definitely didn't have anything going on. Sunday, the temp bumped up a little. From a steady 99.5-99.8 range to 100.8-101. I don't know if it was because it has been warm the last couple days. Though today it was snowing, ugh. So my husband has been watching it, and making sure it isn't going over

It is surface area, so it doesn't matter who wet the sponge it. It just lasts longer if it is full of water, but not dripping, instead of squeezing it out. Mine has been around 25 also with no water added. I did put a 0.5 square piece of wet sponge in the other day when it dropped to 23 and now I sit at about 32/33. I just soak it again when I see it start dropping below 30. I am at week one week today.

I use a tube to run down through one of the vents and put it through the wire and into the water channel and use a syringe to fill my channels during lock down if I need it. I also use a sponge directly below a vent hole so I can squirt that too.

Just be sure to use warm water, cold water will drop your temp some, not much but some.

 

[A roo or two]

Just moved to the brooder, ended up with 26 chicks total maybe 25 idk hard to count with them chasing all over the place. I have 11 in the incubator still just waiting to see if they are late hatchers though I don't hear peeping so I think they are dead. I had 3 die during hatch which I am attributing to leaving the chicks in there with them, the eggs were all pushed around and pieces of the hatched shells were stuck to the hatching eggs possibly preventing the chicks from getting out, next time I am either taking the chicks out as they hatch or devising some sort of holders to keep the eggs from rolling about. I figure I got about a 66% hatch, that is if none of the 11 that are left hatch, not bad for the first time. Also I didn't do anything special with these eggs before the incubation, just left them sit in the egg basket on the kitchen counter, if they would have been stored upright and turned maybe results would have been improved.

Since the purpose of me starting this thread was to review this incubator I may as well get back to that, I give it 2 thumbs up, lol. I think it is a good first time incubator, gave me good results as long as I did my part, only thing bad about it is none of the built in thermometers or hygrometer work. But I think that is common with this style incubator.

I wouldn't remove chicks that have hatched. I made that error this last time. I decided as long as no other eggs had external pips I was going to remove the hatchlings to prevent them from bowling the other eggs all over the place. Well even though the eggs were NOT externally pipped I ended up with 11 shrink wrapped babies

This time I am going to take each egg and use a tie strap and make a circle and place each egg in its own circle to see if that prevents them from being rolled all over.

I agree I think it is a good first timers incubator also. Yep, that's apparently very common so I just use my own.

 

[realtreegirl]

Just use egg carton to keep them from knocking the eggs around I am gonna try it this weekend for my hatch.

 

[Joplus]

Just use egg carton to keep them from knocking the eggs around I am gonna try it this weekend for my hatch.

How do you plan on using the egg carton? Like the whole egg pointy end down? Please elaborate

 

[blucoondawg]

Set the eggs in egg cartons during lockdown

 

[realtreegirl]

Just cut the bottoms of the cartons out for airflow and set pointy end down as you would in a turner. From what I read it works excellent...so I am giving it a try. Search it there is tons of info on the site.

 

[blucoondawg]

I don't see the point in cutting out the bottoms. I'd rather leave them on to help contain the mess