Needing some suggestion on my homemade incubator...How can I get steady humidity?What is a good gene

[msheets1975]

The temp stays very steady but the humidity drops to 40%...I had a bigger water tray in there and it was too high(I think) What is a good average humidity level?

 

[quintinp]

Where's the thermostat.

You need something to control the temperature first!

After that, you should probably get a bowl that can't melt and fill it with water, and place it under the bulb.

The bulb heats the water, which produces a lot of evaporation and brings the humidity up very high.

What are your plans to turning the eggs?

 

[msheets1975]

I'm not using a thermostat,I installed a dimmer switch for my light and the temp seems to be holding very stable at 100.The tip to move the water may prove helpful though...Humidity is at 50% and steady,Is that a safe set?

 

[msheets1975]

Oh...and for a turner I'm building an auto rack that will be operated by a rotisserie motor to turn the eggs from a 45 degree angle to the opposing 45 degrees.The thing I question with my design is this: If I set my motor with a timer to turn the eggs every three hours or so will it be okay for them to turn back and forth for a full hour???My timer runs for 1 hr each time it turns the motor on.The movement will be very slow and smooth so can I assume this is okay?

 

[bairo]

your fine at 50% only need to raise it at day 19. At day 19 pull your water bowl out and refill with very hot water and add a small sponge to that bowl as well. Close it all up and dont touch or open the lid again until everybody hatches. I believe in the so called dry hatch method and my humidity ranges from 45-60 percent the first 17-19 days when I add my water and sponge and it shoots to 80 pretty quick. Ive averaged 90% hatch rates over several hundred eggs.

 

[shelby528]

Honestly, i start all my hatches at 50% except ducks and my chicks hatch at 60% the last 3 days i pump my bator full of water whichever ways i can to help them little ones get out of their shells.

 

[aaajjss1]

50 % ifs good until day 19, beware the dimmer switch, I tried that with my first homemade bator, temp spiked and dropped with room temp changes and I had zero hatch, 2nd time I used a reptile thermostat which worked ok, then I moved to water heater thermostat which is way less costly.good luck,¡

 

[bairo]

yep... the temp is another thing, but I figured I would let you try. Its been done before but I would put it in a place with no temp changes and no drafts. It is a tough way to hatch

 

[scastle]

looks like me and you have the same incu. except i have a hotwater heater thermo. in ky our temp. fluxuates 70 in the day and 35 at nite. how do you keep temp the same? i average 94 to 101 and i told thats to much.

 

[WalkingWolf1]

For $25 the wafer is an easy fix. My ice-chest bator works great with one. For the price of a dozen shipped eggs you can rest easy the your temps will be fine. Remeber, one good temp spike and the eggs are fried.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/22-AMP-WAFE...646?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item588aebd246


For raising the humidity -- I took some hardware cloth and folded in a U shape and made a shelf that was about 4 inches tall. On this I sat a tupperware (4X4) with water. I also had (2) 1/2 pint mason jars of water. In yours you could set the jars on each side of the light.

good luck