Need Advice On Incubation with a Little Giant

[aharrris34]

Hello All, I am needing help with getting my eggs to hatch.

I was given a Little Giant Still Air Incubator with automatic egg turner for Christmas last year. I have tried multiple times to hatch eggs, but have not been successful. I have only had a few to develop past the initial stage and none to hatch. I make sure to set it up and run for a day to bring it up to temperature, which I have set at 101. I bought an additional thermometer to make sure that temperature was correct. The humidity reads low (40-45%) despite trying to add extra water to keep it up. I have tried placing wash clothes, a small cup of water, and my dad's suggestion of misting them with water, to make sure the humidity stays in range. I am not sure what else to try so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. On a side note, the eggs are fertile. The chickens were able to hatch them. However, I would like to be able to hatch them in the incubator as well. Thank you in advance.

 

[dragonthehunter]

try the Dry incubation method and maybe a lower temperature

 

[feedman77]

X2 on the dry incubation.

I had a 9300 and a 10300.

some issues I had.
thermometer on incubator had to be set at 104 to maintain 100 in the incubator.

temp differences in the corners of up to 6 degrees high and low.

all temps were checked with a brinsea spot check.

humidity indicator read 35 to 40 percent whether the incubator was dry or water traps were full.

with what you are putting in for water amounts sounds like you are drowning them.

I cooked or lost several batches of eggs. with mine.

since it's still air the temp should be 101 taken at top of eggs.

to combat the hot and cold spots rotate eggs from outside areas to inside areas every couple days.

I dry incubate as long as humidity doesn't go below 20 I don't worry about it. if it does I'll just add a tablespoon or so of water.

at day 18 for chicken eggs I then fill water traps so humidity is 70 to 80 percent. and let them hatch.

the lgs take a lot of tuning and trials to find out what works best.

 

[aharrris34]

Thank you. I had never heard of dry incubation. I will give it a try.

 

[mandelyn]

The air gets thick with the still air incubators, running it dry or near dry should help out a lot. I had a lot of success with mine once I had the kinks worked out, but it was so frustrating I upgraded to digital model with a fan. Talk about set and go!

In the still air, I didn't put eggs along the edges or corners, more grouped into the middle.

No water until hatch time, depending on room humidity. Running a humidifier in the room helps when the heat is on for winter hatches. Otherwise the room humidity can drop to 20% depending on the heat source. The room it's in needs to be consistent, not near a window, not near spots where air temps can swing.

When I used it in cold weather I would wrap it in towels (drafty house) to keep a better temperature consistency.

It can take 3 days to fully calibrate it, and changes are slow to be reflected. 1/4 turn adjustments to temperature, can take 3 hours to reflect if it was too much or too little.

 

[BantyChooks]

Hello All, I am needing help with getting my eggs to hatch.

I was given a Little Giant Still Air Incubator with automatic egg turner for Christmas last year. I have tried multiple times to hatch eggs, but have not been successful. I have only had a few to develop past the initial stage and none to hatch. I make sure to set it up and run for a day to bring it up to temperature, which I have set at 101. I bought an additional thermometer to make sure that temperature was correct. The humidity reads low (40-45%) despite trying to add extra water to keep it up. I have tried placing wash clothes, a small cup of water, and my dad's suggestion of misting them with water, to make sure the humidity stays in range. I am not sure what else to try so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. On a side note, the eggs are fertile. The chickens were able to hatch them. However, I would like to be able to hatch them in the incubator as well. Thank you in advance.

Hi,
I agree with what others have said about running a much lower humidity for the first 18 days of incubation. Try 30% and adjust from there according to air cells.

101.5 is the optimum temperature for still air, but only when measured at the TOP of the egg. Where are you setting the thermometers? Have you calibrated them?

I killed my first batch of eggs in my LG by setting the thermometer at the wrong level. Fixed it and I had a 91% hatch rate the very next time. Good luck!

 

[mich9510]

I have a LG still air that I just added a small fan to an it really helped. I lay the fan down in the middle so it is blowig the air directly up. Circulates the air wonderfully. I also put some rocks in the corners to help keep a more consistent temp throughout. And each time I turn the eggs ( by hand) I switch their position in the incubator so if one area is cooler/warmer it can be corrected. Also several different kitchen thermometers (calibrated of course). I have several hygrometers but they all say different humidifies (even when adjusted based on calibration). So I just weigh the eggs. It takes a little more work but for me its the best option. My LG is a digital one though.
I have a hovabator still air with the nob you turn and I hate it. I've had eggs hatch with it but it seems like I'm constantly turning the darn nob all day long to try to get it right, which it never is. Even with the fan. I don't even like to use it as a hatcher because the heating element can burn the little guys. I'm probably going to build an incubator eventually but I have so many other projects right now.... Good luck!

 

[aharrris34]

Thank you guys for all the responses. I did try the dry incubation. I still was unsuccessful at getting any to hatch. On a positive note, of 17 eggs, 2 did form but did not hatch. (After giving the eggs 4 extra days to hatch, I gave up because I was afraid of deformities. However, this is most I have ever had form.) And at least part of them did develop past the first week. I filled two of the chambers at day 18 afraid of adding too much water, but this may have been too small amount. I will keep experimenting. I have raised the the themometer by a 1/4 of an inch and added some small rocks to the corners to help control the temps ture better.

Again, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[BantyChooks]

What was humidity at lockdown?

70% RH is ideal.

 

[aharrris34]

What was humidity at lockdown?

70% RH is ideal.

That I do not know exactly. I went based up what the hygrometer on the incubator read, which was 65% after adding water. It then returned to 45%, but I assumed it was high enough. I just use an old school mercury themometer to measure temperature.