All the info on this topic was related to small hobby bators. Read it through
a few times really helped me to understand the hatching process .My big
concern was/is that its not feasible in huge commercial rigs with eggs being
added daily. The various dates need different humidity and earlier lockdown
date. Florida outdoor humidity is 85-100% so I removed my two water dishs
2 weeks ago. In addition to the 8hr turner trays I took a 1 5/8" hole saw and
fabricated egg cradles out of a HD ABS plastic rectangular jug. At $50 a pop
it seems worth having a 300 egg unit reduced to 236. # 8 eggs on lock down
dated 6/29 nada so far, much to my surprise as I manually turn one time a
day and 2 7/2 eggs pipped ! one has already hatched I'll segregate all on
Saturday. I reintroduced the water dish today after candling and marking
location of air space, all dates 29-3 are locked down bubble up. Vents open
upped temp to 100 degrees as read at opposite ends, confused as humidity
8" from top is 75% but the bottom reads 55% ?? leaving tipper on 8hr cycle
for now(3 of 4 trays) by the way since removing water dish with 2 upright
sponges, a plant spray has been stored at top so contents are exactly the
same temp. After daily turning I mist all of them to keep some moisture in
bator ,reads about 40-45% RH .Really excited about this method air bub-
bles are good size and upright during lock down. If anyone has suggestion
I would really like to hear them .
Q. built bench top outside brooders with heavy wire cloth floors for easy
sanitation and 3 separate areas to segregate by size. 2 nights ago had
bakers dozen of vibrant healthy chicks( 3 dates) the next day 4 started
to weaken then die!! They were being fed medicated high protein feed
fresh clean water with 2 drops of vinegar and a tiny amt of b12 for NRG.
One thing I noticed were a swarm of mosquitos I cut cardboard for the
floor and cut some old vinyl window screen which dramatically helped .
Also as it has been in the mid 90s during the day so I shut off lamps till
late afternoon for fear of cooking them, now a 25 watt bulb stays on all
the time. Thoughts, ideas ??? RR
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