Name Change, My First Experience with Farm Innovators Bator

[realtreegirl]

So air can circulate...just a small hole through the bottom. Most os the mess stays in the shell. I use liners on the botttom of my bator to colloect all the mess. The rubber like shelf liner. But they do need air from what I have read...you should have holes in the bottom.

 

[Joplus]

I manually turn my eggs and they lay on their side. I read putting them pointy end down when they're used to being on their side is not good. I'm concerned the cardboard will absorb water. I'm in AZ, its been hard to get the humidity up.

 

[Joplus]

What do you think about oval shower curtain rings? (2.5 inches by 1.5 inches) so they stay in place, plenty of circulation (still air incubator), and remain on their side?

 

[blucoondawg]

I don't think it would make any difference. The main reason I want to use egg cartons is because I lost 3 chicks due to having broken shell pieces pushed over their eggs which prevented them from hatching. I don't see shower curtain hangers preventing that

 

[blucoondawg]

I manually turn my eggs and they lay on their side. I read putting them pointy end down when they're used to being on their side is not good. I'm concerned the cardboard will absorb water. I'm in AZ, its been hard to get the humidity up.

How would cartons absorb water they should not be setting in water so they wouldn't absorb any. You can leave the eggs in the cartons for the entire hatch rather than laying them in their side and just tilt the entire carton side to side as your turning method. Purple have left eggs in the Turner for lockdown and they hatched fine. They don't have to lay sideways

 

[fuzziecreatures]

Hoping for some help. I've been doing the dry hatch method in my incubator, which has been really easy since it doesn't seem to keep humidity well. It hasn't been an issue until now. Yesterday was day 18. I took out the turner and laid the eggs on their sides. I added water to the bottom and a wet sponge. I was able to get the humidity up to 68% overnight. This morning I added more water into the other areas in the bottom instead of the one around the center. The humidity was up to 70% before work. When I came home from work this afternoon, the humidity was down to 58%.

I added another wet sponge, problem is I have a rocking egg! What do you recommend?

 

[Joplus]

I had to go to extremes practically to get the humidity up since I live in AZ. I put jars with wet sponges but that really didn't help as much as I was hoping. I started running the Vicks vaporizer in my room and that did the trick. But also are you sure your hydrometer is right? Because you'd have to be in a super dry climate to require going to these lengths. Good luck

 

[fuzziecreatures]

I'd have to go to the store and get another one. My husband thought one would be enough. I would hate to be drowning my babies though. The temp on it is correct and when I took it out of the incubator last night to take the eggs out of the turner, it went up to 47% like before. Our dehumidifiers in the basement turn on at 52% and turn off at 45%.

I would think being right next to the aquarium, it would keep humidity easier.

In 2 hours the humidity has already dropped 2%. Am I being too anal about it? Should I just relax and let it go? How low is too low?

 

[fuzziecreatures]

I'm thinking part of my low humidity issue may be the fact that I only have 8 eggs in there. I do plan on setting about 30 after these move out to the brooder. The small brooder will be used, no sense using a brooder large enough for 75 chicks for 8 of them.

 

[fuzziecreatures]

New hydrometer says 68% 100*. Old Hydrometer says the same... ugh