Reptipro 5000 Hatch-A-Long (=

[DutchChic]

I know several people have..

I will later this year.. just don't have room in mine for duck eggs at the moment

Sounds great...think I'll take a leap of faith and order one! Thanks!

 

[ReptiPro]

We are actually going to start incubating Ancona Ducks in our new ReptiPro 6000 tomorrow. I made a video tonight going over the steps to set the temperature correctly inside the unit. Don't make fun of me as I am sick and had a tiny Yorkie (Sally) chewing on my toes the whole time

Has anyone used the Reptipro for duck eggs? I'm about to order one, but it will primarily be used for duck eggs.

 

[DutchChic]

Very nice video, Chris! Thanks for making it. I ordered my unit earlier today....can't wait for it to get here!

 

[msheets]

Hey Msheets, I see that you dry incubate. I need some advice real quick. I just got my Reptipro today and I'm going to start incubating probably Sunday, Unless I get too excited and do it tomorrow. I was wondering, when the humidity gets below 25 percent, How much water do you add? Like 1/4 cup or something? Also On lock down do you just fill the tray up? Thank you for your time.

Mike

Mike I'm so sorry I didn't get back with you sooner! Sometimes I get caught up in the Ratites section of BYC...but if it gets below 25 I put a pop bottle cap of water in there. That way if one isn't enough I can just add as many bottle caps as I need to. That way is much easier than trying to add or remove water from one big container of water, that way can be harder to determine how much water is needed removed/added.

 

[msheets]

I would beg any person using the reptipro 5000 for hatching chicken eggs to first note that( to the best of my knowledge) it is made for REPTILE eggs. Second that if u use the top shelf when eggs hatch babys can and have fallen to bottom because there is a gap between shelf and door. third, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE monitor your humidity when they start to hatch, Mine soared and babys drowned in eggs and some were born soaking soaking wet. There also seemed to be a difference of 3
degrees at times between top and bottom shelf though that was not a constant. PLEASE use extreme caution at hatch time with this incubator to avoid a heart break. It may be a nice machiene but I believe it would be better used for reptile eggs alone.

I really need to check on this thread more often, I'm always last to chime in lol. Lilac, the Reptipro was not originally only made for reptile eggs. If you have time just research all the threads on BYC about it then you'll see the history that made the Reptipro what it is. It was originally a fridge & it just happened the first person to use it as a bator had reptiles, the name stuck. It is no more for reptiles as it is for poultry or to keep my DH's beer cold...it does all 3 tasks just as well The faults that you mentioned about the top shelf, the gap between the shelves & door have all been discussed by myself, yinepu, Melissa Rose & others many many times. I think the Reptipro is well worth the few modifications needed to make it function great. I haven't had any problems with mine afterwards. If you had wet chicks hatch, next time just lower the humidity during lockdown. The humidity always goes up once they start hatching, in any incubator, so I'd just start out lower next time. The 2-3 degree temp fluctuation between shelves has been discussed to extensively. If you have enough eggs to fill the 3 levels, just rotate the eggs every day. That way the eggs will develop equally & hatch out at the same time. I know this thread is getting kind of long so you probably didn't read all the posts, if you would have then you would've known that we already came up with solutions to the things you mentioned. I also reposted everything a few posts before you so everyone that doesn't have time to go through the entire thread won't suffer for it...I hope you're not offended by my reply, I didn't mean it in a bad way. It's just all the topics you were warning people about have simple solutions that have already been shared... I have successfully hatched ducks in my Reptipro last week

 

[DutchChic]

I really need to check on this thread more often, I'm always last to chime in lol.
Lilac, the Reptipro was not originally only made for reptile eggs. If you have time just research all the threads on BYC about it then you'll see the history that made the Reptipro what it is. It was originally a fridge & it just happened the first person to use it as a bator had reptiles, the name stuck. It is no more for reptiles as it is for poultry or to keep my DH's beer cold...it does all 3 tasks just as well

The faults that you mentioned about the top shelf, the gap between the shelves & door have all been discussed by myself, yinepu, Melissa Rose & others many many times. I think the Reptipro is well worth the few modifications needed to make it function great. I haven't had any problems with mine afterwards.
If you had wet chicks hatch, next time just lower the humidity during lockdown. The humidity always goes up once they start hatching, in any incubator, so I'd just start out lower next time.
The 2-3 degree temp fluctuation between shelves has been discussed to extensively. If you have enough eggs to fill the 3 levels, just rotate the eggs every day. That way the eggs will develop equally & hatch out at the same time.
I know this thread is getting kind of long so you probably didn't read all the posts, if you would have then you would've known that we already came up with solutions to the things you mentioned. I also reposted everything a few posts before you so everyone that doesn't have time to go through the entire thread won't suffer for it...I hope you're not offended by my reply, I didn't mean it in a bad way. It's just all the topics you were warning people about have simple solutions that have already been shared...
I have successfully hatched ducks in my Reptipro last week

msheets.....did you dry hatch your ducks?

 

[yinepu]

We are actually going to start incubating Ancona Ducks in our new ReptiPro 6000 tomorrow. I made a video tonight going over the steps to set the temperature correctly inside the unit. Don't make fun of me as I am sick and had a tiny Yorkie (Sally) chewing on my toes the whole time

you do realize that you owe us a picture of Sally now.....

 

[msheets]

Yep I dry hatch everything I incubate now, except for misting geese eggs. I don't add water at all then for lockdown I bump it to the 60s%...

 

[ahranch]

OK, I tried doing the "dry" hatch as suggested. I put 12 ring necked/melanistic mutant pheasant eggs and 1 turkey egg in the ReptiPro 5000. They all should have hatched on or about the 10th of Feb. Today is the 23rd and I've got nothing. There are embryos in the eggs but there is no evidence that they ever tried to pipe through. Other types of eggs have hatched in the past, but the last 2 times I have tried pheasants and have gotten nothing. Are pheasants extra hard to hatch or could it be my ReptiPro. I'm about ready to give up on my ReptiPro and go with another incubator.

 

[yinepu]

OK, I tried doing the "dry" hatch as suggested. I put 12 ring necked/melanistic mutant pheasant eggs and 1 turkey egg in the ReptiPro 5000. They all should have hatched on or about the 10th of Feb. Today is the 23rd and I've got nothing. There are embryos in the eggs but there is no evidence that they ever tried to pipe through. Other types of eggs have hatched in the past, but the last 2 times I have tried pheasants and have gotten nothing. Are pheasants extra hard to hatch or could it be my ReptiPro. I'm about ready to give up on my ReptiPro and go with another incubator.

We can give you a better idea of what went wrong if you can give a little more info:

were these eggs shipped in or from your birds / local?
At what temperature did you incubate?
Did you calibrate your hygrometer?
What was your humidity during lockdown?
Did you do an "eggtopsy"?.. if so were the chicks wet, dry, malformed, large yolk, (any other details you can give us).. was the membrane rubbery?, dry?.. hard?.. thick?

for turkeys:
a lot of people swear that turkeys are hard to hatch.. i've never had a problem with them.. basically Kevin Porter and my family hatch turkeys out the same way.. I always get excellent results following this method:
http://www.porterturkeys.com/egghatchingtips.htm


for pheasants:
in the past I have had better luck using a still air bator for pheasants rather than a forced air.. and I have never tried using the Reptipro for pheasants.. so I can't say one way or the other if it would make enough of a difference to matter... though they do seem to be pickier about it than any other bird i have ever hatched ..
for these guys I have always gone with 45 to 50% humidity during incubation (that may vary with your location.. but I, personally, have never had pheasants hatch out with dry incubation methods)


many things can go wrong during incubation to cause chicks to die in the shell.. many times it's not even your fault or that of the incubator.. but kind of hard for us to say for sure with out more info