So Irritating!!!

[Bantam Username]

Had a tiny thermometer and hydrometer arrive today, checked it was right then checked my incubators, they are both rcom mini 3 egg incubators but I was aware they felt different temperatures. This is what I found:

Incubator one: Humidity 65% ,Temperature 35 degrees celcius - should be 37
Incubator two: Humidity 38% ,Temperature 37 degrees celcius....

AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH why me??!! Great, two incubators that each are half crap, they are automatic humidity and automatic temp regulating and I can't do anything about it. Now what do I do.

 

[Griffin Nest]

that's what sucks about automatic incubators. if they don't work, you can't do anything about it.

 

[TeePants]

38% humidity is fine if you're doing dry hatch, in fact it's pretty ideal! Just add something wet in there for lockdown...I know it's small but maybe some wet paper towels?

 

[Bantam Username]

Yep, thats what I thought I should do, I've just had an unsuccessful batch in incubator 1 - only one egg made it to lockdown then pipped internally before it had turned to face the air sac so had nothing to breathe.

The batch in incubator 2 is now on day 11 or 12 - I have the dates written down by the incubator but can't be bothered to go look right now, and I have 3 wriggling around strong this time. So fingers crossed.

 

[MEchickenfarmer33]

i dont see why people buy expensive incubators. my neighbor hatched chicks with a powerful 250 watt bulb hanging over an egg carton filled with eggs. it cost like 10 dollars vs. the 150 for an incubator

 

[Bantam Username]

I bought both mine second hand off ebay, I tried making my own years ago, to hatch quail eggs, had a thermometer to check the temp was right and kept a dish of water in there. I didn't have access to the internet back then but followed instructions from a book. Every single egg dried up. I couldn't find out what went wrong or anything, so this time round I decided to get one that did everything for me, also space is very very limited here so it had to be something small too.
I have 2 cats that would eat newly hatching chicks in anything that wasn't safely behind bars etc so it also had to be secure, and a 3 year old that is an accident waiting to happen so I couldn't have a random set up, it had to be very very secure and easy to put out of reach while still being able to check on it.
These ticked all the boxes.