Question for you Little Giant incubator owners?

[_Randall_]

The Little Giant 9200 (styrofoam) incubator has two holes in the top part with red plastic plugs in them. Instructions say to unplug "one of them" during the initial incubation period, then both the last 3 days (of quail egg incubation). Do y'all remove the plug on the one right above the fan, or the other one (during the initial incubation period)?

 

[they'reHISchickens]

um... I must have mis-read. I thought it said remove them during lockdown so mine are still in. I am running low 40s humidity with them in. Sometimes it drifts into high 30s.

 

[_Randall_]

they'reHISchickens :

um... I must have mis-read. I thought it said remove them during lockdown so mine are still in. I am running low 40s humidity with them in. Sometimes it drifts into high 30s.

Heck, I don't know..........I'm new at this

But, re-read the instructions, and it said to remove one of the plug during incubation, then both the last 3 days ......

 

[kid-n-chickens]

I removed the one above the fan/thermostat area. But During lock down I have not yet removed the second plug, trying to get humidity up. I figure with the one open and all of the small holes there is they should provide enough O2 exchange until the chicks start hatching and the humidity gets higher, then I will remove the second plug if needed to lower the humidity.

 

[easttxchick]

Now I've never hatched quail, but I removed the one above the fan when incubating chicks. And then of course, both at lockdown time.

 

[Chosen Chickens]

When I used my little giant I would keep the one that was not above the fan open since it seemed better at gas exchange since it would let more through... and humidity isn't a big deal the first 18 days... so then the last 3 days I had both off.... but I wanted to make sure that it was getting enough O2 so I removed the one not by the fan for the whole time

 

[Tala]

I removed one, but my humidity stays pretty low.
Our house stays so dry in the winter. I'm going to have to run a room humidifyer(sp?) during hatch I think.

 

[_Randall_]

Allrighty, I'm just going to do some trials before I put the eggs in (both plugs in / one out / both out) for ample durations to see the effect of the humidity reading on each scenario.

Thank y'all for the info...........

 

[gabbyscritters]

My 9year old daughter has been using a little giant to hatch for the past 4 years. The dog ate the little plugs so we have never used them, always figgured that some air was good. We don't have the fan but my husband has been thinking of installing a small computer fan for her. To raise humidity she has a sponge that we have cut up into 4 pieces, she pours water onto the to raise the humidity. Also we have two styrofoam cups that we cut the bottom off of. They just hold a small amount of water but she fills them right before lock down to get the hunidity up. Without the fan we really need to raise the humidity or her chicks get stuck in the shells. The small water tray is not enough to raise the humididity. She has great hatch rates!

 

[Schroeder]

I hope I'm not highjacking the thread too much, but should I keep the fan on during lockdown? I'm at day 6 of my first attempt at hatching.