newbie at incubating, I have ?'s

[silkieflock]

so by 1 week, I should know if I have fertile eggs or if they all died?

 

[Omani]

My Husband bought me a little giant incubator (9200) for christmas.

We are considering getting the automatic egg turner, but I don't mind doing it manually. When the directions say "small end down", or lay on it's side,"small end lower", what are they talking about?
These are our first chickens and our first attempt at hatching our own. This is a very interesting thread!

 

[silkieflock]

the large end of the egg is where the head of the chick is. If you put large end down, the chick would be upside down and will die.
if you havn't started your eggs yet, make sure your incubator is at the right temperature and humidity.

 

[Jimmiaandboys]

Great thread to keep an eye on!!! Great questions, some I should've asked two months ago. I'm hoping to hatch eggs in another month or two. My 1st and only attempt wasn't successful-most of the 7 eggs were fertile, 3 were fully developed-my humidity was too low-and they weren't able to hatch.

I'm still bummed about that but now have an accurate thermometer/hygrometer for next time and I'll take some more notes. Keep it coming!

 

[silkieflock]

Quote:
I believe I am more of a newbie than you. I am really interested in this so I suck in all the details like a sponge. I am learning as I go and hope there are experienced people watching this thread.

 

[Taylor]

I have hatched hundreds in the (9200). I also have a egg turner and the optional fan. I would reccomend having both of these

 

[silkieflock]

I priced an incubator and about fell over. $150.00+
I just couldn't justify that. I don't know how often I will use it and it would take a long time for the chickens to pay for it.
I built my own.

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
For $66.90 I can get a GQF Hovabator 1602 shipped to my door here in south Alabama from Cutler Supply in Michigan. This is a basic still-air incubator...no frills. It uses a ether-filled wafer thermostat and a micro-switch...thousands (millions?) of birds have been incubated used this type of thermostat/switch setup.

For another thirty bucks an auto-egg-turner could be added and the cost would still probably be under $100.

The 2362 incubator kit that includes the 1602 incubator, fan kit, and an auto-turner costs around $135 shipped.

Or, if you wanted to go whole-hawg you could get the Genesis 1588 with egg-turner for around $175 shipped.

The basic (no fan, no turner) Little Giant incubators at Tractor Supply (TSC) I think cost around $50.

I'm not sure what you were looking at for $150, but it must have been one of the more upper end styrofoam ones.

Whatever the case is, the incubator must have the ability to keep a constant temperature within a fracton of a degree of your target temperature 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 3 weeks. It doesn't have to be a store bought incubator but if it's a DIY one it still must keep the temperature (and humidity) stable....a constant bouncing around of just a couple of degrees will wreck havoc on the hatch.

One thing with the store-bought incubators is that they've pretty well been field-tested and proven to work (more or less) and it's up to the user to operate them correctly. Sure, there's a problem with them sometimes, but by and large they take a lot of testing and stressing out of the equation for the person who is new to incubating.

What type of thermostat did you get for your incubator...wafer or hot-water heater or...?

Take care,
Ed

 

[silkieflock]

I used a waterheater thermostat but it varies so much that i don't trust it. I put the right # of vent holes that I can keep it between 99.7-101.5 . my humidity had been staying between 35%-44% . I think I have been extremely lucky so far except for the fact that I might have killed all of my eggs with the 108 degree temp spike when I was first starting the eggs. This has been a experiment for me before I do my silkies eggs.

 

[Intheswamp]

silkieflock, you might be interested in this information....Water Heater Thermostat Modification .

This person drilled some small holes in the black bakelite (plastic) housing of the thermostat to allow better airflow to get to the thermal disc more easily. It is reported by this person and others who have since tried this that it works very well in leveling out temperature swings and producing a more stable, usuable temperature. It might be worth looking into.

When you state temperatures are you talking about inside the water wiggler or air temperature?

Ed