new Hovabator unboxed and warming up

[rottlady]

I have not incubated eggs since the 80's, but back then I raised a TON of Button quail. almost always had a batch going.

My new Hovabator still air is a lot different than the one I had back then. My old one was round and no plastic water tray

The current instructions say ideal room temperature is 70-80 OMG LOL ya that is not happening. My house is 57. Back when I incubated the Button quail in the 80's my apt was maybe 60-65 MAYBE and certainly not in the winter!

Been running incubator a couple hours now and we have not yet hit 80, hope it gets with the program soon, I have 6 eggs coming tonight and another 16 on Wed

 

[rottlady]

2 hours later it is up to 79. This version seems MUCH slower to heat up than the one I had in the 80's. That one I could plug in and in an hour put eggs in it as it was up to temp

 

[rottlady]

not feeling very confident. 8 hours later and I'm barely at 89

I NEVER had trouble easily getting to temperature with my old Hovabator and my apt was not that much warmer

 

[darkbluespace]

Is there a small room you could make warmer? Bathroom, closet??

 

[rottlady]

Is there a small room you could make warmer? Bathroom, closet??

nope the whole house is cold. 70+% of the house is not insulated or under insulated and it was 10F outside this am when I got up 22 right now (58 in house)

I have a heating pad under it to reheat after opening and a blanket over 1/2
It got to and stayed 100 all night long so I put the eggs in this am and it is currently re warming with both incubator and heating pad running. finally 1 1/2 hr later it is back to 90 and still climbing so should be back to 100 by the 2 hr mark

I know for a fact the model I had in the 80's had no problems getting to or re warming to temp in my totally uninsulated barn loft apt, so I wonder what they changed

 

[darkbluespace]

I have a wood stove heated (often unheated) house too. I made my own incubators with a light bulb and thermostat in styrofoam coolers and they keep at temp pretty well. I am sure there are other post if you search about folks dealing with the same thing. I have heard of people putting the incubator inside a larger box to help also.

 

[rottlady]

I put a heating pad under it to help reheat just after I open to turn eggs and I covered 1/2 of the incubator with a blanket and so far it has held steady at 100 since lunch time

 

[rottlady]

I was turning the eggs 5 times a day but having trouble maintaining temp, switched to 3 times a day and covered 1/2 the incubator with a blanket and it is now easily maintaining 100

 

[rottlady]

Tried to Candle eggs last night, dropped an egg this am

so I just dropped an egg turning it. Cracked shell but did not break inner lining so trying the glue trick and it is sitting in the egg carton that I shift side to side with the Legbar eggs in it. That works some of the time. ​

On the plus side it was an egg I had candled last night and was about 80% sure was a clear (no sign of life) I got out a brighter flashlight and had better luck this try​

Today is day 7 for the Barnevelder eggs so should be seeing life in them. I have signs of life for sure in 6, 3 are too dark a shell for me to see in and 3 "look" clear. ​

Of the younger eggs (day 4- Delawares and legbars-16 total) I have 4 with def veining started but will recheck on thurs (day 7) These are the most important eggs so would suck if their hatch rate was terrible, but the 4 legbars had a bad trip and both boxes went through really cold weather. ​

If I ever order eggs again I'll pay the extra $10.35 for handwalking the boxes instead of mail bags and carts​

the 4 poodle chickens (Sizzles) are not ready to check (day 2)​

 

[rottlady]

could not wait til Thurs LOL so re candled just the Delawares and looks like I have 12 live eggs out of 15 at day 5, not tossing any yet have seen far too many tossed too early