Newbie Hatching with Homemade Incubator

[rgvchicks]

Hello, I made an incubator out of a 10 gallon aquarium. Covered top lid with aluminum foil and on center added a bulb socket with a 60 watt bulb (no thermostat). I bought a digital thermometer/humidity and layed it flat right under the bulb and had it running for 48 hrs max temp 103 during the day and 98.4 during the night I calibrated the temps by punching holes on aluminum foil with pencil and brought it down to 101.9 during day and kept it at 98.4-98.7 by covering holes with tape during the night. I assumed everything was up and running and added 25 fertile eggs from my English Gamefowl Flock and "boom" temp went down to 92 degrees when i added the eggs, that was today 2/1/2012 at 5pm central time. It's 7:15 pm right now and temp has gone up to 94 degrees. I'm new at incubation and hatching eggs, this is 1st time to be honest, I read that temp was going to go down when eggs were to be added on the incubator and they had to settle down to the temp of incubator. My question is how long will it take to reach the temp needed as i had regulated the incubator and if this will damage the eggs if it takes long to reach the incubating temp....thanks....rgvchicks

P.S. Humidity has been ranging from 60% to 79% ....added a small pan with water

9:23pm = 95.7 degrees

1:00am = 99.5 degrees

1:55am = 100 degrees

7:45am = 101.8 degrees

 

[tmoore8595]

It will take a while for the temp. to recover after adding eggs. You not only lost the heat by opening the door but the eggs will have to heat up too. This could take several hours and it will not hurt the eggs. The danger would be trying to readjust the temp. and getting the eggs too hot.
Your humidity is TOO HIGH. I keep my humidity around 35 to 40% for the first 18 days and raise it to 75 or 80% for the last 3 days.

 

[quintinp]

Yeah, your incubator isn't really airtight, so I would suggest taking all water out of it completely, or moving the water dish to the opposite side of the heating element (light). The light is heating the water very fast, and is making the water evaporate quickly and bringing the humidity up very high.

 

[rgvchicks]

thanks for your tip......i removed the water dish and replaced it with a bottlecap with a teaspoon of water on the other corner of the aquarium.....humidity 30%-35%....i also added a dimmer instead of a thermostat and and a computer fannow have temp at 99.5 -100...hopefully humidity and temp remain stable

 

[rgvchicks]

I just candled my 25 eggs and out of the 25 i was able to see blood veins on 20 of them....i guess everyting is going ok.....dimmer tops 100.4 degrees and then drops to 99.4 sometimes 99.3 and then goes up again to the 100 mark....central air is running at 79 inside the house and no fan is running in the room where the bator is located....so i guess i'm ok

 

[whytedragon]

You sound perfect! Just be real wary of house temperature..as this can definitely affect your bator temperature.
Your incubator is awesome!

 

[rgvchicks]

Update on Homemade Incubator: It Works....2 chicks have hatched during the night.....18 more to go for all this day (day 21)

 

[quintinp]

Awesome! Keep the Humidity very HIGH. Keep it at about 60-75%. Place a large pan of water about 3 inches below the light to bring the humidity up high. Good luck, I have 24 eggs in my old galvanized metal incubator. I can't wait for them to start hatching.