Redwood Incubators - Information, help, for sale and wanted

[Tammy N]

36 hours later and we are still hatching..... very slowly. We have about a dozen each of the banties and marans with a some still pipping. We quickly opened things last evening, this morning and tonight to remove hatchlings to the brooders, turn next week's hatch, add more HOT water, spray warm water on the sides, etc.. I DO love the way these things hold the heat and humidity.
We notice the hatchlings make their way to the back of the trays. Anyone want to venture a guess why? We need to bring the trays ALL the way out to check for chicks.
Adding more SUPERHOT water to the trays helps snap the humidity back up = more evaporation.
I expect this hatch to continue overnight and maybe into day 22.
Banties are hatching well. We had a lot pulled for fertility. The marans are giving me the usual problems and I really wish I knew the secret to hatching them.

warmer in the back when my nephew cooked my eggs the ones in the back where fully cooked the ones up front where partically cooked so ?

 

[Rainwolf]

How does the tongue oil work with the heat ? 
does it have vapors as mine in in the house and we have Parrots 

I've not noticed any vapors but then again I let it sit and "off gas" while I was working on the electrical stuff for 4-5 months.

 

[ksp1]

has anyone put auto turners into a redwood cabinet incubator? If so what style did you use?

 

[Rainwolf]

I've got a hovabator turner on the top tray of my porch redwood incubator. There is still room in the tray for more eggs but sometimes a auto turner is nice

 

[they'reHISchickens]

Anyone have any problems with chicks being injured in the trays? We lost 3 chicks with what look like mild injuries on the head and back. They were found ( at differetn times) at the backs of the trays. One was a bantam that no way would have been too tall but it looks like a back of head injury.
We opened and pulled chicks about every 8-12 hours and I am glad we did. This last banty I was going to pull last night and thought, no, I'll let it in overnight. Dead this morning.
This hatch is officially over. We pulled all the water out to let humidity fall because there are at least 3 dozen more eggs due Sunday in the bottom tray. Pulled most of the trays out too. Lockdown should be Friday but I will put it off as long as possible because we spent 3 full days at 50% humidity, so they wouldn't have lost that much during that time. How do we manage staggered hatches in a monsterbator?

Does humidity have to be high before the first pip?

 

[they'reHISchickens]

DH has taken a major liking to pulling /pushing the turner(roller) handles on our trays. We may never use an autoturner again. Actually because this retains heat and humidity so well, and it only takes about a minute to open, turn 8 trays and close, recovery is within 5 minutes. I don't think a chicken could do that well.

 

[quintinp]

Okay, I am really liking this thread. I like seeing all of the old incubators, and learning new information about them. I love antiques, and chickens, so this thread is right up my alley, BUT This thread needs some pictures of chicks hatching out of these old wooden beauties.

 

[Rainwolf]

Okay, I am really liking this thread. I like seeing all of the old incubators, and learning new information about them. I love antiques, and chickens, so this thread is right up my alley, BUT This thread needs some pictures of chicks hatching out of these old wooden beauties.

That might be a issue since the window is not conductive to photos of hatching
Maybe someone can setup a remote cam to take photos? I can't try a new project for a while lol

they'reHISchickens:
could they be falling out of the tray onto the next tray?
I hatch the bottom tray and rotate the eggs for a staggered hatch. top tray is new eggs, next tray is after first candling and a tray on the bottom for hatching. I also use a clear tub on the floor to house the hatch-lings until I pull them out at 24hrs.

I run humidity at 35-50% 24/7 I load up the water trays just before a hatching and just maintain water trays all other times.

 

[marquisella]

36 hours later and we are still hatching..... very slowly. We have about a dozen each of the banties and marans with a some still pipping. We quickly opened things last evening, this morning and tonight to remove hatchlings to the brooders, turn next week's hatch, add more HOT water, spray warm water on the sides, etc.. I DO love the way these things hold the heat and humidity.
We notice the hatchlings make their way to the back of the trays. Anyone want to venture a guess why? We need to bring the trays ALL the way out to check for chicks.
Adding more SUPERHOT water to the trays helps snap the humidity back up = more evaporation.
I expect this hatch to continue overnight and maybe into day 22.
Banties are hatching well. We had a lot pulled for fertility. The marans are giving me the usual problems and I really wish I knew the secret to hatching them.

The secret to hatching Marans is "dry hatching".

We think, due to the
" thicker brown coating" the eggs don't lose humidity as quickly as normal eggs so what happens is they don't dry down enough, the chick pips, or tries to, & drowns.

Since I stopped putting water in my incubator and just up the humidity for he last 3 days, my hatching rate has increase significantly.

It has not affected my other breeds at all, actually, dry hatching has helped with all of them. I have a Sportsman for incubation, then I hatch in a Genesis.

If you open a Marans egg that didn't hatch, from the air cell ed, and when you move it, you see water moving around, the humidity was too high.

 

[they'reHISchickens]

Thank you for the input Marquisella. I have heard that before and since separated the marans eggs into very dark, dark and somewhat lighter in various trays, I cansay the darkest eggs had the lowest hatch rate. and the lighter ones increased hatch. We do dry hatching but, is there a lower humidity limit? You are in NY, we are in PA. Where our incubator is located is unheated and humidity was running 16% without adding water. I added enough water every other day or so to fluctuate from 28% at addition down to 16% when it needed more. Since we have a staggered hatch due on Sunday, we pulled all water from yesterday morning and won't add water until Saturday ( when the banties may pip) Humidity is again 16%. I was hoping for low 20s for a dry incubation.
We have the same problem if we run it indoors during the winter: we heat with wood and air is very dry. How low can we go?The marans are laying well so we may try fro another batch with NO water added and see what happens.
That leads to the next question: How does one sanitize the monster? We can pull trays, wash and expose to sunlight, but what about the interior surface? What does everyone use?