Texas AM - Incubator - 1st time!

[CuriousQuail]

I ordered 25 eggs from an ebay seller and got 30. 2 cracked during shipping and 2 more by my own fault when I was being clumsy in transferring them to the bator cradles.

Started my incubator with a salvaged Ikea drawer. It had a frosted window that I thought was perfect for viewing.




Went with the water heater thermostat option. Took me forever to find it since no one at my local Home Depot seemed to know where to find it in the store. I had to order it online to pick-up in store. (inventory said they had over a dozen available!)


View through window on day one. Not the smaller cpu fan in the left hand corner. It pooped out a few hours later...
1/4 hardware cloth. 1/2 in thick foam/foil insulator. Wire cradles for eggs.




Luckily my rosewill challenger computer case has extra case fans. My motherboard doesn't need that MANY fans so I took the smaller fan out to use. Twice the size of my old fan, but much more quiet and efficient!


My window was releasing too much heat. The eggs closes to the window were only getting 97-98 as opposed to everything else getting 99-100. Had to make an insulated flap from duct tape, cardboard from water heater thermostat package, and foam/foil insulator.




Top view closed. Just a rag and 1 layer of .5 inch thick foam/foil insulator


Top view open. I didn't modify my thermostat really. I drilled a bit into it on the right center side but I stopped mid way through and said "Screw it. Let's just see if it works without anymore modification". It did! Almost always 99 through out the bator. Occasionally 100 when it's reallllyyyy hot outside.



I wanted to make an egg turner but I ran out of time and scrap resources. Maybe next hatch, if I choose to hatch more.

It's small! I know! I plan to make 2 levels on lockdown. I saw videos of chicks just running in circles or sleeping right after hatching. I figure they don't need that much head room. So my lockdown build pics will come later for my itty bitty incubator.

Humidity!
It's my biggest issue. its fluctuates too much. I'm talking big difference. from about 36 to 64! We get some humidity hear now but I read some places say i should have a low of 45 and a max of 60 during incubation. A bit higher during the actual hatching.

Heat
Heat is almost perfect! It's 99-100 all around the cage at any time of the day. It's almost always 99 though and 100 is when its about 96-100 degrees outside the house. The lows are because I made a hardware cloth stand for it and left it out of the bator for about 10 mins. Then again when I was candling.... just easier to grab in there without knocking it over.

So hopefully in 17-18 days I'll have some fluffy balls of joy to show you lol. Or possibly complete failure and a new bator.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Humidity is my issue too!!! Come join us!! I have some hatching right now!! https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/704328/diary-notes-air-cell-detatched-shipped-eggs

 

[SSTupperware]

I had my first hatch in a homemde last week... H was fine for me, but I did have to add water for the last bit of time. Do you have it in a conditioned space or outside. It's really humid here day or night so 45 was pretty much where it stayed.

 

[Sians quails]

im liking these wire cradles for the eggs as mine is a manual turn... im hoping my next batch will be around 50 eggs ... one by one.. i think my hand will fall off!
how do you turn these in the cradle, do you rock it from side to side or something?

 

[CuriousQuail]

Humidity is my issue too!!! Come join us!! I have some hatching right now!! https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/704328/diary-notes-air-cell-detatched-shipped-eggs

Checking out the thread now Thanks!

I had my first hatch in a homemde last week... H was fine for me, but I did have to add water for the last bit of time. Do you have it in a conditioned space or outside. It's really humid here day or night so 45 was pretty much where it stayed.

It's in the house but no AC. This part of the room maintains the best temp for now but humidity is random. I just have to open the lid a bit if humidity is too high. Heat doesn't seem change if i crack the lid just a bit. Today was better it stayed between 48-54 most of the day

im liking these wire cradles for the eggs as mine is a manual turn... im hoping my next batch will be around 50 eggs ... one by one.. i think my hand will fall off!
how do you turn these in the cradle, do you rock it from side to side or something?

I cut them into 7.5-8 inch long strips. I figure they're about 3 inches wide... but they weren't cut uniformly so it's just around that size. I place my thumb on one edge and pulled the opposite end to get it going then I placed my thumb in the center up and down while I bent it. Would probably be easier with a roll of quarters or something around that size. I was going to originally make a tray and slip wire hanger strips between the eggs but i felt these cradles were easier to make lol.

Hmmm thinking of making it easier you could also use the edge of a table and just "round" it out by use your or tapping gently with a hammer.

 

[Sians quails]

Quote: thanks! im sure ill be able to find something to bend it around.. pvc pipe or so... so how do you turn them once they are in the incubator? do you move the whole cradle from side to side or roll them along the cradle? some photos would be great if your able to do that? thanks

 

[CuriousQuail]

thanks! im sure ill be able to find something to bend it around.. pvc pipe or so... so how do you turn them once they are in the incubator? do you move the whole cradle from side to side or roll them along the cradle? some photos would be great if your able to do that? thanks

That was the original intention with more room and the smaller cpu fan. I'd leaned the cradle to one side. Technically that's how the egg turners work, right? Just have to move it so the embryo doesn't stick

The cradles have to lean on each other otherwise they'll just fall out. I was also using some extra wire to prop the sides. Now that there's less room with the large cpu fan i have to rotate them manually... very annoying lol.

I'm going to make make a tray where it's kinda shaped like u-u-u-u (attached) instead of individual u u u u if you know what i mean lol.
The attached cradle will allow me to prob a block under one side and i can 'turn' the whole tray faster than individual craddles.

 

[Sians quails]

ok awesome.. thanks.. yes i know what you mean by the u-u-u-u i already had that worked out in my head before i read it! haha great minds!
i think i will be making these for the next hatch thats for sure!
thanks heaps you just made my egg turning life way easier!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

 

[CuriousQuail]

UPDATE!
Day 14 I guess I'm doing what people call the lockdown now? No turning, no disturbing. Just watch and wait for

I ordered the 30 Texas AM eggs 26 went in.

About 3 days ago I sorted it down to 16 eggs quite a bit were infertile or pooped out.

Of the 16 eggs it looks like half gave up when their beaks started to form *I see big dark circle with veins but no movement*
6 eggs I know for sure are developing just right They look exactly how they should at this stage! A few eggs are too dark to tell :\

Looks like I may end up ordering a bit more eggs to get the amount of quails I wanted, but I'll wait until after the hatch.

Sorry for not uploading video/photos of the set-up I just got too busy >.<