let me rephrase that for her... MOST styrobators suck IN INEXPERIENCED HANDS... I've hatched hundreds of sfh in my styrobators, but I also had well over 1000 other chicks hatch in them before I started with the sfh.
how was the incubator damaged, what brand and model was it? those are things that would tell us a lot about what you're working with too. I'm also guessing it was probably a still air, which will cause temperature fluctuations from different areas of the incubator, but also it depends on the location in your home too. was one side toward a window, fan or a/c vent? there are a LOT of factors that go into successful hatching. not just having an incubator and fertile eggs.
I will only use Hovabators for my styro ones. the LG and FI ones are cheap and the thermostats twitchy at best. (my opinion, and yes, I've used them and hated them). I've got 4 Hovabators of various model #s, all using a wafer style thermostat, all with computer case fans for air circulation. all the vent plugs were removed and thrown away the day I got them, and 3 of them have automatic turners installed. the 4th is a dedicated hatcher. I may someday graduate to a cabinet style incubator but I will always use a separate hatcher.
I have a hovabator that I like. It is the Genesis 1588. I've only been incubating and hatching since the NYD HAL. It has seen pretty constant use and I am happy with the hatches. After the first one, they've averaged 80+%. At one point I was up to 3 styro bators in the house. So I've hatched a few hundred chicks this year. That makes me just educated enough to be dangerous. Dangerous enough to kill a bunch of chicks
My best hatch was 100%. I only count what makes it to lockdown in the percentage because with every hatch I've had a new breed that I'm doing a fertility test with. You just can't hatch an infertile egg. The 100% hatch happened to be in a borrowed farmall or some weird brand of stryo bator!
The injured bator was a small Genesis, with a fan. The bottom styro piece was crunched (looked punched with a forklift) and destroyed. The entire top piece with the heater was undamaged and looked perfect. So we bought a new bottom and expected results similar to the 1588.
I use a thermometer on a lead that has a small reader. I place the reader in an egg spot so it is sitting just where an egg would sit. The other thermometer sits on the wire tray. Usually I have a third on top of the eggs but I had both bators going and divided up the thermometers. I may try this incubator again, using 4 thermometers and NOT SFH eggs. If it works for the EE's, Basque, and CLB, that is fine with me. Basque are the easiest to hatch. Even my shipped eggs of Basque popped out like corn. I loved hatching them!
I don't know what happened. We had good development all the way through. My candler (a SUPER bright led flashlight, bulbs went kaput) quit and I couldn't candle at lock down but the regular flashlight showed full eggs. As evidenced by my one eggtopsy, they were full and still breathing. One did hatch upside down. It had shell stuck to its head like a helmet.
I was using books and tilting the entire bator in absence of a turner. Maybe that was the real problem.
We are on day 3 of trying to calibrate the new (used, but new to me) wooden cabinet incubator. I intend to use the Genesis 1588 as a hatcher so the increased humidity doesn't bother the SFH. If I get comfortable with this other styrafoam bator (it is also a hova bator just a smaller - simpler model than the 1588) then I will use it as a hatcher too. Just probably not for the SFH.
I WILL LEARN HOW TO HATCH SFH! We have a brand new broody hen. She is untried but on day 4 of being in a bucket and refusing the food calls. That's looking pretty stubborn. I might put some SFH eggs under her just to see what happens.
