Oh my gosh, what have I done?

[The Gotfeather]

Typical picky bloody virgo, of course I am right, couldn’t wait like any sensible person would do.
Hi folks, welcome to the travesty that is my life. I was in the process of fine tuning my incubator made out of an old esky with thermostat, light, pc fan and a cheap digital thermometer. I am a-waiting the arrival of what I hope is a better thermometer with an hygrometer via e-bay. The temp was settling down to 37dC and had done so for several hours when I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to set three eggs.
I don’t even have a mister so I quickly dunk the eggs in water and place them in the ‘bator and then dunk a sponge in the water as well and drop it in the bottom of the ‘bator. Oh bugger, no aeration, so I drill 3 holes, 2 lower ones and one higher one, all pencil diameter so they can be easily blocked.

An hour later and it is reading a fraction high, 38dC. No decimals in this model. I am not too concerned. One because it is just a trial but more importantly the amount of possible error in the measurement should make it safe over time, I hope.
I am staking the life in these three eggs on this quote ‘ Adequate humidity - dont worry about absolute values - just make you have a constant supply of moisture in the eggs - something i to is to spray the eggs with a hand held mister - from the $2 shop. If the moisture is quickly sucked into the eggs then its too low - if it lingers more than a minute its about right. If it stays beaded on the egg shell then its too high - its no more complicated than that.’
It is working for me.

Cheers, Dalles Hayes

 

[walkswithdog]

Man I'd hate to have to mess with humidity to that extent! Best of luck with the hatch!!! Here in Tennessee in the US where I live I don't even have to mess with humidity at all. They run on ambient air humidity and hatch well, without additional moisture. I check them at candling for proper development and worry little at all.

I'd go a little nuts having to mist eggs. I find it fascinating how things differ from region to region. The eggs I have now are in a homemade incubator sitting on my desktop next to the computer.

Keep us up on your progress!!!

 

[Cherlyn]

Quote:
It really is fascinating, seeing how those from different countries go about the incubation process!

~Cherlyn

 

[The Gotfeather]

Hi walkswithdog I am not misting the eggs to manage the humidity but more to check the humidity as I am still waiting for my hygrometer/thermometer to come in the post.

At this stage I am ironing out the bugs in our homemade 'bator and the three eggs I have in are our backyard girls so no major loss if they don't work out.

As we are only 2/3 the way through day 2 and the temp is holding steady (hasn't budged from 37 degree C) and the humidity seems fine according to my 3 eggometer there is not much more to report. I have a pc fan in there that cuts in and out on regular intervals.

Looking forward to candling some eggs though.

Will keep you up dated.

Cheers, Dalles

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
Hi Dalles, your fan should run constantly. Otherwise, you get hot and cold spots, and when it's not running, the heat will rise to the top.

What's the humidity where you are? Here, it runs around 65%-70% this time of year. That's what allows me (and a lot of others) to incubate with no water added at all until the last three days, and then only a little, for mine. I get 45% inside the incubator with no water added. I add a little to get up to about 55% the last 3 days.

If your average ambient humidity is high, you're probably fine with no water added at all, at least for the first week or so.

 

[The Gotfeather]

The latest update on my backyard 'bator.

I have been very busy building chook coops and fine tuning the 'bator. I can now add water without opening the lid, I have a turning mechanism of sorts, not automatic, may have to be combined with turning by hand. My hygrometer has arrived and is in the bag with the super saturated salt solution until 6am when I will eagerly check it's accuracy.

Apart from that all is well, the temp has been constant, 37-38 except for the occasional hiccup like the power going off for an hour. I attempted candle power, 1 small candle could only keep it at 30 degrees. It is good to know, if they were important eggs I would possibly put 2 candles in 2 get the temp back up. It was a good test run as it is our windy time of year and we are likely to lose power occasionally for the next month or so.

Will let you know how the hygrometer goes and then I can start the fun game of balancing the humidity, thanks to 2txmedics info that shouldn't be too hard.

At least I hope not, I have a dozen bantam wyandotte eggs arriving at the end of next week. Frank, from Cradoc (an area nearby) has offered to incuabate eggs for me and I will probably get him to do these eggs for me while I run a full batch of my backyard eggs through the 'bator to fully test it out.

 

[The Gotfeather]

Oh my!!! I am stunned/speechless, it is akin to being told you are going to be a father, for the fourth time.

I candled my eggs at day 10, you might remember, the three sacrificial eggs in my home-made incubator.

Well having never incubated before and never candled before when I saw movement within one of the eggs it was like watching my children on an ultra sound. My heart is still racing, what a surprise, my very own little bundle of feathers.

Boring up-date on the incubator, temp holding steady around 37.5 and humidity around 35%.

Wow, roll on lockdown!

Cheers Dalles.

 

[beckychick]

thank you, as I don't have a way of detecting humidity, I will check by spraying the eggs now.

 

[The Gotfeather]

The almost final but inevitable sad tale of my 3 experimental eggs.
Day 22 finishes at 8pm tonight, I have just opened the two eggs that I had not seen any definite life when candling. One egg had no sign of a developing embryo at all, I am guessing it was infertile. The other egg had a very small developing embryo inside.
What really surprised me was no bad smells. I was expecting both eggs to smell disgusting.
Anyway one egg remaining, I won’t leave it much longer. I will most likely dissect it tonight, when my wife is home. As she is a maths/science teacher she will possibly like to see what is inside. This is the egg that did show life at day 10 but there has been no sign since.