smelling bad incubator

[jvls1942]

I am keepig it civil.. I am not being condescending.. I asked a simple question that I did not know the answer to.. I thought I was talking to an adult for a moment.. sorry.. I will unsubscribe from this thread and let you kids have at it..

 

[Equilibrium]

I'm too new to all of this. I didn't even know the incubator we'd purchased was considered a "still air" until I walked over and looked at the box again and noticed the words Little Giant in the corner and still air incubator on the front. I could have bought the fan but the gal at farm and fleet said she did fine without one so I didn't. In reviewing what I found online, it does appear many who own still air incubators are bumping up the temps. Universities appear to be recommending a temperature slightly higher than 99.5 for still air incubators. UI is but one of many I found after following the instructions provided with the unit.
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http://urbanext.illinois.edu/eggs/res19-opincubator.html
Operating a Still Air Model Incubator

If temperature has not reached 100.5 degrees F., repeat process until 100.5 degrees F. is reached. Fine adjust thermostat to hold as close to 100.5 degrees F. as possible. If it does not hold exactly on 100.5 degrees F., regulate so that it turns on and off the same above and below 100.5 degrees F.

We have worked out scientifically the proper thermometer reading for different...

Although the webpage is lacking citations, I think it's safe to assume peer reviewed research is out there to back their recommendations including but not limited to increasing the temps for elcheapo still air incubators like mine. I'm all for collegiate levels of citation when appropriate but for now.... I'm just pleased as all punch (in the absence of data, testing, and.... experiments with controls supporting a bump in temps for my specific unit) that folk are sharing their personal experiences with me. I'll be in a better position to make an educated decision on temps for the next batch of eggs because of all of you. At 25 days.... it's over for me..... something went wrong with the eggs I bought online so I guess I'm going to compost them. My mother always told me the definition of insanity was.... repeating the same things and expecting different results.... I can't do things the exact same way I did them the first time and expect a bumper crop of healthy chicks so everyone.... please do continue sharing your knowledge and expertise with me.

had to correct one little typo.... oopsie.​

 

[meepitqueenie]

still air is just that air that tends to stay in one place. heat rises to the top - like if you were to heat any room in your house - your face will be warmer than your toes.

because of the lack of air circulation in a still air environment - the air has to circulate on its own. takes longer for the warm air to circulate to the bottom. so when i did my first hatch in a still air LG i kept the temp about 101-102 at the top of the eggs. another thermometer on the wire where the eggs were resting (i manually turned) and the bottom temp was about 98. so the middle of the eggs would be about 99-100.

a fan circulates the air evenly around the eggs causing no cold or hot spots. so you can have the temp at 99-100 the whole time and have a more even hatch.

that is my understanding and my experience. I am still new to incubating... on my second hatch.

I had a difficult time regulating temps in the still air incubator of what when to lock down i got 8 to hatch out of 14.

 

[Ceinwyn]

For most the higher temp using still air helps to offset the fact that so many incorrectly raise their humidity during the first 18 days.
It of course doesnt really work and they end up with the chicks trying to hatch sooner and drown from improper fluid loss during early incubation.
So many seem to be stuck on the idea of dry versus wet hatching.
It doesnt matter what you call the humidity your using its heavily studied that the ideal humidity from setting to drawn down is no more than 30%.
Depending on where you live this may mean no water is added, for others you have to add water.
The egg must loose a certain percentage of weight based on which breed you are incubating.
It's generally going to be around 15% of hatch weight. If you can do this using a higher early humidity then you will still have a successful hatch.
Most however will not loose enough fluid and the chicks will drown in shell before hatching.
This will inevitably be blamed on the use of a still air incubator or the wrong temperature setting or the chick being somehow shrink wrapped.
Thus the cycle continues and more hatches are lost needlessly.
The facts are simple....If you start with fertile, intact eggs from genetically sound and properly nourished chickens and incubate at an average temperature of 99.5 with 25-30% humidity the egg will loose the required weight to enter lockdown. The ability to hatch properly is not measured by a date on the calendar.
The aircell must be large enough to maintain the proper oxygen/carbon dioxide levels required for the chick to switch to air respiration.
The aircell should take up approximately 1/3 of the egg for the chick to internally pip successfully. If the humidity is too high during the first part of incubation the chick will absorb much of that fluid. This causes a large bloated chick that cannot manuever inside the confines of the egg and cannot move into a proper position to internally pip. Often if the chick can manage to pip through the membrane the extra fluid will then drown it.
There is nothing magic about day 18 that says one must enter lockdown for a successful hatch.
If that were true everyone would have perfect hatches.
The aircell size and position tells you if you are ready for a higher humidity.
You can either weigh your eggs to watch if the proper weight is being lost or you can candle and watch that the aircell is drawn down before raising humidity levels.
Candling is much easier but does require practice and experience to know what your looking for.
At minimum, one egg should be weighed before setting and then before lockdown as a benchmark to compare to all others during candling.
IE: if the benchmark egg has lost the correct weight you can use it as a guide to compare aircell size and position for the other eggs.

To the original poster...if the remaining eggs are 23 days old and nothing is seen when you candle, there is no point waiting any longer. All your going to get is exploding eggs from bacterial contamination.

 

[ginbart]

Quote:
FYI, Just to let you know when I got my LG it said in the book to keep it at 101. I don't know why but I did read that. I'm sure that's where people are getting it from.

I no longer use that one because I lost to many hatch's with the temp going up and down.

 

[Equilibrium]

meepitqueenie > thank you for your comments. I'm making the connection to what's going on because we have hi-low heating and A/C here at home and the A/C comes out of the upper ducts while the heat comes out of the lower ducts.
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Ceinwyn> "so many incorrectly raise their humidity during the first 18 days" (sigh) That's exactly what I did by adding water to the little troughs at the base of the unit throughout the hatch. Thanks for your explanation of the process. I've got several hygrometers and I'm going to have to watch this carefully because our home has automatic humidifiers that go on when the furnace goes on and I don't recall what they're set to however 35% seems to be what we might have cranked them up to in order to avoid bloody noses in winter.
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ginbart> "when I got my LG it said in the book to keep it at 101." I've got a brand new unit. Their current instructions suggest a temp of 99.5. Things change I guess. I probably would have been better off if they'd included the instructions you were provided. What brand of incubator do you now use please?

 

[gvntofly05]

Quote:
Yes, if you have a rotten egg you will know it!

An actual rotten egg doesn't have that sulfur smell that people describe as rotten egg. It is MUCH MUCH WORSE!

 

[mjclark1]

Thank you all for your suggestions.

Only 3 out of 30 eggs hatched and the ones that hatched were from my hens. I spent a lot of money on purchasing fertilized eggs from CT. I think it was from the new still air incubator. Oh well, live and learn. My students were really excited with what hatched and dissappointed about the others. A good learning experience.
At least I have a hen sitting on 5 eggs at home.

Thanks again for all your responses.

-Monica

 

[JPHorvath]

Quote:
Yes, if you have a rotten egg you will know it!

An actual rotten egg doesn't have that sulfur smell that people describe as rotten egg. It is MUCH MUCH WORSE!

I just pulled two rotten eggs out of incubator last night. On day 8; there is nothing that smells remotely as pungent as a rotten egg. I could smell it on day 6 with incubator closed thought maybe the eggs were growing a bacterium on surface due to some dirty eggs. Purchased eggs from Ebay seller sent some really dirty eggs. I have never seen eggs with so much mess on them. When my hens lay eggs they are clean as if been washed.