Stupid Incubator Another Egg Lost!!!

[SilkiePuff]

GAWD!!! I can't wait to get my new Incubator, my old one is on the fritz, it want out today and 1 egg died on me.. it was moving yesterday and today when I was checking everyone it wasn't moving at all, have a bacteria and blood ring in it.. i'm soo upset.. i started with 10 and now down to 3.. I have 6 new eggs in the incubator since they just can't sit any longer before they are totally gone, they have veins coming in..

any advice , I really don't want to lose any more babies, granted these will only be pet quality silkies, but still a life is a life.. and I really don't want to lose any more eggs.. i'm more concerned about my eggs that only have until the 5th for hatching day.. they are soo close and i'm scared that they won't make it because of my incubator slowly dying on me.

FYI my silkie hen is not the broody type

or I would stick the eggs under her..

 

[txcarl1258]

A couple of questions.
What kind of Bator do you have?
What type of thermometer/hygrometer are you using?
What do you clean it with?
Are there any temp spikes during incubation?
How old are the eggs you are incubating?

 

[SilkiePuff]

Quote:
its a hova-bator - made out of styro-foam
don't know.. one of those that has the red thingy that goes up and down inside.. like an old up the butt thermometer.. no hygrometer, but I have a digital hymidity reader in it.. and its at like 65% goes up and down some.
I bought that cleaning stuff from MyPetChicken.. so its clean..
and when it works fine it stays at a steady 99.5, but lately its been dropping to 80 and as low as 75 then back up to like 98, then down.. been doing that for the last few days and I haven't touched anything.. think I need to buy a new heating coil..

the eggs are less then 7 days old.. and never had a problem before until now.. the incubator was given to me by a friend a few years ago.. so its old.. but used to do great.. its just i guess getting up there in age so to speak.. so i did buy a new incubator, so i'm not worried about it..

just need to figure out what I can do until the new one comes in and get set up.. to save the rest of the eggs.. if they can survive the roller-coaster of temp fluctuations.

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
Coil is fine, what you probably need is a new thermostat wafer . Probably can be found for 5-10bucks at the feed store and will work like new.

 

[SilkiePuff]

Quote:
Coil is fine, what you probably need is a new thermostat wafer . Probably can be found for 5-10bucks at the feed store and will work like new.

OO GOOD

I"ll look tomorrow and see if I can find one.. just until my new incubator comes in.. see and I bought a new one thinking this one wasn't going to be able to be fixed..

how annoying.. I hope the feed store has one.. they are kinda funky about that, and we only have one in my area..the next one is over 3 hrs away.. .

so I hope I can find one..

too bad they aren't open 24hrs.

 

[silkiechicken]

Best of luck. For future reference, they are relatively cheap, so it is often handy to have an extra laying around for just those reasons. Best of luck!

 

[SilkiePuff]

Quote:
thanks

my new incubator is a Breasin ( probably spelt that wrong ).. so I might donate this one once its fixed to the thrift store.

 

[txcarl1258]

I have never had a Hova-Bator, but I used to have a LG which is similar. You say your temps are fluctuating and rising, how constant is the temp of the room the bator is in? My bator used to do the same thing when the temp of the room would go up and down. Sounds like you do need a new thermostat. Do you have a fan in the bator? Sounds like you are doing every thing else right.

 

[SilkiePuff]

Quote:
its in my livingroom, its the only room in the house that doesn't flux.. in temp.. but I think SilkieChicken is right I need a new coil, I have no IDEA how old this one is.. so i'm going to buy one tomorrow if I can find one at the store.. I know the incubator is a few years old, and I don't know when the coil was replaced the last time.. I never had problems before this.. so yeah.. hoping easy fix..

if not.. then I'll be upset, but the new incubator comes soon.. but not soon enough..

 

[Surehatch]

A digital thermostat will solve your problems