not impressed by the LG - need advice

[flood]

That's great! I hope they all hatch. Are you posting over on the hatching in Nov. thread? I like seeing everyone's chicks but have a hard time following specific people around the boards.I just browse...and loose a lot of time. One of my eggs hatched a few days ago and many others are peeping now so it looks like the LG did work this time around.

 

[OperationHatch]

I'm on day 20 and am fighting with humidity, i set my alarm for every 3 hours during the night in order to keep the humidity on point. If this was happening during the week, I don't know what i would do lol. I hope to get some good results. My second set go into lockdown tomorrow

 

[lhawes]

I have two LG incubators and just hatched our first group of 4!! Well... 3 of them have hatched so far. They went into lockdown on 11/14 and were due to hatch tomorrow. I haven't had any problems with them yet. We have never hatched before so are very excited to have a 75% hatch rate so far... hoping for 100%

We have one LG with an egg turner in it for incubation. We do not have a fan. Humidity stayed around 30-40% and temp at 99-100. We even had the power go out for an unknown number of hours, and they still were fine. The temp dropped to 70s and the humidity jumped to 60% when that happened. I kept the plugs in the whole time because if I took them out the humidity would drop below 25%.

I did have a little trouble getting the humidity right for lockdown. I plugged in the second LG that we have a few days before lockdown to mess with the humidity. I ended up using a couple wash clothes rolled up with one end laying over the water channels at the bottom. That still didn't get it higher than 60%, so I found a couple small tupperware dish tops and put some water in there under the hardware cloth wire filled with water. That brought me up to 65-70% which has worked fine. Each egg that hatched the temp went up slightly and the humidity did as well. I kept the plugs in for lockdown too, but when the humidity went up passed 75% and the temp past 100 I would open them for about an hour.

So far I am happy with the LG despite what I have seen others say about it. For a first timer it has worked great!!

 

[OperationHatch]

I'm thinking that my issues may have been because it was a brand new incubator. temps are probably harder to regulate striaght out of the box. I have a pip today so I'm excited.

 

[lhawes]

Both of ours are new out of the box too... Because of the bad things I have heard about them, I kept the boxes in case we had problems, I would have taken them back!

Good luck with your hatch!! It has been very exciting seeing them hatch so far... I can clearly say I think I may be addicted

 

[Pele]

I'm glad your hatch is going well. If you have a home that fluctuates temp a lot, you may want to consider making your own heat sink for your incubator. I get a small tupperware cup, fill it with warm water, a dab of bleach, then snap the lid on. When inside the incubator, it will stabilize temperature fluctuations and slow them waaaaaaaaaaaay down.

Cheap, easy, and made from the materials on hand, just like I like my incubator supplies .

 

[OperationHatch]

wow, no one has suggested that, I will defintely try that when this set is all done. We heat our house using a pellet stove so the temperatures do fluxuate a lot more than they would a house that uses a furnace. Does it matter the size or amount of water?

 

[Pele]

wow, no one has suggested that, I will defintely try that when this set is all done. We heat our house using a pellet stove so the temperatures do fluxuate a lot more than they would a house that uses a furnace. Does it matter the size or amount of water?

The size does matter. The larger the container and amount of water, the more effective it is at holding temperatures steady. If I have a small hatch, I actually put in several cups evenly distributed throughout. You can actually even out the temperature of the bator that way too if you don't have a forced air unit. Always seal them though, so they don't affect your humidity.

Just remember that it slows temp changes down to a crawl, so you'll have to set up your incubator several days in advance. The last time I set up it took two days for the incubator reach ideal temperature because anytime I adjusted it, I had to wait hours to see the results. Starting off with warm water in the containters helps.

 

[flood]

I have two LG incubators and just hatched our first group of 4!! Well... 3 of them have hatched so far. They went into lockdown on 11/14 and were due to hatch tomorrow. I haven't had any problems with them yet. We have never hatched before so are very excited to have a 75% hatch rate so far... hoping for 100%

We have one LG with an egg turner in it for incubation. We do not have a fan. Humidity stayed around 30-40% and temp at 99-100. We even had the power go out for an unknown number of hours, and they still were fine. The temp dropped to 70s and the humidity jumped to 60% when that happened. I kept the plugs in the whole time because if I took them out the humidity would drop below 25%.

I did have a little trouble getting the humidity right for lockdown. I plugged in the second LG that we have a few days before lockdown to mess with the humidity. I ended up using a couple wash clothes rolled up with one end laying over the water channels at the bottom. That still didn't get it higher than 60%, so I found a couple small tupperware dish tops and put some water in there under the hardware cloth wire filled with water. That brought me up to 65-70% which has worked fine. Each egg that hatched the temp went up slightly and the humidity did as well. I kept the plugs in for lockdown too, but when the humidity went up passed 75% and the temp past 100 I would open them for about an hour.

So far I am happy with the LG despite what I have seen others say about it. For a first timer it has worked great!!

Wow that is a great hatch rate. I envy you and I bet with that rate you could easily get addicted! I will keep your post as notes of a good hatch. I also appreciate Pele's contribution. Thanks for adding these to this LG thread.

 

[lhawes]

Number 4 just hatched!!! So for our very first ever hatch we got a 100% hatch rate! Super excited and hope that our next several hatches are as successful. Unfortunately I am sure there will be some loss and I am going to be sad . We have 4 due to hatch 11/27, 2 on 12/3, and 10 on 12/7. Not sure how many more yet!