- Jun 1, 2011
- 2
- 0
- 7
I hatched my first batch of chicks with a forced air Hova Bator last week. Now, nothing is perfect and I'm sure this is one of the better incubators on the market. However I noticed what might be a flaw.
It's obvious with a forced air, that certain areas of the incubator have a really good breeze going from the fan. You can tell from hatched chicks that in certain areas their fuzz is blowing like crazy from the fan. Now, having said that, my first egg that showed signs of breaking out was still in its shell 15 hours later. Three had hatched during all this and were fine.
Nothing short of surgery, hours of chirping, and more than I want to describe was involved in trying to save this chick. I was able to save this little guy and I ended up losing other non hatched eggs in the process I'm sure.
Now I know some start and never make it out and that's just the way nature goes. However the placement of this egg was in the direct path of the breeze from the fan. (Noticed after all this was over) What I noticed was this.
A chick that is the least bit slow at all will get trapped because of this fan breeze. As soon as the chick gets a decent hole started the FAN is drying up the membrane faster than the chick can break out. It turns it into nothing short of hard rubber. I know there are other reasons (humidity, other factors etc) That can cause issues. But I'm very convinced this fan breeze is an issue.
Has anyone else noticed this? Maybe this has caused a lot of losses for people, who thought it was just nature and a chick that was not meant to be.
It's obvious with a forced air, that certain areas of the incubator have a really good breeze going from the fan. You can tell from hatched chicks that in certain areas their fuzz is blowing like crazy from the fan. Now, having said that, my first egg that showed signs of breaking out was still in its shell 15 hours later. Three had hatched during all this and were fine.
Nothing short of surgery, hours of chirping, and more than I want to describe was involved in trying to save this chick. I was able to save this little guy and I ended up losing other non hatched eggs in the process I'm sure.
Now I know some start and never make it out and that's just the way nature goes. However the placement of this egg was in the direct path of the breeze from the fan. (Noticed after all this was over) What I noticed was this.
A chick that is the least bit slow at all will get trapped because of this fan breeze. As soon as the chick gets a decent hole started the FAN is drying up the membrane faster than the chick can break out. It turns it into nothing short of hard rubber. I know there are other reasons (humidity, other factors etc) That can cause issues. But I'm very convinced this fan breeze is an issue.
Has anyone else noticed this? Maybe this has caused a lot of losses for people, who thought it was just nature and a chick that was not meant to be.