New to incubating eggs HELP

[mommiex2xx]

I have a LG still air incubator without the fan. I do have the egg turner as well. I got the thermomter that came with the incubator to stay at a steady 100 degrees. I put the eggs in and filled the water troughs with water. I see alot of people talk abotu wigglers and stuff. What all should i do to get a good hatch? Help please Thanks

 

[chichi56788]

I also just started Incubating recently and have the LG. I dont have the egg turner though. I dont use water wrigglers and my hatch is going good. I recommend is keeping an eye on the temp because it fluctuates alot in my LG and make sure to keep the humidity at the right level. Also, during lockdown, I dont lower the temperature because I can never get it stable after that. Good Luck!

 

[rebecky1305]

A good place to start is at the top of this forum. There is a link that says "Learning Center"- follow to "How to pages". You can find lots of info there. And the wonderful BYCers here are also a great source of info. Good Luck and Happy Hatching.

 

[mommiex2xx]

My temp has stayed right at 100 or 99.5 how do I know I have the humidty right though? Thats my big question. Also how do I get water in the troughs with the egg turner in the way?

 

[kjhowe77]

Well I don't have any advice to offer since I am on day 3 of my first hatch in my homemade incubator. I just wanted to say good luck!

 

[Kedreeva]

Well there's absolutely zero you can do to have a good hatch if you start with bad eggs, so there's your starting point.

As for the incubator itself, LG bators tend to have a hard time holding their temperatures if exposed to any element. Keep it someplace where it won't be in direct sunlight, near drafts, doors that open and close a lot, and where the room temp stays fairly level through the day. Your temps should stay close to 99-100 through the hatch and you don't really need to lower them for the hatch if you can maintain humidity.

There's a wide range of opinions on humidity, but I think anywhere from 30% for a 'dry' hatch to 40-50% will be ok for a hatch. You'll want to increase it to around 60-65% for the actual hatch.

On day 18 of incubation, your incubator will go on 'lockdown'. You will remove them from the auto turner, place them on their sides in the bottom of the incubator, shut the lid and not open it again until your chicks are hatched (or need help hatching, which you should not have to do if your conditions prior went all right).

Make sure that around Day 10, at least, you candle the eggs to check for bad eggs. A bad egg (one that has bacteria, dead chick, or other things wrong with it) are possible incubator bombs; they may actually literally explode in your incubator with a horrible POP, spraying a disgusting and insanely stinky mess all over your good eggs. If you need help on candling, there are plenty of guides to look at on this forum.

Good luck with the hatch!

 

[dusterbd]

I have to poor the water in between the trays of the egg turner in the incubator I have very carefully. Also I got the temp and humidity reader they sell at wal-mart alot don't recommend them but I am positive the temp is right on because it reads the same as the thermometer that came with the egg turner. Also the humidity part to the one I bought at wal-mart also reads the same as the one I got for my geckos which was one of the more exspensive ones. I hope this helps some and good luck

 

[mommiex2xx]

What can I get and where can i get from to make sure my humidity is ok? and where do I stick it in the incubator

 

[Penturner]

The wiggler is something people do to try and get an idea of what the temp might be inside an egg. Since incubator temps have been developed for the air temperature not the egg temperature I am not sure it is helpful.

Do your best to keep the temp and humidity where you need it to be. A lot of incubating is getting used to your incubator. They all seem to act a little different. Keeping the foam style bators in a room that has a stable temperature helps a lot in keeping the incubator stable. I have seen comments that adding some weight to the top of some of them helps with stable temps and humidity as well. It seems the lids are a little leaky and it does not take much to loose humidity.

As for a successful hatch. All you can do is your best to keep the recommended conditions. I honestly recommend you just run the incubator for a week or so before adding any eggs. once you get a feel for the incubator then add eggs and do your best to keep it all stable. You will eventually learn what works best and develop a feel for what will hurt the hatch and what does not. It does not require a perfect incubation to get a good hatch. the recommendations are targets not absolutes. I have tweeked my incubation to a fairly high degree and a hen can still make me look like a wannabe.

Finally keep it simple and don't worry about all the fancy gizmos that people use. you can start using them later when you have a feel for what works and what does not.

 

[Kedreeva]

Quote:
You can buy a hygrometer at any pet store, or get one online. I use one from petco, just walk in and tell them you need something to measure humidity in a tank. They will happily direct you to the right place.

Since my auto turner is made of plastic, I actually just pour the water through the cracks between the racks to where I know the troughs are, being careful not to pour it over the eggs.