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Jonny..great idea with the plastic mesh!
I never thought of that & I'll have to do that as soon as I have the bator empty! I set my top shelf on the lowest brackets so the eggs are all pretty close to the same temp.
Humidity will be different depending on where you live, so you may have to fiddle with water receptacles until you get it where you want it. In the winter, for the first 18 days I use one of those little plastic measuring cups that come with children's cold meds....keeps humidity at about 40%. In summer, it's fine without water. On day 18 I put in the baby food jar which raises the humidity for hatching. Remember that it's not the AMOUNT of water...it's the SURFACE AREA that counts. I put my water container on the bottom, just in front of the fan. Here in Louisiana, I only need the above mentioned containers.....others may need larger like a flat sandwich container.
When I first got it, I played with the bator for a few days before I put eggs in. I put a thermometer/hygrometer in on both levels....played with the temp settings till I got it just right...& also tried out various sizes of water containers until I figured out which worked for me. You don't want to be at lock-down & then try to figure out how to get your humidity up...be ready. I have the bator set at 102...which keeps the eggs at 100.4 with no fluctuation. Opening the door to turn the eggs is enough for air exchange. I've never had to change my settings again & my 2 water containers give exactly the same results for every hatch!
Some people leave the chicks in the bator until all are finished hatching......because with some bators, opening to remove chicks will drop the humidity level & may cause unhatched chicks to "shrink-wrap". I haven't had that problem with this bator as it only takes a few seconds to get back to set levels. As soon as the chicks are dry & there are no pips in the other eggs, I'll quickly grab the chicks & place under a heat lamp. The other eggs have always hatched witout problems. Try it both ways & see what works for you.
I've had great hatch rates with my own eggs.....awful hatch rates with shipped eggs, but then so has everybody else even with expensive incubators!
Good luck with your Reptipro...you're gonna love it!!
So much good info! Thanks!!!
So you don't use the air circulation at all?
Here's a pic of the mesh I put on. I even made my another shelf, but probably won't use it. The air difference seems to be too high from the very top level to the lower part. I'll just use the very bottom water tray for eggs and the lowest shelf setting. Is that what you do?
Oh.. bummer, I need to have the pic posted somewhere online to post it here..